In South Africa, Indigenous vegetables are often neglected in favor of other foods which can decrease dietary diversity. We recently came across this paper by @Hlekani Vanessa Mbhatsani from Stellenbosch University who developed a nice model for increasing their consumption among schoolchildren and thought we would share. It is an important investigation as South Africa's National School Nutrition Program (NSNP), hoped to encourage a more diverse diet by adding indigenous vegetables into school meals for children in order to combat some of the shifts to a more western style diet in the country, and this work attempts to answer whether inclusion of local vegetables in NSNP meals can promote their consumption. This model development was part of a larger study.
Five approaches (based on the WHO Health Promotion Approaches) were used:
The #medical approach took measurements of weight and height, body composition, and micronutrient status
The #educational approach focused on using school lessons and discussions to foster a positive attitude toward local foods and its role in health.
The #behavioral approach involved including local vegetables as part of NSNP meals
The #empowerment approach included training chefs to incorporate the vegetables into NSNP dishes
The #societal approach involved promoting the use of local vegetables purchased from small-scale farmers
Qualitative data was collected from 287 primary school children, where 151 were from intervention school and 131 were from the comparison school.
key takeaways:
👉 This study promoted dietary diversity by providing meals prepared from #amaranthus, #BidensPilosa, and #cowpea
👉 The modified dishes were accepted by children at the intervention school and were suitable for infusion into the school meals.
👉 Nutrition lessons provided to the children and volunteer food handlers contributed to increased consumption of these vegetables by children in the intervention school.
👉 By sourcing the vegetables locally, economic benefit was also derived by supporting farmers
👉 Peers, parents, and schoolteachers were receptive to the initiation and accepted the intervention meal.
Overall, this study showed that by combining the different approaches, the promotion of the consumption of indigenous vegetables by primary school children can be achieved but states that to be successful the following needs to happen:
i) a medical approach should be in place;
ii) education or correct information should be provided;
iii) behavioural change should be enabled;
iv) empowerment should be provided, and
v) societal enhancement should be encouraged.
and it is also necessary for identified stakeholders work together.
The authors suggest that these findings could be expanded to impact the surrounding community and into the rest of the country to promote a more diverse and #nutritious diet.
Read more about this work here 👉
https://lnkd.in/gz3FGhRG
by Sheena Y.
