Beverages and desserts. A variety of fruit bever-
ages are often served in the Caribbean. Beverages
includegreen teaand ‘‘bush tea,’’ served sweetened
with sugar or honey, with or without milk. Bush tea is
an infusion of tropical shrubs, grasses, and leaves that
has a number of medicinal uses. People drink it as a
remedy for gas, the common cold, asthma, high blood
pressure, fever, and other ailments. Sweetened com-
mercial drinks made from carrot, beet, guava, tamar-
ind, and other fruits and vegetables are also popular.
A number of fermented drinks are also popular.
Garapina is made from pineapple peelings, while
maubyis made from the bark of the mauby tree.
Grated ginger is used to produce ginger beer.Horlicks
is a malted milk made with barley.
Fruit is eaten anytime of the day, but is not con-
sidered a dessert unless prepared in a fruit salad or
some other form. Coconut and banana form the basis
for many desserts. A sweet pudding that goes by many
names (e.g., duckunoo, blue drawers, pain me, pai-
mee, and konkee) is made from grated banana, plan-
tain, or sweet potato, which is then sugared, spiced,
and mixed with coconut milk or grated coconut, and
then wrapped in banana leaves and boiled in spiced
water. A prepared sweet pone (pudding) cake or pie is
a popular dessert. Black fruitcake, made from dried
fruits soaked in wine, is popular at Christmas time,
and is also used for weddings and other celebrations.
BenefitsInnovative Programs
Due to insufficient resources and less than adequate
planning, the school feeding programs on most of the
islands exhibit many shortcomings. However, on the
island of Dominica, where a self-help initiative involving
the parents was introduced, the eating habits of school-
aged children improved and the parents and commun-
ities adopted many of the program’s menus and prepa-
ration methods. As a result, school attendance increased
and the attention span of the children in class improved.
School nutrition programs need constant moni-
toring to improve the nutritional status of the children
involved. Furthermore, a good nutrition promotion
campaign must be designed to educate and promote a
healthy lifestyle for the population at large.
The Caribbean region has the tremendous task of
putting in place appropriate policies, plans, and pro-
grams to address the changing health and disease pat-
terns of the region’s people. This effort is made more
difficult because of the socioeconomic, political, and
cultural differences among the Caribbean countries.
The various countries must not only examine the food
availability and how it is consumed, but they must also
assess and evaluate the quality of the food and the
nutrition intake of those most at risk.
The Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute
(CFNI), established in 1967, aims to improve the
food and nutrition status in member countries, which
include Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bel-
ize, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dom-
inica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat,
St. Christopher-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname,
Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
The governments of the Caribbean have come
together under an initiative called Caribbean Cooper-
ation in Health. They hope to work closely together
through five types of activities: service, education
training, providing information, coordination, and
research. The food goals of each country must be
analyzed, with care and attention paid to the agricul-
tural policies and economic opportunities in each spe-
cific country.Forming Healthy Communities
Desiring a longer and richer quality of life, many
governments of the Caribbean Islands have introduced
programs to combat chronic diseases and promote a
more physically active lifestyle. For example, in Gre-
nada, a campaign to ‘‘grow what you eat and eat what
you grow’’ demonstrates a move to increase consump-
tion of local foods.
Adequate nutrition cannot be achieved without
the consumption of sufficient foods containing a
wide array of nutrients. Poor health status, whether
as a result of insufficient food intake, overconsump-
tion, or nutrition imbalance, threatens longevity and
increases health care costs. The challenge is to improve
the availability of nutritious foods and the eating hab-
its of the varied population.Risks
Health Issues
In the Caribbean region, nutrition-related chronic
diseases are common, threatening the well-being of the
people of the islands. In the 1950s, the governments of
the Caribbean were concerned about the malnutrition
that permeated the region. They were able to increase
the protein and calorie needs by making meat,fats,
oils, and refined sugar more available. The health and
nutrition initiatives introduced helped curbed the mal-
nutrition, but new and related health and nutrition
problems began to emerge.Caribbean Islander diet