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2. The Importance of a Healthy Diet


Many Namibians have come to understand the word Diet to mean the kind of foods that people eat for slimming or losing weight, but the word really means all the foods and beverages (drinks/liquids) any person consumes, even those who are not slimming. So a good diet means a Healthy Eating Plan and healthy and balanced nutrition means eating the right type of foods in the right quantities to keep healthy, keep fit, and enjoy life.

For our nutritional well-being we need to have a variety of nutritious, safe and acceptable foods that meet the dietary needs of all members of the household every day throughout the year.

This section of your Handbook includes 8 activities that will help your group members to understand the meaning and importance of having a healthy diet and a Healthy Eating Plan.

Notes

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Activity 2.1: The Ups and Downs of Nutrition

Project skill:

Understanding the results of both healthy and unhealthy eating habits.



Life skill:

Acquiring Knowledge
Developing communication skills.
Working with others.



Copies of the game The Ups and Downs of Nutrition, dice and players' markers or pieces (seeds, stones, etc.) for playing the game.
Food Guide for Namibia poster.
Copies of the Basic Facts about Nutrition Handout



Preparation:

Check to make sure that you have all the dices and enough seeds or stones to use as marker pieces ready for playing the games.

Put up the Food Guide for Namibia poster where everyone can see it.

Introduction

1. Tell your Youth Club members that they will be playing a game called The Ups and Downs of Nutrition in order to understand healthy and unhealthy eating habits and what the results are of these habits.

Experience

2. Read aloud from How the Game Works.

First read about the purpose of the game and show your group members the Food Guide poster. Tell the members that the game is to help them to better understand the Healthy Eating messages of the poster.

3. Read out the steps or rules for playing the game and show everyone each step as you read about it.

Make sure that everyone understands the game before they start playing.

You might want to display the game board while you or a group member demonstrates each step. If the group is not too big, you could place the game board on the ground or floor so that everyone can see you, or someone else demonstrate the steps.

4. Ask your members to form groups of 2 to 6 people.

The game may be played by up to 6 people, but this may make it a bit crowded, so if you have enough games, it would be better to have no more than 4 players per group.

Process

5. Give each group a game board, a dice and marker pieces for each person. Tell the groups that they may begin playing the game.

6. Move among the groups and help those who may have problems with how to play the game.

7. After all the groups have finished the game (or when you feel it is time to end the playing), ask everyone to come together as a large group.

Apply

8. Ask the following questions to summarise the nutrition messages in the game:

Nutrition messages in the Ups and Downs of Nutrition game

1. Eating a balanced diet gives a lot of healthy energy.
2. Eating a variety of foods keeps you fit and healthy.
3. Eating the same food everyday can make a person feel tired.
4. Eating breakfast helps a person's brain and helps them to do well in school.
5. Drinking milk gives you strong bones and teeth.
6. Eat a balanced meal and be a winner!
7. A person who does not eat enough fresh fruit can catch colds and other infections.
8. Eat three meals a day and feel good all day.
9. Not eating whole grain products can cause the deficiency disease called pellagra.
10. Goitre is one of the results of not eating iodised salt.
11. Eating a lot of sugars, fats and oils make a person fat and unhealthy.
12. Eating fish makes a person feel strong.
13. Germs from poor food hygiene can cause diarrhoea.
14. Drinking a lot of liquid is good for the body's functions.
15. Drinking beer/alcohol is not good nutrition.
16. Eating a lot of sweets or sugars is not good for the body.
17. Too much salt can cause heart pains from high blood pressure

How to Play The Ups And Downs Game
This is a simple and easy game to play. It may be played by 2 to 6 players.

Why should we play this game?

This game is to help players understand the results of both healthy and unhealthy eating habits. It will help us to learn how to make good and wise choices about food.

Directions for Playing the Game

1. Setting Up the Game

2. Playing the Game

The player should say out loud the picture message at the bottom of the ladder and also the picture message at the top of the ladder.

