Cooking Series To Launch: ‘Marinate On That’

Good Afternoon,

I am pleased to be here today with cooking expert Joe Gibbons to launch Marinate on That – a fun and informative cooking series to aid our people in making healthy meal choices that are low in calories and big in flavor!

This is a joint initiative between the Department of Health and the Department of Communications and Information and other community members who saw the value of producing healthy cooking demonstrations for our residents.

The goal of this show is to demonstrate tasty, healthy, inexpensive and culturally relevant recipes that can be recreated easily at home.

Combating obesity is Bermuda’s number one strategy in addressing the high levels of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes that continue to plague our island at alarming rates. These health concerns may be addressed with some fairly simple lifestyle interventions including healthy eating and exercise.

However, it seems that while Bermudians’ nutritional knowledge of healthy eating is quite good, it has not translated into practice. This is evidenced by the Nutrition Screening Surveys of 2006-2008 which showed that residents’ intake of fruit, vegetables and calcium rich foods were low while knowledge of the health benefits was high.

Furthermore, the Bermudian Household Expenditure 2004 study showed that expenditure on fruit, vegetable, and calcium rich foods is low while expenditure on convenience food is high.

In fact the 2011 Fruit and Vegetable Survey revealed that only two out of ten persons in Bermuda consume the minimum of five servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

Of further concern was the fact that the 2010 Nutrition Month Challenge “Feeding a Family on a Budget” resulted in only one successful applicant.

The results suggest that many Bermudians require instruction in the skills involved with menu planning, food budgeting, and healthy cooking – all of which are covered in this show.

This initiative will support our new Bermuda Daily Dietary Guidelines, which were launched this March, by demonstrating how easy it can be to incorporate vegetables, lean meats, and legumes into a meal which is attractive, tastes great and is economical.

The dietary guidelines are located at: www.health.gov.bm as well as the www.eatwellbermuda.org website.

The Department of Health has produced DVD copies of the first show in the Marinate on That series and will shortly distribute them at no cost to governmental and non-governmental agencies for educational purposes.

This initial DVD will be handed out to Middle Schools and Senior Schools, and the Department of Health will advise schools in the coming months where and how to access future episodes via YouTube and, if a school requests a hard copy, make that available.

This is the first show that has been produced in the series and the number of further segments that are created depends on public response.

The video is currently on the DOH website www.health.gov.bm as well as on YouTube.

In closing I would like to personally thank Mr. Gibbons for agreeing to host this show. Joe is a well-known TV Chef who has been involved in the culinary field for almost 20 years and has always had a keen interest in Bermuda cuisine, coaching, and educating the public about healthy eating.

From 1997 to 2008 Joe was a food writer and Critic with RG Magazine and from 2000-2004 he co-produced Cooking With Friends, a Bermuda TV series.

Joe has a Diploma degree in Classical French Cuisine and Technique, a degree in Culinary Arts and has achieved Certification as a CC (Certified Chef).

So thank you Joe for partnering with us on this worthy venture.

I will now take any questions which you might have.

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