Visit to VSHC by Celebrity Chef Lance Seeto.
The Viseisei Sai Health Centre believes that through awareness and interventions, NCDs and their risk factors can be controlled. This can be accomplished through changing of diet, doing more physical exercises, quitting smoking and reducing the intake of alcohol and kava in the community.
The health centre invited the Celebrity Chef Lance Seeto to come and share his expertise on healthy cooking tips with the community of Vuda.
His healthy cooking session has been just one of the many awareness programs conducted by Viseisei Sai Health Centre as a part of the NCD project.
The centre's main aim is to encourage people to have a better diet by eating healthy food and especially by using less salt, oil, and sugar.
His cooking sessions included tips on:
· Bad foods – how to identify common foods in the current Fijian diet that are causing long term health issues leading to NCDs. i.e. bad oils, margarine, excess refined sugar, excess flour and hidden ingredients in foods.
· Good foods – how to identify the super foods (fresh foods that are nutrient-dense and contain more life-giving minerals & vitamins) i.e. omega-3 rich foods, herbs and spices, certain fruits and vegetables.
· Traditional diet – the health benefits of the traditional iTaukei diet and why more Fijians should be adopting it for longer life i.e. less fried food, more fish & green vegetables, virgin coconut oil.
· Indian diet – what is wrong with the diet and what adjustments can be made to make it more nutritional i.e. less oils, less overcooked vegetables, more fresh vegetables & fruit, less sugars.
· Healthy cooking – what is healthy cooking and how can it be done at home or in the village.
Chef Seeto's healthy cooking session was successful with more than 70 people attending. This included the community health workers who had the opportunity to hear from one of the best chefs in Fiji, to take his advice and information back to their communities and to use it to promote healthy eating habits and wellness.