It is important that players should read out these messages on the squares so that everyone can understand the good results of Healthy Eating habits OR the poor results of unhealthy eating habits.

When a player has difficulty reading these messages, other players may read it for them.

A player's turn is over when they have finished moving their marker by:

3. Winning the Game

The first player to reach square number 100 wins the game. A player can get there in 2 ways:

· By getting the right count of squares to end on 100.

If the count would take a player past number 100, he or she should not move, but try again in their next turn until the dice shows the right number.

· When a player's move ends on square number 80.

By eating a balanced meal which contains foods from all 4 Food Groups, the player can move his or her marker up to square number 100 and become a winner!

Activity 2.2: Keeping a 3-Day Food List

This activity will take 2 group meetings to complete.

Project skills:

Record (write down) all the foods and liquids (beverages) consumed over a three-day period of time.
Analyse each 3-Day Food List for the ways in which it does and does not match the guidelines on the Food Guide poster. Decide how to improve one's eating habits.



Life skills:

Managing resources.
Making decisions.
Solving problems.
Working with others
Communicating



The Food Guide for Namibia poster. Members' Basic Facts about Nutrition Handouts from Activity 1.4.
Workpad poster for this activity.
Paper and pencils



Preparation:

Put up the Food Guide for Namibia Poster where everyone can see it clearly.

Ask group members to bring the "Basic Facts" Handouts from Activity 4, and paper and pencils for working.

Make a Workpad poster chart that looks like this:

Day

Cereals

Fruits &
Vegetables

Meat, beans,
milk, etc

Fats, oils &
sugars

Liquids

1

 

 

 

 

 

2

 

 

 

 

 

3

 


 


 

Introduction

1. Begin by explaining to everyone that in this activity they will keep a record of all the foods and liquids (beverages) that they eat and drink over 3 days. Then they will look at each 3-Day Food List to find ways in which it does and does not match the guidelines on the Food Guide poster and decide how to improve their eating habits.

Experience

2. Explain to your group members that you would like them to make a list of all the foods and liquids they eat and drink over the next three days.

3. Encourage everyone to keep their lists as completely as possible. Explain that this activity is for learning purposes, and no one else will look at their food list or judge them on what they are eating and drinking.

4. Ask everyone to bring their Food Lists to the next group meeting.

Process

5. At the next group meeting, display the Food Guide poster for the group.

6. Review the following "Food & Nutrition Guidelines" on the Food Guide poster with the group members:

7. Remind everyone that we should have foods from the 4 Food Groups every day. Let the group members refer to the picture on the Food Guide Poster and ask them to describe these Food Groups and the types of food they contain:

8. Put up your Workpad poster chart for this activity to help them use it as a guide for the following step.

9. Ask everyone to look at their 3-Day Food Lists to find out how well their eating habits match the Food Guide. The following steps might be helpful in guiding them through this:

A completed chart may look something like this:

Day

Cereals

Fruits &
Vegetables

Meat, beans,
milk, etc

Fats, oils &
sugars

Liquids

1

2

3



Apply

10. Let your group members look at your Workpad chart and think about the following questions:

Some members might want to talk about what they ate and what they did not eat and may be willing to share this information for group discussion. However, don't insist that everyone shows their numbers to the whole group because some of them might be embarrassed by not having a balanced diet, especially if money for food is short in the family.

11. Ask the group to think about and discuss the following questions:

12. Ask each person to decide on three goals they have for improving their diets or Eating Plans in the next few weeks.

Ask if anyone would like to talk about his or her goals, but don't insist on this, as they might want to have more time to decide on what goals are most important and realistic for them.

13. Explain that in Activity 2.4 you will ask the group members how well they did in achieving their goals for a healthier diet. In this activity, they will also be using their 3-Day Food Lists and charts again, so they should keep these lists and any new Food Lists they wish to make at home.

Notes

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Activity 2.3: Planning a Balanced Meal

Project skill:

Using knowledge of nutrition to plan balanced meals



Life skills:

Solving problems
Managing resources
Working with others.



