THREE government ministries have teamed up with aim of targetting the nutritional habits of the youth via an advertising campaign themed “Less Sugar for you and me will make a healthier society”.
The activity which is an Inter-Secondary School task was launched recently by the Ministry of Health which has been joined by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Chief Nutritionist at the Ministry of Health, Lisa Hunte-Mitchell said the main aim is to engage young people to develop positive nutritional messages that they can use to improve their health and at the same time, think of the negative impacts that excess sugar has on the body.
A concerned Hunte-Mitchell said; “Currently they are consuming a lot of high sugar foods and so we would like this to be reversed”
Chief Agriculture Planning Officer attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, Sunita Daniel was happy to be involved in the initiative because her Ministry is currently working on a project to strengthen the school feeding programme in primary schools. It has also been interested in introducing the programme to the island’s secondary schools and with this collaboration, they are now edging closer to that goal.
The task at hand involves the production of a 45 minute drama or a jingle. Students can use themselves or cartoon characters as features. Each child or group can only submit one ad, however, schools can submit more than one. The finished product must be pre-recorded for the judges viewing purposes.
The use of excessive sugar can easily be related to heart related issues, diabetes, obesity and some forms of cancer if one consumes more sugar than the body needs.