Nutritionists promote low salt and tasty home-cooked recipes

By MSV On Oct 31, 2021

COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Medical Nutrition Association hosted the finals of the National Low Salt Cooking Challenge-2021 at the Galle Face Hotel under the patronage of Mrs. Shiranthi Rajapaksa.

The Sri Lanka Medical Nutrition Association has organized this competition in alignment with this year theme ‘More Flavor, Less Salt’ published by WASSH (World Action on Salt, Sugar and Health) to engage and sensitize citizens to reduce amount of salt in home-cooked foods.

World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry of Health-Sri Lanka guided the event with the assistance of Sri Lanka’s professional chef’s organizations.

The first round of the competition featured 40 teams of three members each.

Out of that five teams were selected for the finals.

Dr. Renuka Jayatissa — Consultant Medical Nutritionist and president of the Sri Lanka Medical Nutrition Association, welcomed Mrs. Shiranthi Rajapaksa to the event.

Salt is an essential ingredient for both food and health. However, excess consumption of salt leads to increased chances of high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease and stroke. The World Health Organization recommends less than 5 grams of salt intake in a day.

The competition was organized to educate the food and culinary professionals as well as the general public about the importance of a low salt diet.

It was a great opportunity for aspiring chefs and nutritionists and to the general public to prepare different types of healthy, wholesome, appealing, low-salt meals.

Since most salt consumption comes from home cooked foods, it is also a great challenge for the chefs and nutritionists to develop low salt and tasty home-cooked recipes which can be adapted by the general public.

Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva — secretary to the State Ministry of Primary Health Services, Pandemics and Covid-19 Prevention, representatives from the Sri Lanka Medical Nutrition Association, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) were also present at the event.