National Nutrition Week (NNW) takes place from 9 to 15 October every year. This year the theme is "Love your beans – eat dry beans, peas and lentils!", which was specifically chosen to be consistent with the designation of 2016 as the International Year of Pulses by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Click here for the fact sheet below by Ms Irene Labuschagne, a dietitian at the Nutrition Information Centre at Stellenbosch University (NICUS), with information about the benefits of including pulses in your diet as an affordable and healthy solution and recommendations and practical hints on why and how you can include pulses in your diet to benefit your health.

Food choices – a daily challenge for moms

In a recent research study two researchers from Stellenbosch University (SU) found that mothers in Cape Town with primary school children face a daily challenge in making food choices that will teach their children healthy eating habits and reduce the risk of disease later in life.

Mothers of young children have a primary influence on and control over the food their children eat and have access to. Their role is fundamental in promoting healthy lifestyle behaviour in children. "Dietary habits, including healthy food choices acquired during childhood, often persist into adulthood and lay the foundation for adult health and quality of life," said Ms Yolande Smit, a lecturer in Human Nutrition at SU's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS).

Smit and her colleague, Ms Nelene Koen, also a lecturer in Human Nutrition, investigated the factors that influence the food choices of these mothers. They found that mothers are challenged daily when making food choices, having to consider multiple factors such as the price, taste, children's preferences and nutritional value of products. In addition time constraints, family preference and peer pressure from their children's friends complicate food choice even more.

According to Koen, mothers who participated in this study had fairly good nutrition knowledge, but they found it difficult to translate knowledge into practice due to certain challenges. "Mothers were concerned about the high cost of healthy food, which prevented them from purchasing these items."

She explained that during focus group discussions mothers expressed a need for a more supportive environment to assist them with making healthy food choices the easiest choice. Barriers discussed included the lay-out of the supermarkets and mixed messages from the media and the school environment. It is therefore evident that the food environment can play an important role in supporting mothers to make healthier food choices.

Furthermore, working mothers in this study explained that busy work and family schedules led to a greater reliance on convenience food or fast foods. These options are usually higher in fat, sugar and salt when compared to home cooked meals. This trend also substitutes the traditional role of the mother to prepare healthy homemade meals and may impact negatively on child health and dietary habits.

Although the home environment is a logical platform in which to foster healthy eating habits, studies have shown that food choices are complex and influenced by several factors including nutrition knowledge, socio-economic status, cost, taste, children's preferences and culture. These factors ultimately impact on the food that is available at home.

This research further emphasizes the importance of ongoing nutrition education for and support of mothers in order for them to promote healthy lifestyle behaviour in their children. "There is a need for support with the practical implementation of mothers' existing nutrition knowledge. A further need that was highlighted was healthier convenience food options for working mothers," Koen said.

Doctors, health professionals and magazines were listed as the main sources of nutrition information for this group of mothers. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the correct nutrition messages are conveyed to the public through such sources.

Smit explained that it is important to study eating habits of young children to be able to advise healthcare practitioners, policy makers and government. Childhood obesity, a risk factor for non-communicable diseases such as Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease, often tracks into adulthood and is associated with growing up in an obesogenic environment (an environment that promotes gaining weight and one that is not conducive to weight loss).

"South Africa exhibits a double burden of disease profile of under-nutrition in the midst of a growing obesity epidemic. This public health profile is also evident among young children," she said.

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