Healthy living for all

Submitted by Narayan24 on Thu, 11/03/2010 - 9:41am

There is an urgent need to create awareness amongst the general public on good diet and healthy living.

These were the sentiments shared by Minister for Primary Industries, Mr Joketani Cokanasiga to about 15 participants at the one day workshop on ‘Translation Research into Obesity Prevention in Communities (TROPIC) which was held at the Agriculture Department Headquarters in Raiwaqa this morning.

The workshop organized by the Fiji School of Medicine and the Ministry of Primary Industries is aimed at enhancing the skill base of policy makers to develop credible well informed policies.

“Unhealthy food and physical activity environments are the major contributors to obesity which is associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as Diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases but access to healthy and affordable foods has the potential to reduce obesity,” said Mr Cokanasiga.

“There has been an increased focus on the need to use obesity-related research evidence to conform policies and practices that promote a healthier environment.”

Mr Cokanasiga added that sporting bodies, NGO’s and Government Departments have a duty and a responsibility to promote healthy living by promoting eating habits that use fresh fruits, vegetables and fish.

“I warmly welcome TROPIC’s approach to tailor evidence-based messages for each participating organization, develop and maintain networks between researchers, participants and between organizations and also provide increased capacity to evaluate research based evidence,” added Mr Cokanasiga.

TROPIC provides an opportunity to develop a knowledge exchange system between researchers and policy-makers so that researchers produce weight related evidence that is relevant and policy-makers increase their capacity to use research evidence in their decision making.

Key organizations that have the potential to influence the health of Fiji citizens participated in this knowledge-exchange process and the key decision makers participating in TROPIC will attend at least five workshops over a period of 12-14 months.