Swap sugary foods for healthier alternatives in meals for a healthier life – live demo this Friday
Practical ways to create tasty and healthier meals by swapping sugary foods with healthier alternatives will be demonstrated at one of the city’s biggest supermarkets this Friday.
As part of a range of initiatives to improve diets and tackle obesity in the city, Brighton & Hove City Council and Brighton & Hove Food Partnership will give a practical demonstration at ASDA Hollingbury this Friday (24 January) from 10 – 3pm.
The Food Partnership will be using healthy food swaps to cook tasty food through the course of the day for people to try. The team will have lots of recipes to give away as well as useful information on how people can make their own healthy food swaps at home.
Commenting on the launch of the food demonstration and the Change4Life Smart Swaps scheme, Cllr Rob Jarrett, Brighton & Hove City Council, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board, said:
“This is a practical demonstration to shoppers to show how families can swap sugary foods with healthier alternatives to create tasty dishes and improve diets and I would encourage anyone in the area to come along.
“This ties in with the national Change4Life programme and looks promising as an additional way to help families with children tackle what is a national obesity crisis. The Smart Swop idea is to encourage families in Brighton & Hove to make one easy swap to help cut sugar and fat from their everyday snacks, drinks and meals. Together with a free mobile app and things like fridge magnets, families are encouraged to swap sugary drinks with sugar free drinks and switch from sugary breakfast cereal to plain cereal.
“Working closely with key city partners we have already successfully helped families with young children reduce childhood obesity but we’re determined to go further.
“We’re bucking the national trend for the proportion of our children being within a healthy weight and this is down to excellent work by our partner organisations such as Brighton & Hove Food Partnership and by the city’s nurses and schools boosting the numbers of families participating in the many free services.”
Brighton & Hove Food Partnership Community Cookery Manager Alan Lugton said: “This should be a fun demonstration and we’ll be giving some tips on how to cook tasty and healthier foods without sugary ingredients. It’s all part of the Smart Swaps initiative to help residents understand how they can swap sugary foods with much healthier ingredients to improve family diets."
Notes
Figures released in December 2013 through the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) show that schoolchildren in Brighton & Hove are bucking the national trend on obesity with the numbers of 10 to 11 year olds overweight down to 13% last year compared with almost 19% across England. In addition more than 72% of year 6 pupils are a healthy weight in the city compared with 65% in England.