FOOD-CUBA: New Pamphlets Aim to Instil Healthier Eating Habits

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Nov 13 2002 (IPS) - Nutritionists hope to bring about a change in the unhealthy dietary habits of Cubans through a campaign based on nine pamphlets that provide specific recommendations to educate families on healthy eating habits and get them to modify their diets.

Using the results of surveys cutting across social strata in this Caribbean island nation of 11.2 million, a team of experts in nutrition drew up nine ”dietary guides” to help people improve their diets.

The typical Cuban menu includes pork, fried plantains (a kind of banana), fried vegetables, rice, and beans, and few fresh fruits and vegetables.

”Anyone here prefers a plate of fried food to a salad. They might think pineapples and papayas are pretty, but they prefer to buy plantains for frying,” said Gladys Fariñas, a vendor at a Havana farmers’ market who sells high-quality produce at steep prices.

The socialist government of Fidel Castro allowed free farmers’ markets, governed by the laws of supply and demand, to open in the mid-1990s.

The results of a poll carried out last year by the governmental Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene (INHA) showed that Fariñas was right.

More than 90 percent of those interviewed for the INHA poll had a serious deficit of fruit in their diets, which provide fibre and essential vitamins and other nutrients that play a key role in warding off disease.

But unhealthy eating habits are not only a problem of tastes. Vegetables and fruit are expensive in Havana. Half a kilo of tomatoes costs between 12 and 20 pesos, a head of lettuce five pesos, a medium-sized head of garlic three pesos, and a pineapple 15 pesos.

”With these prices and my monthly salary of 270 pesos, I have to keep a close eye on my budget,” one of Fariñas’ customers told IPS.

The peso currently stands at 26 to the dollar in the government exchange bureaux.

An overwhelming majority of respondents to the INHA survey expressed their preference for soft drinks and other artificially flavoured beverages with little to no nutritional value over natural fruit juices. Pork was the favourite kind of animal protein, followed by beef, while eggs and fish were not popular.

Less then one percent of those surveyed said they would prefer a menu without animal protein, while 62 percent reported that they rarely or never ate fresh salads.

The experts at INHA pointed out that these dietary preferences, along with the habit of eating the main meal at night, are among the main factors contributing to heart disease, cancer and strokes, which account for 60 percent of all deaths in Cuba.

The new guides on nutrition recommend a varied diet including items from all of the food groups: grains, vegetables, fruits, meat or substitutes, dairy products, fats and sugar.

The booklets also urge all Cubans over the age of two to eat fruits and vegetables every day, use vegetable oils instead of fats of animal origin, consume chicken or fish, which are healthier than pork and beef, reduce consumption of sugar and salt, exercise to stay in good shape, and avoid the temptation to skip breakfast.

The nutritionists and health experts put a special focus on children, who are still young enough to easily incorporate healthier eating habits, and who can be excellent promoters of new ideas.

Although it would have been unrealistic to talk about a balanced diet in the mid-1990s, at the peak of the more than decade-long economic crisis triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the east European socialist bloc, the production of vegetables has grown since then.

According to figures from the National Office of Statistics (ONE), vegetable output in Cuba climbed from 36 kg per person in 1995 to around 99 kg in 2000.

Nevertheless, nutritionists say not enough vegetables are cultivated yet to satisfy the needs of the population.

The low level of consumption of dairy products, meanwhile, is largely a result of shortages caused by the problems faced by stockbreeders, a sector that was hit especially hard by the crisis.

Overall consumption of food dropped at the height of the crisis, and daily consumption fell to 1,863 calories and 46 grams of protein per person – 74 and 61 percent, respectively, of the internationally recognised minimum daily requirements.

The health of the population was affected to the point that the accumulated deficit of vitamins, especially B vitamins and essential amino acids, led to an upsurge in neurological problems in 1993.

By the second half of the 1990s, daily consumption was up to 2,400 calories and 65 grams of protein, which, however, was still lower than the minimum daily requirements.

In a study released in mid-October, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that malnutrition in Cuba rose from five percent of the population in the 1990-1992 period, at the start of the crisis, to 13 percent between 1998 and 2000.

The new pamphlets provide follow-up to a Sunday morning course that was aired on Cuba’s state-run TV to teach Cubans about the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables.

The 36-hour course, broken down into Sunday morning classes, provided a brief outline of the history of agriculture while offering tasty new recipes.