A lunch spread featuring matta rice, sardine curry, pepper chicken, vegetable dishes, aviyal, salad and fresh fruit turned into a practical lesson in balanced eating at the Velukkara Family Health Centre. Instead of confining nutrition advice to awareness classes, the health centre brought participants around a common table to prepare, portion and eat a healthy meal as part of its ‘Healthy Lunch – Healthy Plate’ initiative.
The programme, initiated by medical officer Rajesh K.U. and team, sought to demonstrate how a nutritious, balanced and affordable meal can be created from locally available ingredients — and how mindful portioning can be incorporated into everyday food habits.
The initiative is part of the health centre’s ongoing ‘Healthy Food Habit Promotion Initiative’, following the earlier ‘Healthy Snacks & Drinks’ programme. The latest programme seeks to take nutrition awareness beyond classrooms and lectures by allowing participants to experience the preparation and consumption of a balanced meal.
Participants worked in groups to prepare matta rice, sardine curry, pepper chicken, green gram-carrot-spinach thoran and aviyal made with locally available banana stem, colocasia stalk, spinach stem, beans and drumstick.
A colourful rainbow salad and pulissery complemented the meal, while guava and watermelon were portioned at 100 g each.
The rainbow salad plate. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The meal was arranged according to the healthy plate principle, with one-fourth of the plate comprising starch, one-fourth protein and half vegetables and fruits. Posters explaining the preparation methods and nutritional value of the dishes were also displayed.
The exercise offered participants an opportunity to understand not only what to eat but also how much to eat.
“The initiative assumes significance amid growing concerns over lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Awareness about nutrition becomes meaningful only when it translates into everyday food choices at home,” noted Health Inspector C. Prasad.
Velukkara grama panchayat president Sheeja Unnikrishnan, district panchayat member Jose Chittilappilly and panchayat vice-president P.V. Satheesan jointly inaugurated the programme by mixing the salad.
The programme also seeks to use health workers and ASHA workers as a bridge to take the message of healthy eating from the health centre to households and the wider community.
“Knowledge should become experience, experience should become action, and action should become a healthy habit,” is the message behind the initiative.
At Velukkara, therefore, the healthy plate was more than a lunch. It was a practical demonstration of how familiar, locally available food can be combined and portioned to make everyday eating healthier and more balanced.