Food Guide Poster
Workpad and Marker
Pencils and paper



Preparation:

Ask your group members to bring paper and pens or pencils for this activity.

Using your Workpad and a pencil, turn the Pad sideways and draw the following table:

Meal

Food

1. Sorghum or Samp and dried beans, with Spinach or Rape, and butter, oil, cream or cooked fat

4

2. Mealiepap and Soya ""meat"", e.g. Imana or Toppers, cooked with Carrot and cabbage.

3

3. Bread (including mahangu bread) and meat, fish or chicken

2

4. Mahangu, yoghurt or cultured milk, little sugar or honey

3

5. Noodles, cheese and Spinach

3

6. Rice, fish (fresh tinned or dried) and fried onion leaves

4

When you have finished drafting this table in pencil so that all the information fits neatly, go over it with your marker and then rub out all the pencil, so that your table is now neat and will be seen clearly.

Keep this Poster so that you can use it again for other times when you do this Activity with other Youth Groups.

Introduction

1. Explain to everyone that in this activity they will be using knowledge of nutrition learned in previous activities to plan for Healthy Eating and balanced meals.

Experience

2. Display the Food Guide poster for easy reference by your participants.

3. Ask someone in the group to use what they have learned in previous activities to explain to everyone how good nutrition works.

Expected explanation:

Good nutrition combines different foods from the Food Groups in our meals so that the body gets all the right nutrients it needs in order to function properly.

Encourage input from other group members to help if the person giving the explanation gets stuck or has difficulty.

4. Put up your Workpad poster to display your table of meals, but cover up the column showing the Food Groups.

5. Now work down the list, discussing each meal and asking the group to name how many food Groups each one contains.

6. When you have worked through the list, uncover the Food Groups column so that everyone can see if they were right about the number of Food Groups in each meal.

7. Remind everyone that variety is very important to make sure that a person gets enough of the right nutrients. Point out that even though a meal may contain all 4 Food Groups, there may be something which may be added to the meal to make sure that it contains more nutrients.

8. Work through the list of meals on your Table again, this time asking for ideas for what may be added to increase the variety or the number of food groups in each meal.

Some examples are:

1 Sorghum or Samp and dry beans, with Spinach or Rape, and butter, oil, cream or cooked fat.

· Could include a fruit or fruit juice.

2 Mealiepap and Soya "meat", e.g. Imana or Toppers, cooked with Carrot and cabbage.

· Some butter or fat may be added. Perhaps also a fruit?

3 Bread (including mahangu bread) and meat, fish or chicken

· Add cooked or raw vegetables (salad). Spinach, tomato, lettuce, etc.

4 Mahangu, yoghurt or cultured milk, little sugar or honey

· Add apple, pear, banana or guava

5 Noodles, cheese and Spinach

· Add a tomato

6 Rice, fish (fresh tinned or dried) and fried onion leaves

· Serve with a cup of Rooibos tea.

9. The importance of snacks

Explain that, while it is important that a meal is as balanced as possible, it is not always possible to have ALL Food Groups, or enough nutrients, in one single meal. Therefore it is more realistic to devise a Healthy Eating Plan or diet which tries to supply these important nutrients over 1 day.

Snacks are a good way of helping with this, especially for children, the elderly, those who work in the fields or bush for long hours, or when it is too hot to eat one big meal, etc. Snacks are small meals which, although not complete in themselves, can help to add to the daily nutrients needed by the body as well as prevent hunger.

Information for this Activity adapted from "Facts about HIV/AIDS" and "Caring for Someone with AIDS" © M. Futter

10. Ask your group members to think of some ideas for good snacks (especially if they have favourites that they enjoy at home!). Some ideas are:

Process

11. Making a Healthy Eating Plan

Divide everyone into small working groups of 3 or 4 people. Point out the Guidelines on the Food Guide poster.

