?How to avoid food poisoning in summer
Despite awareness campaigns about food preservation conditions, especially those affected by summer heat and high humidity in coastal areas, several factors lead to rapid spoilage of various foodstuffs and foods, which explains the high incidence of food poisoning during this period.
Children are often most susceptible to such poisonings as they gorge themselves on fast food during the summer holidays.
According to nutritionists, food poisoning means “a group of symptoms that a person suffers from after eating certain foods or drinking water that contains viruses or bacterial toxins, which increases especially in the summer. Therefore, they advise avoiding eating outside the home and making sure to eat healthy food.”
Children are most susceptible to poisoning.
Children are often the most vulnerable to such poisonings , as they greedily consume ready-made food and sandwiches prepared on the streets, on beaches, or in shops that do not necessarily adhere to proper hygiene and storage conditions, which results in complications and inflammation in their digestive system, which cannot resist the bacteria and germs found in such foods.
Among these incidents, the Health Directorate of Setif State, east of Algeria, announced a few days ago that 30 cases of food poisoning had been recorded due to “ chapati ” meals from a local restaurant. The injured were taken to the hospital, including a child who remained in the hospital for 10 days due to the severity of his condition.
For its part, the authorities opened an investigation into the incident, calling on citizens to exercise caution when buying food from restaurants, and to go to the nearest health center if symptoms of poisoning appear.
Since the child's immune system remains threatened during the growth period, and in light of the many temptations in the summer, it is necessary to be careful and monitor what the child eats, while ensuring that his food is as healthy and balanced as possible, especially since he is at a stage in which his body needs all the essential nutritional elements to be completed properly.
Complete meals
Nutritionist Khadija Ben Allal confirms that there are many healthy snacks that we can offer to children during the hot season, and they depend on all types of foods and nutrients, including vegetables, meat, eggs, cheeses, nuts, legumes, and important nutrients for the child’s growth.
She stated that four to five meals should be taken during the day, depending on the child’s age. The younger the child, the greater the number of meals.
Starting from ten years old, she added in her interview with "Ultra Algeria", the necessity of adopting four meals, "breakfast that includes eggs, cheese and fruits, lunch that is rich in vegetables, proteins, legumes and starches, and in the evening the child is offered fruits, nuts or cheese, and finally dinner, which is the same type of lunch, with the possibility of including some sugars such as ice cream in the summer on a regular basis, to avoid depriving the child."
The best moisturizer is drinking water.
To ensure effective hydration of the child's body, the specialist stressed the need to encourage children to drink sufficient amounts of water in several ways, including providing water flavored with some refreshing natural additives such as mint, lemon, and ginger.
These additives improve the flavour of the water, according to the specialist, and encourage the child to drink it, in addition to the importance of including drinking water in a game between family members as a competition for who drinks the largest amount of it, in addition to awareness, which is a very useful way to drink water and talk about its importance to health.
The specialist added that the child needs six important elements for healthy growth, the first of which are vitamins, which are very necessary for the child’s growth and vital processes; we find them in vegetables and meat, and minerals such as zinc, calcium, and magnesium, in addition to fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, and proteins.
The above ingredients are essential for the child’s muscle growth, and are found in meat, eggs, and cheeses, as well as fibers necessary for bacterial balance in the intestines, improving digestion, and strengthening immunity, healthy fats found in natural butter, nuts, olive oil, and egg yolks for building nerve functions, and healthy, unrefined starches found in potatoes, rice, dates, and bananas, which are considered a clean source of energy, and reducing refined starches such as flour, semolina, and all types of baked goods.
Physical activity is a must.
Physical activities for children are very important during the summer, as specialist Ben Allal said that they work to release negative energy. On the other hand, she “advises not to practice them during periods of high temperatures during the morning and afternoon, and to choose a place where there is cooling and light, non-strenuous activities that do not exceed twenty minutes in the evening when the weather is refreshing.”
It is noteworthy that among the common diseases that affect children in the summer is food poisoning, the symptoms of which are diarrhea and vomiting with or without fever, and this is due to the high temperature that causes food to spoil.
Nutritionist to Ultra Algeria: There are many healthy snacks that we can offer children during the hot season
In this context, the specialist advises putting food in the refrigerator to stop the growth of harmful bacteria, and completely avoiding eating outside the home. Therefore, it is necessary for children to wash their hands regularly because they touch surfaces and play outside the home, with the importance of regularly trimming their nails because they often bite them with their teeth.
Source: websites