Hospital bans cakes for formal events

In a bid to raise awareness against non-communicable disease the Labasa Health Centre staff have pledged for “no cake cutting” during formal events organised by the hospital. Staff members set a good example to others, when they launched their Pinktober awareness campaign on Saturday,

Instead of having a cake to mark the launch, staff members put fruits on top of the table, where the chief guest sat.

Ministry of Health Divisional dietician Sainimere Vunibeci said the Labasa Health Centre staff members wanted to be role models to other organisations in Fiji.

“Generally, it is food that lacks nutrients, but is high in calories made up of fat and sugar. Or, as one researcher says, it’s food that isn’t represented in the healthy eating pyramid,” Ms Vunibeci said. Ms Vunibeci said there was a lot of impact of NCDs in the country, one of which was premature death.

“Low productivity, too much dependency on medicine, low quality of life and the loss of life very prematurely,” she said.

“Individuals are responsible for their own health and it needs to be promoted. “More and more people are losing their limbs and this is because of the uncontrolled blood pressure and uncontrolled sugar levels. “Sometimes patients reach our hospitals and there is little or no choice left and if they wanted to save their life, we had to cut off their limb and that is the reality of life. “So let us all become champions of healthy living and I’m sure that is achievable and let us promote self-discipline within ourselves to take down to our communities.”