12. Explain that each group should use the these Guidelines as reference to make a Healthy Eating Plan for 3 days, which consists of 3 meals with snacks in between. When making these plans, they should also be able to explain how many Food Groups they have in the Healthy Eating Plan for each day.

Point out that this part of the activity is to get creative ideas for planning a diet with good, balanced meals without spending lots of money. Everyone should understand that we need to get over the idea of "poor man's food" or that good nutrition is only for rich people. So the challenge for all the groups is that their Eating Plans should contain traditional or veld foods or others which are easily available or cheap to buy.

Encourage everyone to include their own favourite dishes from home so that these ideas may be shared with everybody later.

13. Give all your groups about 10 minutes to discuss and draw up their or Healthy Eating Plans (also known as menus).

14. Have each group present their Healthy Eating Plan to the other groups by reading out what they have chosen for meals and snacks for each day, as well as the Food Groups which they contain.

Apply

15. Have everyone come together to form one large group again.

16. Review the Activity by leading a discussion on what they have learned. Encourage this discussion by asking questions, which may include the following:

Try to find out if any participants still have problems understanding how Food Groups and nutrients are important, and help them to understand the information. Other participants may also help with this.

17. Ask your group members to keep the Eating Plans or menus that they have worked on in this activity. Explain that these will be needed for the next activity.

A balanced meal is one which contains food from all the Food Groups.
A Healthy Eating Plan is a way of making sure to have a variety of foods from all the Food Groups during the course of one day.

Information for this activity was adapted from Facts about HIV and AIDS, Caring for Someone with AIDS and How to Make a Kitchen Garden, © M. Futter

Activity 2.4: A Healthy Eating Plan

Project skill:

Using knowledge of nutrition to make a Healthy Eating Plan.



Life skills:

Managing resources
Working with others



Food Guide for Namibia Poster
Workpad and Marker
Pencils and paper
3-Day Food Lists from Activity 2.2
Healthy Eating Plans from Activity 2.3



Preparation:

Ask your group members to bring paper and pens or pencils for this activity.

Ask everyone to bring their 3-Day Food Lists from Activity 2.2 and their Healthy Eating Plans and menus from Activity 2.3

Using your Workpad, pencil and marker, turn the Pad sideways and draw the following chart:


Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 3.

Breakfast




Snack




Lunch




Snack




Dinner




Drinks




Introduction

1. Explain to your group members that in this activity they will be using their food lists and knowledge of nutrition that they learned in the previous 2 activities to make new Healthy Eating Plans, which build in foods they normally eat or which are locally available.

Experience

2. Ask everyone to form the same small groups of 3 or 4 people that worked together on Eating Plans or menus in the previous activity.

3. Explain that each group should take out the 3-Day Food Lists and Eating Plans that were made before, and point out that:

Process

4. Put up the Food Guide Poster and your Workpad chart.

5. Explain that:

6. Give all the groups about 30 minutes to work on their Healthy Eating Plans. During this time, move among the groups and offer help and guidance.

Apply

7. When the groups have finished making their Healthy Eating Plans, let each group have a turn to read this out and explain it to everybody else.

Encourage comment, discussion, suggestions and input from all the Youth Club members at the end of each presentation.

A finished Healthy Eating Plan, or 3-day Menu, may look something like this:


Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 3.

Breakfast

Jungle oats with milk and sugar

Bread, egg and tea

Palm fruit and pumpkin

Snack

Banana or pawpaw

Guava

Embe

Lunch

Beans with sorghum and spinach

Porridge with wild spinach

Rice and meat

Snack

Oshikundu

Marula nuts with omaere/yoghurt

Omaere

Dinner

Mieliemeel with fish and tomato

Porridge with mopani worms and cabbage

Sorghum with chicken, with carrots and onion

Drinks

Milk, water

Fruit juice

Tea

8. End the activity by encouraging a discussion. Guide the discussion by asking questions such as:

Information for this Activity adapted from "Facts about HIV/AIDS" and "Caring for Someone with AIDS" © M. Futter

Activity 2.5 Affordable Nutrition Survey

This activity can be done over several weeks, including school holidays.

