Nutrition
Reasons children must eat fruits
• fruit-basket arrangement
Fruit is one of the most important parts of your child’s diet. It’s low in fat and calories and supplies key nutrients that your child needs to grow. Fruit helps protect your child from certain illnesses and diseases as well. Elementary-age children need between 1 and 1 1/2 cups of fruit each day and teens should get between 1 1/2 and 2 cups.
Low in Fat and Calories
One out of three children is overweight or obese, largely due to unhealthy diets high in fat and calories and low in nutrients. Eating plenty of fruit is one way to lower your child’s caloric intake, which can help prevent unhealthy weight gain or shed excess pounds. Replacing high-calorie and high-fat snacks with fresh fruit can significantly cut the number of calories in your child’s diet. Fresh fruit also contains nutrients that give your child energy so he can be active, which is another way to help him manage his weight.
Rich in fibre
Fresh fruit is a nutritious source of fibre, which many children don’t get enough of in their daily diets. Fibre helps keep your child’s digestive system working normally, which reduces his risk of constipation. When your child gets plenty of fibre in his diet, he’s also at a decreased risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Enriched with vitamins and minerals
Fruit contains a wealth of key vitamins and minerals that support your child’s development and help keep him healthy. Plenty of fruit helps your child get adequate amounts of potassium, which helps keep his blood pressure normal. Fruit supplies vitamin C, a nutrient that boosts your child’s immune system and helps prevent infection. It also provides vitamin A for healthy eyes and folate for normal DNA production.
Has many health benefits
The vitamins and minerals in fruit keep your child’s kidneys working normally, which decreases his risk of kidney stones, and helps your child build bone mass, according to the ChooseMyPlate.gov website. A diet rich in fruit can reduce your child’s lifetime risk of certain types of cancer such as throat, oesophageal and stomach. Fruit might also reduce the risk of lung cancer, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.
Improves academic performance
A healthy and well-balanced diet supports brain development, and eating plenty of fresh fruit might boost your child’s performance in school. A 2008 study published in the “Journal of School Health” notes that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables results in higher test scores. A healthy diet that includes fruit can also increase your child’s focus in the classroom so he is able to learn new information, as well as retain what he’s learned.
Source: healthyeating.sfgate.com
Egg stew is a traditional dish from Ghana. It is very healthy and easy to prepare. The dish is traditionally served with rice, plantain and any other meal of one’s choice.
Ingredients
-1 litre of vegetable oil
-2 fresh salmon
-10 large tomatoes
-5 large onions
– 6 eggs
-3 tablespoonful of pepper
-1 tablespoonful of powdered garlic and ginger
-1 tin of mackerel
– I large green pepper
-3 tablespoonful of tomatoes paste
Preparation
-Wash tomatoes, onion, green pepper and blend
-Put oil on fire and add onion and powdered pepper to it
-When onions turn golden brown, add blended tomatoes and tomato paste to it. (Allow it to cook for 3 minutes.)
-Add eggs and salmon to stew and leave it for a minute before stirring.
– Add seasoning to the stew and serve.
By Linda Abrefi Wadie
Every baby deserves a healthy start. But in Ghana, too many children are being born already behind, too small, too fragile, and at far greater risk than their peers. Low birth weight, defined as weighing less than 2.5 kilograms at birth, affects an estimated one in seven newborns in this country.
That is a significant proportion of children beginning life at a disadvantage, often due to preventable causes.
Children born with low birth weight face a steeply uphill journey from their very first breath. They are more susceptible to birth asphyxia, infections, hypothermia, and respiratory complications.
They are more likely to die in their first month of life. Those who survive face higher risks of stunting, impaired cognitive development, and a greater likelihood of developing non-communicable diseases including type two diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease later in life.
Low birth weight does not just harm the child today. It shapes their health for decades.
The most powerful determinant of a baby’s birth weight is what the mother eats, and how healthy she is before and during pregnancy. Research in Ghana has consistently shown that maternal anaemia, poor dietary diversity, and inadequate antenatal care are all strongly linked to low birth weight.
A study in Cape Coast found that mothers with low dietary diversity during pregnancy were significantly more likely to deliver low birth weight babies. In Northern Ghana, maternal anaemia in both the first and third trimesters of pregnancy increased the risk of low birth weight. What a woman eats is what her baby weighs.
Education matters too. Mothers with secondary or higher education have been found to be less likely to deliver a low-birth-weight baby, a difference attributed to better nutrition knowledge, improved antenatal care attendance, and healthier health-seeking behaviour overall.
This points clearly to the need for a whole-of-society response, not just a clinical one.
Ghana has made some progress on low birth weight, but the burden remains unacceptably high and in some parts of the country, it is worsening. Other important risk factors must not be overlooked.
Adolescent pregnancy, which remains prevalent in several regions, is strongly associated with low birth weight because young mothers are often still growing and competing with the fetus for nutrients.
Malaria infection during pregnancy, particularly in endemic areas of Ghana, damages the placenta and restricts nutrient transfer, further increasing the likelihood of a low-birth-weight baby.
These risk factors compound the effects of poor maternal nutrition and limited antenatal care. Leaders in government, health facilities, and communities must prioritise maternal nutrition before, during, and after pregnancy.
Reducing low birth weight is not complicated. It requires feeding mothers well, supporting them through antenatal care, ensuring access to iron-folic acid supplementation and malaria prevention during pregnancy, and treating their health as a national priority, not an afterthought.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
