FEBRUARY is heart month. The Heart Foundation of Jamaica (HFJ) last Tuesday officially launched Heart Month under the theme: “Sugar: Are you too sweet? Healthy eating for a healthy heart”.

According to the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey of 2008, Jamaicans are not consuming enough fruits, vegetables, peas, and beans and are not as physically active as they should be.

The study found that 99 per cent of Jamaicans are consuming below the daily recommended portion of vegetables, and that there was no difference between sexes. The consumption pattern for fruits was similar to vegetables, in that, less than two per cent of people were meeting the recommended daily intake. The Heart Foundation posited that these factors have contributed to the current trend in heart disease as it remains the number one cause of death in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Driving home this point, Frances Mahfood, nutritionist at the Heart Foundation reiterated that disease of the heart can most times be prevented by making healthy food choices.

“Dont fry! Bake, broil, oven roast, boil, steam, and add just a little oil to prepare foods,” Mahfood cautioned. “Limit sugary beverages, syrups, juice drinks, and food with added sugars and high fructose corn syrup: six tsp per day for women, nine tsp per day for men.”

Mahfood, citing statistics from the World Health Organization lifestyle meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 19, said that 82 per cent of the 16 million deaths globally from non-communicable diseases, can be prevented through diet.

She said she has seen first-hand how eating right can improve a person’s overall well-being.

“Adult diseases begin in childhood, so, if we can have an influence on our children with their intake and guide them on how they eat, we will start preventing generation after generation, and this is where we have to start,” said Mahfood. “A healthy child is one who eats fruits and vegetables…”

“I have had patients lose up to 100 pounds in one year, making a lifestyle change,” Mahfood said. “Incorporating exercise, incorporating eating more fruits and vegetables, they quit smoking, they sleep better, stress levels are down.”

The nutritionist also cited a Harvard University study that looked at nurses over a 14-year period, who incorporated an average of two and a half cups of fruits and vegetables in their daily diet.

“There is evidence with heart disease and stroke, those that ate fruits and vegetables daily reduced their risk of heart disease and stroke by 20 per cent,” Mahfood shared.

Meanwhile, HFJ Executive Director Deborah Chen spoke about the need for consumers to be able to read the nutritional content on labels, as there has been an increase in the consumption of juices and drinks and sweetened beverages, and increased consumption of salted and sugary snacks.

Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson was also on hand to officially launch Heart Month at the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston.

“Too many Jamaicans are not eating healthy. The society has seemingly been taken with the bag juice, a love of processed and fast food with high salt, sugar and fat content in these modern days,” Ferguson said. “This is wreaking havoc on individual’s health and the resources of the health sector.”