Education Minister Dr. Michael Dowlath says Government is pressing ahead with efforts to reduce sugary drinks and promote healthier options in school cafeterias.
The initiative forms part of a collaboration between the Ministries of Education and Health, aimed at lowering the risk of non-communicable diseases among students.
“Trinidadians have a very poor culture when it comes to health, we eat too much, we drink too often and we smoke too much. We exercise too little and that is a culture in Trinidad that has been propagated over decades.”
Founder of the Healthy Minds Foundation, Dr. Mitra Maharaj, says the organisation is focusing on children at an early age to help make healthy living a lifelong habit.
“Our goal at the Healthy Minds Foundation is to try and change that culture, we try by going into schools and talking to students about healthy lifestyles and how to maintain healthy lifestyles. And the idea is to target them at that age so that by the time they reach our age, they have these things inculcated already.”
The push comes as the Ministry of Education continues working with the Ministry of Health on measures to reduce the availability of sugary drinks and encourage healthier choices in school cafeterias.
Education Minister Dr. Michael Dowlath said the initiative is necessary, noting that one in four children in Trinidad and Tobago is affected by childhood obesity, increasing their risk of developing NCDs later in life.
“What is the good news is that if we get all of these values entrenched into the education system of early childhood, primary, and secondary, we’ll have healthier adults, we’ll have more productive adults. And therefore Trinidad and Tobago will prosper by the amount of adults we have in the workforce who are able to work productively for this country.”
The intervention is being implemented across the education system, with all 834 schools expected to continue promoting healthier food choices while also helping to educate parents.
“We think that parent education is really important, and so as we are out here in the public, as we meet members of the community, as we meet families, we want all of those who we come in contact with to understand that they have a critical role in spreading this information about healthier lifestyles, and the fact that as adults, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and all these illnesses are a serious burden on the healthcare system.”
Dr. Dowlath said embedding healthy values from early childhood through secondary school can help create a generation of healthier, more productive adults.