Caribbean Wellness Day: Bad eating habits, poor food choices prevalent in Guyana – Health Minister

…says better wellness, lifestyle changes needed

By signing onto a new charter, the Health Ministry will be signing engaging agencies and companies to promote wellness and lifestyle changes among the population.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony shared on the occasion of Caribbean Wellness Day on Monday that promoting a healthier lifestyle is a preventative measure against illnesses and health complications.
In Guyana, he pointed out that many persons have adopted an inactive way of living coupled with poor choices and the Ministry is aiming to change this trend.
“There are a number of bad habits that we have. They include consumption of alcohol and smoking cigarettes. We eat the wrong food and move away from fresh, healthy foods. We eat a lot of fast foods and drink a lot of sugar-sweetened beverages. These contribute to diabetes and we have to change them. In addition, a lot of our population has moved to an inactive way of living.”
By engaging companies and other agencies, authorities are directly targeting the workforce. The intention is for the country to lead healthier lives by making the right choices.
“We want to do more of the preventative aspect, trying to prevent people from getting sick and the way that we can do that is for people to embrace a different type of lifestyle. We have to get people to eat the right things, reduce their risk factors like prevention of smoking and alcohol. We want people to reduce their trans fats that they’re consuming. So, these are the risk factors that we’re hoping to reduce,” Dr Anthony.
A major focal point is an adequate period of rest every night and exercise. Holistically practicing such habits, he shared, can contribute to a healthier wellbeing and have a disease-free population.
“We want people to exercise on a daily basis. The CDC in the United States would have recommended that every day, persons should do at least 30 minutes of vigorous exercise, which helps with keeping their cardiovascular system active. We also want to get people to sleep well. It is recommended that you should have at least eight hours of sleep.”
Caribbean Wellness Day is celebrated by Caricom countries on the second Saturday in September, as part of a unified response to promote health and prevent and control the epidemic of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
Dr Anthony explained that the Ministry is targeting both adults and children in these efforts.
“We want the whole population to embrace this because with children also, the earlier they learn these healthy behaviours, then they would have lifelong benefits from this type of behaviour. If we teach children the right thing, more than likely they would go through life using these techniques,” he revealed. (G12)