|
Food experts head to Bradford's Sikh
gurdwaras
to teach healthier cooking
WSN Network
BRADFORD: It is part of a British Heart
Foundation (BHF) project to persuade South Asians living in the UK
to use spices and other ingredients instead of salt and ghee.
The heart charity is teaming up with the Food Standards Agency to
send in dieticians who will show volunteer cooks at the city's Sikh
Gurdwaras and Hindu Mandirs how to serve up healthy food on a large
scale to congregation members.
Dates are being fixed for the Bradford part of the project but a BHF
spokesman said: "Dieticians will be going in to about five or six of
the city's temples, there won't be a launch as such, they'll just be
getting on with giving out advice." Achhar Dharni, chairman of
trustees at Bradford's Hindu Cultural Society said: "That will be
very nice. I'm sure their help will be welcomed."
Information sessions will also be offered to congregation members in
English, Hindi and Punjabi looking at making healthy lifestyle
choices and how to understand food labelling.
Too much salt increases blood pressure and saturated fats like ghee
can shoot up cholesterol levels and can contribute to heart disease,
research has shown.
According to the BHF, 90 per cent of Indian, Pakistani and
Bangladeshi men and women say they add salt when cooking, compared
to 56 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women in the general UK
population.
Professor Jaspal Singh Kooner, Cardiologist and member of BHF's
Ethnic Strategy Committee, said: "The burden of heart disease on
South Asian communities is very worrying. It's great to see the BHF
embarking on innovative projects like this which can have a real
impact."
Dr Louis Levy at the FSA said: "Most of us are eating too much salt,
which is why the FSA has been running a national public health
campaign to encourage people to cut down."
As well as in Bradford, the heart charity's Healthier Social Cooking
project will run in London and Birmingham.
6 June, 2007
|
Read Also