Review of nutrition and dietary services Ministry of Health Barbados.Part 1: report on hospital dietary services

States that the review of hospital dietary services was undertaken to effect greater coordination and implementation of common standards of management and operation in order to utilize the present resources more effectively. Outlines the methodology adopted: preliminary visits to hospitals, followed by questionaires seeking information in the areas of organization, personnel, operational, therapeutic and nutrition service, and financial, managenment, education services and physical facilities. Recommendations presented under the different areas include: appointment of a professionally qualified dietician with advanced training in food service management to coordinate all dietary services, development of a new production and food service centre adequately equipped, standardized meal planning for all hospitals and education and training for patients and those assigned to the department.(AU)

Nutrition education for feeding the weaning age group: Grenada and St. Christopher-Nevis

The project identified economic conditions as family income and expenditure on food, availability of commercial infant foods, cultural beliefs, inadequacy of time and other social measures, the quality of guidance given by community workers, and the influence of elders as factors influencing young child feeding practices. Educational measures adopted to cope with the problem included: development of educational package for all involved in taking care of children, training in demonstration techniques and pre-testing of material, adaptation and use of appropriate techniques in home food preservation, preparation and storage of foods suitable for the age group, using Caribbean growth chart to monitor the child's health and nutritional status and developing drama for stage and radio for, outreach and developing a modular learning kit for community worker. (AU)

Nutritional needs, food availability and the realism of self-sufficiency

This paper analyses the nutritional problems of the Caribbean region and points to the causal factor as being not an insufficiency in food availability but inequity in its distribution, associated with income inequalities and injudicious food choices both in quantity and quality in relation to nutritional requirements. There is however, an associated food availability problem relating to the high dependence on imports to meet basic energy and protein requirements. It is suggested that these problems of food and nutrition could be solved by implementing unified multisectoral food and nutrition programmes which seek to address the problem of dependence through greater regional self-sufficiency. However, even with the best efforts there would remain significant shortfalls particularly in legumes, vegetables and cereals at the turn of the twentieth century

Health for all - nutritional aspects

This paper examines the relationship between nutrition and health and discusses the implications of recession for nutrition in relation to supply and demand conditions as well as income and price levels. Proposals for addressing the food and nutrition problems are offered and measures to be adopted both at a national level and the family level are discussed