There’s no quick recipe for getting Hongkongers to use less salt and sugar
Bernard Chan says efforts to persuade more people to eat healthily require patient work – and the best place to start is to educate children at a very early age
The Committee on the Reduction of Salt and Sugar in Food, which I chair, aims to encourage the community to adopt diets with less salt and sugar. We recently produced a number of recommendations for the government. They are based on the assumption that this public health issue requires long-term education and gradual changes in attitudes among the public and the food industry.
The recommendations cover several main areas. One is starting at an early age and getting the message about healthy eating to the young. And we do mean “young” – kindergarten and primary-level kids.
We also want to encourage transparency of information and overall awareness about salt and sugar levels. The idea is to help people to help themselves through such measures as better labelling for packaged food. And we hope to expand an initiative in public hospital cafeterias to inform diners of the calorie levels of different dishes. This means getting the food and catering industry involved.
Long-term change starts with the young. As well as teaching children about a healthy diet, schools are joining with health officials in a “Start Smart @ School” campaign. This recognises that the eating habits we learn at an early age can stay with us and affect our diet later in life.
6 hidden truths about sugar, and how it’s making us ill
This is aimed at pre-school kids and includes hands-on activities, like encouraging children and their parents to prepare meals with less salt and sugar. One of these events was a junior chefs’ cooking competition, which was a useful reminder that an educational campaign can be fun.