Gwen Liz scores big in nutrition quiz
It’s modelled after the highly successful Coca-Cola spelling bee…but while the format may be familiar, the National Nutrition Quiz sponsored by Belize Mills has the nation’s high schools digging deep, not for the right letter, but for solutions to a growing problem: poor nutrition.
Emcee
“We have third place going to Belize Adventist…we have second place going to Orange Walk Tech, and Gwen Lizarraga with one hundred and seventy points, wins.”
Jacqueline Woods
You girls did pretty outstanding; you did not miss a question. So that tells me the group studied really hard for this competition.”
Shenell Andrewin, Winner, ADM Nutrition Quiz
“Very hard. I think we deserved coming in first, because we burned the books everyday and every night, so we studied really, really, really hard.”
Nicole Leslie, Winner, ADM Nutrition Quiz
“Well first of all, we had a lot of practice with reading different papers, pamphlets, and other books. We also put in a lot of work by reading our food and nutrition textbook. We did a lot of research, and with the help of our teacher, Miss Dawn Gillette, she helped us prepare in the evenings. We usually stay from two-thirty when school is over until about seven, a quarter to seven, seven-thirty, on a daily basis. I think we worked hard enough to deserve what we did.”
The young women from Gwendolyn Lizarraga High in Belize City competed against other students from Cayo, Stann Creek, Toledo, Corozal, and Orange Walk. Each year secondary schools are encouraged to take part in the ADM Belize Mills National Nutrition Quiz Competition. According to HECOPAB’s Coordinator for the Central Health Region, there is a specific reason why they are targeting high school students.
Erika Goldson-McGregor, HECOPAB, Central Health Region
“We have a big problem in the country to in respect to healthy eating. And these students in secondary school will eventually become parents, so it’s important to provide the correct information for them, so when they become parents they can practice healthy eating within the home so we could have healthier young people in Belize.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Avalyn, I would imagine preparing yourself for this quiz you learnt a lot about eating healthy. Will you be changing any of your eating habits or have you actually be living a healthy lifestyle?”
Avalyn Brooks, Winner, ADM Nutrition Quiz
“Yes, I will change my eating habits, because as teenagers we like to snack on salty foods and fatty foods, and through this quiz we learn that from you’re small you could be over weight, and going into adolescence you could have that and different disorders like heart attacks and that just leads from you’re small to an older person.”
The competition was well attended and they all had fun cheering on their favourite team. The group got some very important information that may have them hesitating before biting into that next fry chicken. According to Health Minister Jose Coye, the simple fact is that too many Belizeans do not know the right foods to eat to remain healthy for life. Coye says according to a 1996 height census, fifteen percent of children suffer from growth retardation as a consequence of chronic malnutrition, and five percent suffer from Vitamin A deficiency. Coye encouraged the quiz organisers to continue with the effort for any real impact to be made on the nutrition situation in Belize.
Erika Goldson-McGregor
“We are greatly concern. If you look at the statistics you will find that a lot of our people are suffering from hypertension and diabetes, and these are chronic non-communicable diseases that relate to poor eating habits. So it’s very important for us to ensure that we change the behaviour of our population soon, so that we’ll have a healthier Belize many more years to come.”
Belize Adventist College from Corozal came in third, while Orange Walk Technical High School captured second place.