Project skill:

Understanding of the kinds of foods which are easily available and affordable within the community.



Life skills:

Acquiring knowledge.
Communicating.
Working with others.
Solving problems



Food Guide Poster
Workpad and Marker
Pencils and paper



Preparation:

Ask your group members to bring paper and pens or pencils for this activity.


Homegrown
Food

Veld
Food

Bought
Food




Using your Workpad and marker, make a poster like the one on the right:

Introduction

1. Explain that the reason for this Survey activity is to get a better understanding of the kinds of foods which are available within the community.

In other words, now that Youth Club members have learned about good nutrition, is it possible to put this knowledge into practice? Are there enough of the right kinds of locally available foods so that group members and people in the community can have a balanced diet, with a variety of foods from all 4 Food Groups?

Experience

2. Explain that the foods they should list in this Survey should be home-grown food (vegetables, fruit, meat, milk, etc), veld or bush food (fish, ombidi, mopane worms, embe, uintjies, etc) or foods which can be bought cheaply in shops, dried beans, lentils, onions, pilchards, etc.)

3. Let everybody form working teams or pairs.

When doing this, let the members chose who they want to work with, or to put groups/pairs together according to those who live close to each other or are even from the same family, so that it is easier for them to work together.

4. Put up your Workpad Poster to show how the working teams or pairs could list these foods by making 3 columns in order write the available foods under each heading.

5. Point out that:

Process

6. Set a date for when the Survey should be finished and plan the meeting when all the teams will present their Surveys.

7. Let everyone have a discussion and share ideas about how they may go about doing their Surveys. This is also a good chance for them to talk about any problems they may have about doing their surveys and get advice from other group members about how to solve them.

Apply

8. When the groups next meet, let each group or team present their Survey to the rest of the Youth Club members.

9. Explain that the purpose of doing a Survey is not just to collect data or information for an empty reason, but that a Survey is done so that we can plan to take positive action based on the information which has been collected.

10. Let all the teams or groups come together to form 1 large group and ask them to discuss and give their opinions on the following:

11. Encourage discussion about finding positive solutions for:

Activity 2.6: Convincing Others to Change

Project skill:

Using knowledge of nutrition to convince others to change their eating habits.



Life skills:

Communicating.
Relating to and working with others.
Solving problems.
Applying leadership skills.

Introduction

1. Explain to your group members that this activity will involve them in Role Playing situations where one person will use his or her knowledge of nutrition to convince another person with unhealthy eating habits to change.

Experience

2. Explain that each Role Play will last only about 5 minutes. After each Role Play, the presenters will be asked questions and then everyone in the group will be asked to discuss the situation that was just acted out.

3. Ask for three volunteers to take part in the first Role Play. Give each person one of the following roles:

The parent should show his or her understanding of the importance of a good breakfast by trying to convince the children to eat their breakfast. The parent should try to convince the children without threatening them with punishment or bribing them with treats or other rewards.

Encourage everyone to do their best to play the role assigned to them, but let them know that they can have fun as they do this.

First Role Play

Process

4. When they are ready, help the three actors to arrange themselves in front of the group. Ask them to go ahead and play their roles.

5. At the end of the Role Playing (or when it seems that the actors are just repeating themselves rather than introducing new information), say that the role playing is finished.

Point out that it is now time for the actors to stop being the people in the Role Play and go back to being themselves.

6. Ask the actors the following questions:

Ask the actors who were playing the 2 children:

Ask the person who played the part of the parent:

Apply

Ask the following questions for the whole group to discuss:

Second Role Play

Process

7. Ask for 2 volunteers and give each one of the following roles:

The friend should use his or her understanding of nutrition to try to convince the overweight person to cut down on how much fat and sugar he or she eats every day.

The friend should be sensitive to the feelings of the overweight person.

