The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

A local certified health coach is commending the government for its decision to ban sugary drinks at public healthcare facilities and schools as of December 1. She also hopes the Ministry of Health takes it a step further by replacing the sugary drink options with fresh, nutritious juices that have health benefits.

Ellen Key-Cepeda is the founder of the Nassau-based Eat Me Skinny, a company created to help curb obesity in the Bahamas.

The government initially considered a sugary drinks tax, but this was trumped by a ban that had been planned for October 1. Due to Hurricane Dorian, the ministry made the decision to delay the ban.

With one in seven of the population suffering from diabetes among other non-communicable diseases, Minister of Health Dr Duane Sands suggested the ban should have come much sooner as tell-tale signs of an unhealthy nation are everywhere.

“It’s great that our government has moved in the direction of removing sugary drinks from healthcare facilities and public schools. Having these unhealthy drinks in facilities where people need healing is just counterintuitive and counterproductive. We also need to guard our children from these addictive and unhealthy drinks,” Mrs Key-Cepeda told Tribune Health.

Keeping in mind that the Bahamas also the most obese country in the Caribbean, according to data from the World Population Review (WPR), Mrs Key-Cepeda said she will launch her ‘Swap it Out” campaign next month to encourage individuals to replace one meal with a fresh, nutrient-rich, cold-pressed juice. The programme will be run January 20 – 26, 2020.

Cold-pressed juices are made with a special juicer that uses a hydraulic press and slow pulveriser to juice the fruits and veggies. Cold-pressed juices, she explained, protect and preserve the nutrients of the fruits and vegetables. Since the cold press juicer presses the produce to extract the juice, no heat is involved.

“There is a major difference between our fresh, nutrient-dense, unpasteurized juices and the sugary, mainly-fruit juices you find in the vending machines, food stores and for sale to the Bahamian people. Our fresh juices on the other hand are mainly vegetable juices and we use fruit only minimally to make the juices more palatable. This makes our juices have a much lower glycemic index which is ultimately much better for you.

Juices produced by her company, she said, provide much-needed and easily-digested nutrients for the body.

“Other sugary juices can spike blood sugar, and due of the pasteurisation process, have no live enzymes and very little actual nutrition left in them. This constant spike in blood sugar can eventually lead to things like insulin resistance and diabetes among other things,” said Mrs Key-Cepeda.

“Having fresh and healthy juices for sale where people are ill, and in schools where our youth are, would be an amazing step. I have found nothing to be more healing than our fresh cold-pressed juices. They can help so many things, including blood pressure, migraines, weight loss, skin issues, and more. It should be noted that people with compromised immune systems and pregnant women are advised not to consume unpasteurized juice. Most people though, would benefit greatly by incorporating even a few juices a week into their diet.”

The upcoming campaign, Mrs Key-Cepeda, said will show people the ease of making healthy amendments to one’s diet with just one cold-pressed juice a day.

“It’s seven days, seven juices and you literally swap out one meal a day of your choosing with one of our 16oz cold-pressed juices. We want to let people know that making these small lifestyle changes can really add up long term.”

Embarking on a juice cleanse by replacing meals with nutrient-dense and strategically-formulated juices for a period of time can have great benefits to one’s body, she explained. Reducing toxic build-up in the body is just one of them.

“A juice cleanse allows your body to take a much-needed break from constant digestion and gives it access to readily-available nutrition. Less digestion signals the body to rest and focus on healing anything else that may be going on in the body. A juice cleanse also helps your body to both release toxins and carry them safely out of the body using the nutrition available in the juices themselves,” she said.

Eat Me Skinny was launched in 2017 by Mrs Key-Cepeda, a mother and entrepreneur, who has a passion for healthy living and wants to ignite that same fire in others.