'Have more conversations around healthy food'

In a move to create awareness on child nutrition and food, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and numerous other well-known personalities took to Facebook Live-Stream recently for a seven-hour cooking marathon. Oliver kickstarted the relay of live videos on his own Facebook page from the United Kingdom. It was followed by first six of nine other countries — Australia, India, USA, Kenya, Canada, Tanzania, Germany, Nigeria and Brazil hosting their own event throughout the day.

From India, chef Kunal Kapur along with Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandes joined Oliver’s Food Revolution campaign. “The aim was to encourage people to join us in a full-scale, global food revolution — a major part of which was to have more and more people putting pressure on their own governments to fight diet-related diseases,” said Kapur.

Emphasising on healthy, fresh and homemade food, Kapur said, “Food is such a thing that it gets everyone excited. It is just that now we need to have more conversations around healthy food. If problem is food, then the solution too lies in food.”

Focussing on easy and healthy recipes, the live cookout session witnessed the two preparing Sattu Parantha and omelette as part of the International Omellete Challenge. “I strongly support healthy cooking and eating. As a father myself, I understand the vital importance of good nutrition and a balanced diet to aid a child’s physical and mental development. I jumped at the chance to be involved in this worthwhile initiative. And I aspire to inculcate the habit of cooking amongst kids at an early age because that is how they will understand the importance of food and nutrition,” Kapur told Metrolife.

According to WHO, 41 million kids under five are obese or overweight worldwide. At the same time, another 212 million children are so undernourished they’re unable to grow properly.

 “Either children aren’t getting enough food or too much in certain parts. The ultimate aim of this live-stream marathon was to galvanise this new global community. This was a crucial event to help change the course of the world’s health for the better,” Kapur mentioned.

On the agenda of the campaign, Kapur said, “We wanted people to sign up for the campaign on social media (#foodrevolution) and ask their governments to make a new commitment this year to tackle under-nutrition, help to make 2016 a breakthrough year on child nutrition and ensure the presence of Indian leadership at the UN General Assembly in September.”