Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Free African and African-Caribbean community healthy eating event in Chapeltown, Leeds
The event takes place at Roscoe Methodist Church Hall in Chapeltown from 9.30am – 1.30pm, and is open to all. It is supported by the Feel Good Factor charity, based in Chapeltown, Heart Research UK and LeedsACTS!
Central to the event will be a range of new healthy eating recipes, based on traditional African and African-Caribbean dishes, which have been created in collaboration with members of the local Caribbean community in Chapeltown. Dishes will be available to sample – with free recipe cards to take home.
Doctors will be available to offer health checks and advice. Academics and students from both universities, and health coaches will deliver talks on subjects including: healthy eating, cancer, diabetes, mental health, and physical activities. Free health screenings will be on offer - including body mass index and waist measurements, and blood pressure and cholesterol checks There will also be fun healthy eating and physical activities for both children and adults.
Dr Tanefa Apekey, Reader in Nutrition at Leeds Beckett University, led the healthy eating recipe project, which was funded by Leeds City Council and Leeds Beckett University. She explained: “The wealth of free resources available to the public around healthy eating and nutrition include very few traditional African and Caribbean foods. This makes it difficult for dietitians, nutritionists, and GPs to support people from these population groups to improve their health and wellbeing. It can also be hard to engage people when the available resources do not reflect what they eat at home.”
Dr Apekey collaborated with Dr Sally Moore, Lecturer in Nutritional Science at the University of Leeds, student volunteers from both universities, and Feel Good Factor’s service users of African-Caribbean ethnicity in Leeds. They analysed the nutritional values of a range of traditional African-Caribbean foods.
The team of researchers and service users then created healthier versions of a variety of beverages, dishes and snacks – for example using less salt and lower fat ingredients.
Dr Apekey said: “We modified the recipes, using traditional ingredients, and then prepared them in the community and invited people to share their opinions and feedback. We then carried out several stages of further refinements and testing – taking on board the service users’ ideas, concerns and feedback.”
The British Dietetics Association recently called for action to diversify healthy eating advice currently available in the UK – and to better resource this area to support healthcare professionals and their communities. This work responds directly to this important need – bringing Leeds Beckett expertise directly to the local community to make an important difference in people’s lives.
The team have now produced a recipe card for each dish – freely available to access through the project website, on the FoodWise Leeds healthy eating recipe hub and in person from Feel Good Factor or Heart Research UK. They have also created videos of the recipe preparations to share with health professionals and the public.
The recipe cards each include an image, list of ingredients and cooking instructions, as well as nutritional information detailing calories, fat, carbohydrate, dietary fibre, protein, and salt content. Using the traffic light system, the meals have changed from amber or red to mostly green.
The team is now working with Leeds City Council in the development of the Leeds food strategy – with the aim of tackling food poverty and diet-related ill-health and increasing access to affordable healthy food. The researchers aim to instigate multi-ethnic foods provision in schools and hospitals based on their modified recipes. They also plan to develop a multi-ethnic healthy eating and weight loss app.