Brasília, February 17, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - To improve the quality and nutritional value of school lunches, the government wants to encourage a new practice, exploiting the potential of each region to feed its students. Among the items on the menu is fish, high in nutritional value and low in caloric content. The predominant fat in fish is the unsaturated kind, the so-called Omega-3, which prevents heart disease.
Fish also possesses high quality proteins, sources of amino acids, fundamental for the growth and development of children, and tryptophan, essential to blood formation.
Fish is rich as well in vitamin B, responsible for various functions in the organism, and vitamins A and D, important in the formation and utilization of calcium.
Fish also contains minerals such as phosphorus, copper, magnesium, and iron, in addition to iodine, noteworthy for its role in the prevention of thyroid swelling, or goiter.
According to Dr. Railda Tuma, nutritionist at the Federal University of Pará, there is scientific proof that fish is a functional food, and it is regarded by physicians as very important in the protection of individual health. She recalls that studies show that among populations in which fish consumption is high, such as the Japonese and Eskimos, the cardiovascular disease rate is minimal.
Taking advantage of fish's infinite properties and the region's productive potential, around 900 students in a school in Rondônia already have fish on their school lunch menu. According to Dr. Tuma, if a school-age child consumes a 100-150 gram portion of fish every day, a series of diseases will be prevented.
"The Brazilian coast has a much greater fish production potential than Argentina or Japan, but much less is consumed than in those two countries." She attributes this fact to the lack of policies to stimulate consumption.
Tuma says that to stimulate more fish consumption in Brazil, a cultural change is needed. In her view, the competition between fast food propaganda and a healthful food like fish is unfair, because fast food propaganda is very seductive, making it difficult to sell people on fish. "The media offer fried potatoes to adolescents and children in a distorted manner, so, for cultural reasons, consumption of these products tends to grow."
Concerned about the growing number of obese children and adolescents who eat sandwiches, and putting the region's potential to good use, the Federal University of Pará is developing a fishburger, which is easier to sell than fish stew, for example, in the battle to conquer the preferences of these adolescents.
The nutritionist recalls that this initiative merely lessens the harm inflicted on people's health by food high in caloric content, rich in carbohydrates, and devoid of nutritional value. The ideal approach would be to develop policies and campaigns to stimulate fish consumption on a grand scale, demonstrating the health benefits this will entail. (DAS)