8. When they are ready, help the two actors arrange themselves in front of the group and begin their Role Play.

9. After three to five minutes, end the Role Play Point and ask each actor the following questions:

Ask the person who played the part of the fat person:

Ask the person who role played the friend:

10. Ask the following questions for the whole group to discuss:

11. End this activity by asking your group members to think of other role playing situations that would involve trying to get others to change their eating habits.

Discuss what the roles would be and encourage the group to think of questions that are important to discuss regarding each situation.

Notes

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Activity 2.7: What Is a Balanced Diet?

This activity will take 3 group meetings to complete.

Project skill:

Create a piece of art that expresses the meaning of "a balanced diet" or Healthy Eating Plan.



Life skills:

Communicating.
Relating to others.
Taking community action.



Food Guide for Namibia Poster Workpad and marker
The piece of art you have made as a sample
Large and small pieces of cardboard, wire, string, magazine pictures, glue, etc needed to make art pieces.



Preparation:

Make a sample piece of art to give group members an idea of what can be done.

Collect any materials that you think may be useful for group members to use in this activity.

Tell your group members well in advance that they are going to make a piece of art and encourage them to collect materials which may be useful for this (see Step 3 below).

Introduction

1. Explain to your Youth Club members that this activity will give them the chance to be creative by making a piece of art. Tell them that the piece of art should show their understanding of what "a balanced diet" or Healthy Eating Plan means.

Experience

2. Let everyone look again at the Food Guide poster and remind them that the main picture or Food Guide shows the 4 Food Groups which contain all the nutrients needed for a "balanced diet".

3. Suggest different ways in which they could make their pieces - for example, drawings, collages made from magazines and newspapers pictures and sculptures using recycled materials.

4. Show the youth the piece of art you have created and explain how it shows what "a balanced diet" means to you.

5. Tell everyone that they should bring their pieces of art to the next group meeting and that each person will be asked to describe what he or she was saying in their art.

Process

6. At the meeting, give everyone time to display their work where everyone can see it clearly.

7. Ask group members to describe how his or her artwork shows their understanding of "a balanced diet".

8. When everyone has done this, ask discussion questions such as the following:

9. Encourage your group members to put up their art pieces in a public space somewhere in the village (for example, a shop, a clinic, the school, a community building).

Suggest that they:

Apply

10. At a future group meeting, ask the youth if they got comments about their art display and what these were.

Discuss the importance of sharing their knowledge with their families and community.

Notes

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Activity 2.8: Collecting Your Own Recipes

This activity will take 2 group meetings to complete.

Project skill:

Collecting recipes to create a valuable resource for current and future use



Life skills:

Acquiring knowledge
Working with others
Solving problems
Managing resources



What is needed for collecting recipes: notebooks, files, pens or pencils, etc Your own recipe file or collection



Preparation:

Tell your participants in advance that they will need notebooks, files, pens or pencils, etc

If you haven't already started a recipe collection of your own, try to have a few collected by the time you are going to present this activity.

Introduction

1. Explain to your group members that it is important that anyone who is to work with or share knowledge with others about nutrition should have good resources to use as reference.

Experience

2. Lead a discussion by asking: Why do you think collecting recipes would be of value to you and what are the benefits? Guide the discussion to encourage the following expected responses:

3. Show your group the recipes that you have collected so far and explain that they may write or paste their recipes in a school exercise book, on the backs of recycled paper in their file, etc.

They should keep their recipe files in a safe envelope or other place so that they do not get lost or damaged.

Process

4. Point out that good recipes should not include fancy, expensive ingredients and should also make use of good, locally available or traditional foods.

5. End this part of the activity by leading a discussion to share ideas about where to find good recipes. Ideas are:

6. After some weeks, (when you think there has been enough time to collect recipes) let the group member bring a dish or make a dish in a meeting from one of the recipes they have collected. Remind them of the importance of Food Safety when preparing their food.

Perhaps a good idea would be to make this Activity the last one, to celebrate the end of training a group of Rural Youth Cub members!


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