THE year 2021 has been designated International Year of Fruits and Vegetables by the United Nations General Assembly.  The main objective is to raise awareness of the importance of fruits and vegetables in human nutrition, food security and health.  Fruits and vegetables are good sources of dietary fibres, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that each adult should have a daily intake of 400 grams of fruit and vegetables which act as a preventative against such chronic diseases as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity as well as a counter to micronutrient deficiencies.
The Director of the FAO in Guyana, Dr Gillian Smith, explained what the impact of IYFV could be: “We are happy that the Government has embraced this observance and has launched a programme of activities which we are supporting.  We share the same views as Minister Mustapha that IYFV promotes diversified, healthy and balanced lifestyles through fruit and vegetable consumption, raise awareness of food safety issues, standards and guidelines for the production, handling, storage and processing of fruits and vegetables.”

She then gave some disturbing statistics about the young people in Guyana 18 years and above: “In Guyana obesity is a growing problem in the adolescent and adult population.  Approximately 41 percent of males and 56.5 percent of females 18 years and above are considered overweight.”
This spike in overweight and the generally ill-health which have been plaguing the society of recent years have been attributed to type and quality of our food intake.  Until about the 1970s at the time the country was suffering a serious economic downturn, the population generally consumed a largely vegetarian diet.

This dietary pattern, which persisted until the 1970s, obtained from the eras of plantation slavery and indentureship.  During slavery, the slaves were fed on plantains and ground provisions such as yams, eddoes and cassavas and once or twice per month were given a ration of meat protein consisting mainly of salted fish and salted pork.  Indentured labourers who after about 1860 became predominantly Indian, were vegetarian or semi-vegetarian and ate rice with various vegetables such as pumpkins, coconuts, squash, and a variety of other vegetables which retained their Hindi names since they were introduced by the Immigrants such as nenwa, ghingi, same, baigan and so on.  Overarching all these vegetables were various types of pulses known as “dhal” which supplied the protein content of their diet.  Certain fruits grew up uncultivated in the plantation “back dams” such as mangoes, jamoon, sapodillas, soursops, gooseberries and so on and these supplemented the diet of the plantation workers.

Then the diet of Guyanese went through a revolutionary change with the introduction of “junk food” from America which consisted of fried chicken, french fries, hamburgers, pizzas and other such foods which used a surfeit of sugar, salt and cheap cooking oils which rapidly replaced the older Guyanese diet of largely fruit and vegetables.  The universal use of these unhealthy junk foods is evidenced by the rapid establishment of fast food shops, many with American brand names.  These fast foods are sold with aerated sweet drinks which replaced lime, soursop, pineapple and other genuine fruit juice drinks.

The Guyanese diet could once again be returned to fruit, vegetables, with some fish and mostly white meat, coconut oil  and the use of genuine fruit juices if the following, among others, could be achieved:
At the Teachers Training College and in the primary schools, knowledge of the harmful effects of junk food as well as the great value to the health of diets of fruits and vegetables should be disseminated.

In the home economics classes in the schools and at the Carnegie School of Home Economics more vegetarian recipes should be used and the Ministry of Health and the Tourism Authority could persuade the restaurants to offer vegetarian menus and fruit.
In the yards of the city and countryside, two generations ago, fruit trees were always grown and these would include such common fruit as avocados, star apples, sapodillas, jamoon, guavas, soursops, mangoes and so on.

Those who had yard space would cultivate kitchen gardens and in the tenements, pots with peppers, ginger, tomatoes, herbs of various kinds and teas such as mint and lemongrass were grown. This culture needs to be revived and the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables could be a catalyst in this regard.