Promoting healthy diets

[Guest guest]

Just for your information... EU is changing...

 

 

ys, Mukunda's

 

17/11/2006, new orientation of EU

 

Promoting healthy diets: Commission-funded programme wins WHO Counteracting

Obesity Award

 

 

A project to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables, financed

by the European Commission to the tune of €600,000, has just won a major

international award. The Irish "Food Dude" campaign won a World Health

Organisation Counteracting Obesity Award 2006. The award was presented by

Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou during the

WHO European Ministerial Conference on Counteracting Obesity being held from

15 to 17 November 2006 in Istanbul. The initiative, which is one of the 146

commitments made to the Commission's Platform for Action on Diet Physical

Activity and Health, was praised by Commissioner Kyprianou as "an innovative

approach to promoting a healthy and balanced diet among children". The

three-year programme was singled out for its success in promoting "fruit and

vegetable consumption in a way that changes children's behaviour for the

better on a permanent basis while ensuring the availability of the promoted

product". This is just one of a number of EU co-financed agricultural

promotion projects aimed at boosting healthy eating, at a time when Europe

faces a growing problem of obesity, particularly among the young. The award

comes as the Commission finalises its proposals to reform the way it

supports fruit and vegetable growers across the EU. Better promotion of

fruit and vegetables to stimulate consumption will be a major cornerstone of

the reform, due to be unveiled on 24 January. Mariann Fischer Boel,

Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said: "This is an

excellent example of how our promotion efforts can make a real difference to

the long-term health of our citizens. It's just the sort of thing I want to

build on when we make our proposals to reform our fruit and vegetable

market."