In the words of Hippocrates: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." These are the words that nutritionists and dietitians live by; as such professionals head into their biennial conference, they endeavor to promote good nutrition, health and wellness as a means to fight against the growing epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases in The Bahamas.
"We believe in people understanding how to take very basic and affordable foods to help to manage staying in a good health status," says Camelta Barnes, senior public health nutritionist at the Department of Public Health.
Barnes believes a nutritionist's main focus is contributing to the promotion of the public's health and disease prevention through application of knowledge and skills. Dietitians are concerned primarily with the application of knowledge and skills as it relates to improving nutritional status during treatment and management of illness.
She is one of a 20-member team comprised of nutritionists and dietitians who make up the Bahamian Association of Nutritionists and Dietitians (BAND), a body that provides leadership in food and nutrition for better health and well being in The Bahamas, led by Idamae Hanna as president. BAND provides accurate, practical and sound nutrition information to the Bahamian public; works with health stakeholders to implement innovative strategies to improve food and nutrition for better health and well being and advocates to ensure nutrition holds an appropriate level of importance in overall food supply security, among other objectives.
In the dietary guideline produced by the Ministry of Health, nutritionists and dietitians encourage people to choose a variety of foods daily. Among its recommendations, the guideline suggests limiting the amount of high fat and greasy foods consumed daily; making starchy vegetables, peas and beans a part of the diet; choosing foods low in sugar and salt; drinking plenty of water daily; refraining from alcohol consumption or drinking only in moderation; making physical activity and exercise part of lifestyles; choosing foods for their nutritional value and choosing breast milk for infants to start a healthy life.
"The basic nutrients we know that the body needs are carbohydrate, protein, minerals such as vitamin C and the B vitamins, iron and so forth, so what we [nutritionists and dietitians] do then is take the basic nutrients that the body needs and translate them into food," said Barnes. "We give recommendations for foods, bearing in mind we are taking nutrients that the body needs and translating them into foods so that people would know how to get these nutrients."
One of the things that BAND promotes is the consumption of what they term "basic foods". They heavily promote the consumption of root crops like sweet potato, cassava and pumpkin.
"There is a perception that, in order for us to be healthy, we have to go and buy very expensive food, organic foods, or that we have to buy very expensive supplements, otherwise we're doomed. But what we're saying is 'no, not necessarily'," said Barnes.
The BAND member said people should educate themselves about backyard gardening and make their own foods organic. Barnes believes that people should understand how to take basic ingredients like fish, cassava, cabbage, okra and make a basic, but nutritious meal out of them. "Everything has its place...the supplements have their place, but the basic Joe can most likely not afford that, so that does not mean that they're doomed," she said.
Three culprits
The nutritionist noted three areas she has termed "culprits" in the diet that people should try to curtail -- the intake of high amounts of fat, sodium and sugar. Fat, sodium and sugar, in excess, are often the culprits of chronic non-communicable diseases that are rampant in The Bahamas.
"Our whole promotion, our education, everything that we're doing, all the research is based on decreased fat, decreased sugar, decreased sodium. And so what we should not be doing is eating the high intake of fat, the high intake of sugar, the high intake of sodium," said Barnes.
In the sodium department, the nutritionist, who has been practicing for 20 years, said most people do not understand that one teaspoon of sodium is what is needed by the body for consumption for the entire day; added sugar should be kept to a minimum and fat consumption should be kept at three grams or less.
"The misconception is that it's just one teaspoon of salt added to your cooking, but the body only needs one teaspoon worth of sodium for the entire day -- whether you get it from a bag of chips, may have added it to your food, or you may have gotten it from a hot dog you may have eaten, or a can of soup you've eaten -- once understanding that, it shows how easy it is to over-consume salt. Thirty percent of our diet it's recommended that we get our fat, however if you're looking at your food label trying to assess how much fat you're getting, anything that is three grams or lower is recommended as low-fat, and the kind of food that you should be eating. When it comes to the sugar, and we're talking about added sugar which is really the culprit in a lot of our food and beverages, you should have it as low as you can go, as the high consumption of added sugar is highly linked to diabetes and obesity," said Barnes.
Barnes' advice comes as BAND, along with the Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) hosts the Caribbean Association of Nutritionists and Dietitians (CANDi) 2014 biennial conference in The Bahamas at the Culinary Hospitality Management Institute under the theme 'Influencing Excellence in the Professions of Nutrition and Dietetics', from June 18-20. CANDi is the official regional body regulating and directing the professions of dietetics and nutrition throughout the Caribbean.
Both CANDi and BAND's overall purpose is to promote and maintain technology and information in the professions of dietetics and nutrition.
Topics on the conference agenda will look at nutrition and dietetics in The Caribbean, the medical doctor's perception of the roles of the nutritionist and dietitian, working together with the dietitian and nutritionist for each patient's optimal health, challenges and opportunities for dietitians and nutritionists and re-evaluating the competencies.
2014 CANDi Conference Events schedule
Day 1: Venue: Choices restaurant, The College of The Bahamas
8 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. -- Registration
9:30 a.m. - 11-11:25 a.m. -- Opening ceremony
11:30 a.m. - 12:55 p.m. -- CANDi Biennial general meeting (members only)
1:20 p.m. - 3 p.m. -- CANDi Biennial general meeting (members only)
4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. -- Board of Directors meeting
Day 2
8 a.m. - 9:05 a.m. -- Registration
9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. -- Nutrition and dietetics in The Caribbean (June Holdip, past president, CANDi, Trinidad & Tobago
10:35 a.m. - 11:20 a.m. -- The medical doctor's perception of the roles of the nutritionist and dietitian (Bahamas Medical Association)
11:50 - 12:55 p.m. -- Working together with the dietitian and nutritionists for each patient's optimal health (Kateca Graham, Nurses Association of The Bahamas
2 p.m - 2:50 p.m. -- Challenges and opportunities for dietitians and nutritionists -- re-evaluating the competencies (Kirk Bolton, president JAPINAD)
2:55 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. -- Mapping the way forward: a practical exercise (Kelly Salmond, consultant, PAHO, The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands
4:20 pm. - 4:45 p.m. -- Day two overview
7:30 p.m. -- Installation ceremony and reception, Government House
Day 3:
8 a.m. - 9 a.m. -- Registration
9:15 a.m. -10:30 a.m. Are you the person in charge or exceptional leader in charge? (Leabner Forbes, certified coach, The Bahamas)
11:55 a.m. - 12: 55 p.m. -- Planning and implementing a dietetic internship program (Dr. Astrid Inniss)
2:05 p.m. - 3:05 p.m. -- Preceptorship (June Holdip, honorary secretary, CANDI, Trinidad & Tobago)
3:10 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. -- Experiences of a dietetic internship program: as the facilitator in hospital (Dianne Charles, Trinidad & Tobago); as the facilitator in the community (Vidya Rajpauksingh-Bharath (Trinidad & Tobago)
3:55 p.m - 5 p.m. -- Overview of day three and closing ceremony
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