Africa-Press – Botswana. Promoting a healthy lifestyle is a community effort that should start from the home, says Family Medical Physician, Dr Kelly Champane.
Speaking at Kgale View Family Fitness Day in Gaborone on July 22, Dr Champane said healthy living was not only physical, but also mental, and as such it was important to teach a child good health practices so that they grow into adults with critical health practice skills.
She said children copied parents and friends, which then influenced their behaviour, making it important for parents to have good health practices that children can copy.
She said traditional foods such as bogobe and morogo were healthy and the elderly lived long to reach 95 years of age because of such healthy diet.
According to World Health Organisation, there were five principles of good health which hinged on regular physical activity of 30 minutes three times a week.
Dr Champane said exercising for a short period and stopping after weight loss was not healthy, because it was supposed to be a sustainable habit.
She added that exercises such swimming and jogging promoted healthy hearts and sustenance was effective when done out of love.
She said healthy eating should mean balanced diet in small portions against fatty foods, large portions of carbohydrates against small protein portions.
She said life was about 80/20 living, as once in a while eating takeaway foods was fine.
She said drinking two to three litres of water was recommended, adding that alcohol intake be limited to one standard drink per day.
She said smoking attracted a number of illnesses as people grew older.
She urged people to stop smoking as there was no minimal amount of recommended smoking, as one cigarette a day was considered unsafe.
Kgale View’s Cllr Oduetse Tautona said they would mobilise the community for self-reliance, promote individual responsibility for one’s health, empower individuals, families and the community on health related issues such as communicable and non-communicable diseases as well as to increase access to health.
Cllr Tautona, also the deputy mayor of Gaborone, said men feared to seek medical assistance which compromise their bodies to fight off diseases.
Mr Oduetse added that mindset change was important especially for men who mostly perpetrated Gender Based Violence.
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