This work from CEDAR describes seasonal variation in physical activity, exploring related behaviours, and investigating strategies to help
children maintain their activity all year round (2016).
There is so much more to food than eating and I enjoy learning about different traditions and people’s beliefs around food. I have a wonderful friend, Mary, who is close to 100 years old and she is willing to share her perspective on food at Easter from her own upbringing. I appreciate these are her individual stories and others will have different perspectives, but I thought you may like to hear an elderly individual’s perspective of Easter food traditions.
Mary tells me in her family celebrating Easter is most often associated with the Christian faith and most of the history she was brought up believing about food at Easter comes from this perspective.
Below is Mary’s story.
“For Christians, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts for 40 days. Traditionally people give up certain foods or behaviour during this time. Eggs, butter, milk, meat and cheese were common foods people didn’t eat during this period. I was married during Lent and the church I was married in wasn’t able to have flowers due to Lent.
Most families were large and Mum was a great cook. The foods I remember beginning associated with Easter includes eggs, hot cross buns and other breads, as well as roast lamb and Simnel cake.
Eggs symbolise new life and Christians believe eggs represent the tomb that Jesus was buried after his crucifixion. As eggs were not eaten for 40 days leading up to Easter, they were one of the first foods to be celebrated again. Boiled eggs where commonly eaten for breakfast and in the modern world chocolate eggs are now promoted and commonly associated with Easter celebrations. I remember eating chocolate filled with sugared almonds and decorated with marzipan paste flowers. Marzipan paste is made with ground almonds and sugar. It’s the same as almond icing on the inside layer of a Christmas cake.
Hot cross buns are well known in New Zealand, appearing in supermarkets well before Easter. Traditionally these were eaten only on Good Friday as the cross is a symbol of the crucifixion. It was common to split the buns in half and share the half with a close friend or relative. Sharing the buns was thought to strengthen the bond between the two people.
Bread was also a feature of food eaten at Easter as it has a strong link to Christian religious ceremonies representing the body of Christ and was served at the Last Supper. Bread was commonly made during Easter weekend and usually had eggs on top. A European friend used to eat pretzels as the shape of them represents the crossing of arms during prayer. These were usually flour and water dough shaped into a loop as they couldn’t be made with any items people avoided during lent.
Easter Sunday lunch is traditionally a Passover meal of roast lamb with gravy and a selection of roast vegetables celebrated around the table following the attendance of church. Lamb is referenced in several Christian stories and is eaten at Easter as lamb symbolises Jesus being the sacrificial lamb of God.
Easter supper always included a fruit cake with marzipan icing in the middle as well as on the top, this is known as a Simnel cake. Some people decorated this with 11 marzipan balls. These represented the 12 apostles (minus Judas who wasn’t there as he had betrayed Christ). This cake was sometimes also made to celebrate Mother’s Day, but I think that’s because it was mothers’ favorite cake rather than a common tradition.
Mother also made Easter cakes which I describe as rock cakes and were more like biscuits and were spicy and fruity with a similar flavour to hot cross buns.”
Article by Alison Pask, ANA, 8 April 2020
Alison’s Note: I enjoyed learning Mary’s story and welcome other stories sharing different viewpoints related to food and culture. These can be emailed to [email protected]
Cow’s milk is under siege from alternative kinds of milk including soy, oat, almond, coconut, rice and many others. This article looks at how these challenger milks stack up against cow’s milk.
This working paper provides a framework for designing, developing and implementing food policies/programmes in New Zealand schools (2013).
This practical resource has been developed by Regional Public Health to assist workplaces to implement a health and wellness programme (2012).
People can reduce their risk of dementia by getting regular exercise, not smoking, avoiding harmful use of alcohol, controlling their weight, eating a healthy diet, and maintaining healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, according to new guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“In the next 30 years, the number of people with dementia is expected to triple,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We need to do everything we can to reduce our risk of dementia. The scientific evidence gathered for these Guidelines confirm what we have suspected for some time, that what is good for our heart, is also good for our brain.”
The Guidelines provide the knowledge base for health-care providers to advise patients on what they can do to help prevent cognitive decline and dementia. They will also be useful for governments, policy-makers and planning authorities to guide them in developing policy and designing programmes that encourage healthy lifestyles.
The reduction of risk factors for dementia is one of several areas of action included in WHO’s Global action plan for the public health response to dementia. Other areas include: strengthening information systems for dementia; diagnosis, treatment and care; supporting carers of people with dementia; and research and innovation.
WHO’s Global Dementia Observatory, launched in December 2017, is a compilation of information about country activities and resources for dementia, such as national plans, dementia-friendly initiatives, awareness campaigns and facilities for care. Data from 21 countries, including Bangladesh, Chile, France, Japan, Jordan and Togo, have already been included, with a total of 80 countries now engaged in providing data.
Creating national policies and plans for dementia are among WHO’s key recommendations for countries in their efforts to manage this growing health challenge. During 2018, WHO provided support to countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Qatar, Slovenia and Sri Lanka to help them develop a comprehensive, multi-sectoral public health response to dementia.
An essential element of every national dementia plan is support for carers of people with dementia, said Dr Dévora Kestel, Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at WHO. “Dementia carers are very often family members who need to make considerable adjustments to their family and professional lives to care for their loved ones. This is why WHO created iSupport. iSupport is an online training programme providing carers of people with dementia with advice on overall management of care, dealing with behaviour changes and how to look after their own health.”
iSupport is currently being used in eight countries, with more expected to follow.
Dementia: a rapidly growing public health problem
Dementia is an illness characterized by a deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from normal ageing. It affects memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language and judgement. Dementia results from a variety of diseases and injuries that affect the brain, such as Alzheimer disease or stroke.
Dementia is a rapidly growing public health problem affecting around 50 million people globally. There are nearly 10 million new cases every year. Dementia is a major cause of disability and dependency among older people. Additionally, the disease inflicts a heavy economic burden on societies as a whole, with the costs of caring for people with dementia estimated to rise to US$ 2 trillion annually by 2030.
Press release provided by WHO 14 May 2019
Read the report here