Emilija Nedanovska
St “Kliment Ohridski†University of Bitola, Macedonia
Title: Learning about the importance of healthy eating in prevention against obesity and nutrition-related chronic diseases
Biography
Biography: Emilija Nedanovska
Abstract
Nutrition and dietetics is relatively young science in Macedonia. The Faculty of Nutrition was open five years ago and it enabled the youth to enrich their knowledge in this field. Still there is a need the rest of the population to be informed about the healthy benefits of food. It is a responsibility of the nutritionists and their associations. According to that, every nutritionist should possess characteristics as communicability and creativity. In Macedonia, there is an Association of Nutritionists, but it exists relatively short period. This association conducted a research with 181 respondent between 11 and 21 year, that showed 84% of the respondents are informed about healthy food, but more often they chose fast food and processed snacks as a fast source of energy. One of the main obligations of the Association is to promote the healthy benefits of food, to inform the population the way unhealthy food causes chronic diseases and to offer healthy substitutes for unhealthy food. The activities of the Association are especially important because 60% of men and 47% of women over the age of 20 in our country have increased body weight and 20% of them are obese. For successful mission it is very important this Association to be supported from other significant groups, as government, physicians, etc. Mutual cooperation can lead to healthier lifestyle of the population with decreased chronic diseases and healthy youth which is very important for the future of our country.