The Live Healthy, Stay Healthy booklet is the latest addition to Fiji’s wellness movement in the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes and heart disease.
This follows the partnership between the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the National Food and Nutrition Centre to release a new resource which aims to inspire healthy Fijian lifestyles.
Live Healthy, Stay Healthy is unique and different from other health resources as it comes in the form of a ‘wellness challenge’.
The Hon. Minister for Health and Medical Services, Mr Jone Usamate said, “This booklet challenges people to eat two servings of fruit, three servings of vegetables and to be active for 30 minutes every day. There is also a health checklist for people to monitor their progress and the challenge empowers people to take charge of their personal health and wellness”.
“By striving towards these three challenges every day, people can lower their blood pressure and blood cholesterol, control their blood sugar and improve their fitness to help fight off and control diabetes and heart disease”.
Previous versions of Live Healthy, Stay Healthy have been distributed to complement the Ministry’s health screenings to great success. It included guides to show what, and how much people should be eating, healthy drink options, achieving calorie balance for a healthy weight, using heart friendly flavours. The latest version has lots of healthy additions including the Sit Less, Move More five week physical activity program, a mental well-being check and guides to quitting smoking and reducing alcohol intake.
The booklets will be distributed by health centres, nurses, dieticians and health work workers throughout the country to complement existing health screening and patient counselling services. The booklets can be used to help people reduce their risk factors for developing NCD’s as well as to help those people with diabetes and heart disease control their conditions.
The booklet focuses on promoting healthy eating and exercise as well as improving mental health and avoiding harmful substances such as tobacco and alcohol