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Learn how to maintain a balanced and diverse diet for a healthy body and mind. Discover the importance of drinking safe water, food preservation techniques, special dietary needs, preventing malnutrition, and tips for the elderly and managing obesity.
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4 EATING WELL Eating healthy and wise Home Gardening and Nutrition Training Material
1. A balanced and diverse diet Having a balanced and diverse diet: • keeps our bodies and minds healthy, • gives the body energy to function well and be active, • helps the body to fight infections and illness, • helps children to develop to their full potential, • contributes to safer pregnancy and child birth.
1. A balanced and diverse diet • A healthy diet includes a variety of foods from different groups. • Too much as well as too little food is bad for our body. A healthy balanced diet has the right proportions of good quality foods, as shown in the figure:
1. A balanced and diverse diet Staples: Should be the biggest portion on the plate and the main component of your diet. They provide energy and help our body grow and repair. Vegetables and fruits: Should represent around 1/3 of the plate. Have plenty of them – as snacks between meals for example. They protect our body against illness.
1. A balanced and diverse diet Animal foods and legumes: Should be a smaller portion of the plate. They enable our body to grow and repair. Every day, one should have at least ONE of them. Fats and oils: Should form a small part of the plate (e.g. 3-4 tbs per day per person). They provide energy and improve protective function of vegetables.
1. A balanced and diverse diet Why drinking safe water? • Water is needed for digestion and absorption. • Dirty water can carry diseases (e.g. diarrhoea), malnutrition and mortality. Each person needs to drink 8 glasses of safe water a day.
2. Food preservation • Why preserving food? • To have food products available when they are out of season or in short supply • To help ensuring a diversity of nutrients • How to preserve food? • Bottling, drying, or freezing
3. Special needs • Healthy eating for women is crucial especially: • During pregnancy • When breastfeeding • When feeding a young child 3. a. Mother and child feeding Proper feeding enables: - The mother to feel well and active. - Making birth easier. - Proper growth and development of the child. - Helping the mother to breastfeed the baby successfully.
3. a. Mother and child feeding • Pregnant women: • Eat extra nutritious snacks during the day. - Take iron and folic acid tablets prescribed at the health centre. • Attend ante-natal clinics as instructed by the health personnel. • Breastfeeding mothers: • Eat a little more at each meal/have smaller frequent meals. • Eat nutritious snacks between meals. • Take vitamin A capsules. • Attend post-natal clinics.
3. a. Mother and child feeding • Feeding babies aged 0–6 months: • Exclusive breastfeeding for babies under 6 months of age. • Attend health centre monthly for growth monitoring. • Feeding Children over 6 months: • Breastfeeding until 2 years old highly recommended. • From 6 months old, give complementary foods in addition to breastfeeding.
3. a. Mother and child feeding • HIV-infected mothers on ART should: • adhere to medication • breastfeedexclusively their babies under 6 months • introduce complementary foods when the child is 6 months • continue to breastfeed until the child is 12 months. Feeding the babies of HIV-infected mothers • After 12 months of age, breastfeeding should stop ONLY once a nutritionally adequate and safe diet without the breast milk can be provided to the infant.
3. b. Preventing malnutrition Children are at risk of malnutrition when they: • Are not eating the right foods in quantity, quality and diversity. • Suffer from diseases (e.g. diarrhoea) or infections (e.g. hookworms, HIV/AIDS). The risk of malnutrition is high for children, especially from 6 months to 2 years old, when breast milk is no longer enough for the growth and development of babies. This is a critical time for growth monitoring. Malnutrition can be prevented with: a diverse, balanced diet and good hygiene practices.
3. c. The elderly Elderly people need to eat well to stay healthy. Prioritize: - Dairy - Fruits and vegetables - Water Elderly may lose appetite and have more difficulty to chew. Bear this in mind when preparing the meals. 3. d. Obesity ! • Overweight can be caused by eating too much of staple foods, fats or sugar. • Consequences can be: • - Diabetes - Less energy • - Heart diseases - Less endurance • High blood pressure