The programme Take a High Five for Life is a one day summer camp which aims to create awareness among children on the importance of a healthy diet and active lifestyle. Children aged 6-12 years take part in the event, learning the five steps to a healthy life.
1. Eat Healthy
Awareness of this first step is encouraged through an educational cooking demonstration.
2. Control Portions
A puppet show, using the six food groups, serves as a popular nutrition education tool. It illustrates how the food should be portioned onto your plate to maintain control over a healthy diet.
3. Be Active
An aerobic warm up session promotes the importance of physical activity.
4. Check Health
Children's weight and height is measured to calculate their BMi. In 2008, 888 children's BMI were measured, resulting in the following evaluation:
- 9% of the children screened were classified as being "at risk of overweight", while 18% of the children were within the "overweight" percentile.
- Collectively, the weight of 29% of the children screened was unhealthy respectively to their age. This represents more than 1/4 of the sample group.
- Finally, 9% of the children screened were underweight.
- Generally and based on this evaluation, girls showed better BMI indications than the boys did.
These results confirm the need for nutrition education to be addressed at a wider scale among children.
5. Be Happy
This final stage of the programme is most appreciated through game and play.