WHEN I was a young schoolgirl attending high school in Berbice for the first time, I got the shock and surprise when I entered the canteen with my other school girlfriends to know that it was normal here in Guyana to consume aerated beverages every lunch time or recess famously called “drinks” in Guyanese creole dialect.
I totally got the impression from the people here that they do not know better ways of keeping a healthy, balanced body of trying to stay away from sweet, coloured beverages to lessen the increase of diabetes that is so common in Guyana today and has even been the cause of deaths and amputated body parts in the previous years.
In contrast to the elementary school named Corsair in Canada that I was attending, I can recall when I was a little “Goldie Locks” growing up in the school there and others in North America, do not allow you to consume aerated beverages during lunch or recess because the teachers and lunch supervisors know via common sense that it is not good for you.
We were offered on the trays of a cart these items: milk, chocolate milk, fruit punch and orange juice, which were at a cheap cost of 50 cents and 25 cents respectively. Can you not see the “Big Difference” here? It is so evident that good quality nutrition is being practised overseas and not here. No wonder this was like throwing a bombshell towards me! The canteens here sell fatty fried foods like: fried rice, egg balls etc. that should be replaced or added with sandwiches, fruit and veggie salads etc.
Even our cool local juices like: mauby, sorrel, passion fruit, etc. are being cast aside and “drinks” are used instead. The schools in foreign lands do not promote this “canteen” idea because they want you to bring a healthy lunch to school. I am talking about all the levels here: kindergarten, elementary, junior high, secondary, and even at university level.
Ok, I know we have the cafeteria there but the lunch supervisors ensure you bring something healthy to school and even pass ugly remarks at you if they see you having “Chips and a can of Pop” for lunch which is something absurdly normal here. The consequences of drinking aerated beverages, is that it leaves you short and does not promote growth and if it does, it makes you grow sideways not upwards. Don’t you see why babies are so healthy? It’s all because of the fresh milk they consume. Milk is such an important nutritious substance with its vitamins and minerals, protein and energy that it gives our bodies and should be consumed at an early age to promote growth, strong teeth and firm bones and should be advocated for use in schools  and at a cheaper cost. The University of Guyana in Berbice canteen sells chocolate milk and other flavours in plastic bottles and in small cardboard boxes at a very expensive rate of $300 and around that price bracket. Why is it that it always has to be sweet,flavoured milk in Guyana instead of it being plain? If it were made locally, pasteurised milk in bottles would have been cheaper, but this idea I had was already established once, which I got to know of from a friend at UG.
He told me a Guyanese man came back from overseas to invent the idea here of promoting healthy living standards and ventured out in pioneering with this pasteurisation processing machine plant in New Amsterdam, Berbice, which would serve the country with sanitized, delicious milk in a variety of percentages of fat including skimmed milk for locals and if it were supported well it would have grown to a large market throughout the country. That would have stretched the lengths to even our neighbouring countries that would have: promoted healthy living, created large employment, and more revenue for the country by creating external markets in other countries in South America.
The next person in line who plans to indulge in this kind of idea again should collaborate with government or other private sector businessmen in order to strengthen the idea and make it survive. It is a very good idea and must be supported for a better Guyana overall. At last I must say parents out there please encourage your kids to drink milk for it is good for them and their health. Parents, can’t you remember the quality nutrition which was practiced when growing up under the then PPP government school feeding programme which offered free milk and vitaminised biscuits at recess, so what’s wrong with doing so now? I believe the Ministries of Health, Education and Agriculture should look into this ongoing issue and resolve it to build our children who are our leaders of tomorrow.