This year’s National Nutrition Week will put a fresh spin on the phrase being full of beans.

The theme for the week-long campaign is ‘Love Your Beans – Eat dry beans, peas and lentils’. Why beans, you may ask? What is in a bean, after all?

Beans are super healthy, versatile and affordable. They are high in antioxidants, fibre, protein, B vitamins, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper and zinc. Eating beans regularly may decrease the risk of diabetes, heart disease and colorectal cancer. If that is not enough to entice you to dig in, the added bonus is that they help with weight management for those watching their waistlines.

The theme for National Nutrition Week is in line with the 2016 International Year of Pulses: Nutritious Seeds for a Sustainable Future to promote the consumption of legumes. This is an integral part of the South African Food-based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs), also known as the Guidelines for Healthy Eating.

The Department of Basic Education, in partnership with Nestle South Africa, will celebrate National Nutrition Week in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape this week.

The department chose to celebrate the week at Makgane Primary School in Limpopo because of the food poisoning incident that happened at the school in 2015. There will also be strong focus on the safe and proper way of handling food.

The Limpopo leg of National Nutrition Week will take place on Tuesday, 11 October at Makgane Primary in Jane Furse. The event will be celebrated on Friday in the Eastern Cape at Zanengqele Junior Secondary School in Nkondlo village.

Nestle’s involvement in National Nutrition Week stems from its Healthy Kids programme, which contributes to the wellbeing of learners by promoting healthy lifestyles and physical education for learners, teachers and parents.

Nestle Group Public Affairs Executive, Motshidisi Mokwena, said the company is in full support of the department’s strategy on nutrition education at schools.

We believe that through our partnership, much can be achieved if we continue to creatively merge our nutrition programmes and endeavour to reach out to all our primary school learners in South Africa, said Mokwena on Monday.

Eating and playing for health

The department’s focus on National Nutrition Week is to promote healthy eating from a young age as a means of preventing non-communicable and lifestyle diseases.

During the week, learners will play games and participate in physical activities include basketball, soccer, netball, hoola hoop, skipping rope, volleyball and rumba dance.

There will also be a Young Chef demonstration, where learners will be taught about the different food groups.

Source: South African Government News Agency.