"Healthy eating is stepping stone for healthy lifestyle"

In exactly 1 week, the GroenteCongres (Vegetable Convention) will be held in the WTC in Rotterdam. An initiative that sees healthcare and the fruit and vegetable sector join hands to bring attention to the importance of vegetables for a healthy lifestyle. Presenters will be paediatrician Koen Joosten of Erasmus MC, and Rob Baan, director of Koppert Cress, producer of micro vegetables.

"Starting with vegetable consumption early in life is a stepping stone to embark on a healthy lifestyle that could determine the rest of one's life," Koen Joosten thinks. "In fact, this already begins before conception. Parents looking to become pregnant, have to be aware of a healthy lifestyle. This can influence the development of the foetus, with the intake of vegetables playing a prominent role. Doctors do not only have a curative, but also a preventative task in awareness. By working together with the vegetable sector, there is a mutual transfer of knowledge on the importance of good education and product development." Rob Baan adds that man is mostly a herbivore, who has hardly changed in the past 170,000 years. "But the world around us is changing. How would Michiel de Ruyter walk through a supermarket now? He wouldn't recognize 75 percent of our food. In his age, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes2 and other lifestyle diseases were almost non-existent."

Rob Baan and Koen Joosten see opportunities to work together. Beginning with this GroenteCongres. In addition, a foundation has been established by Platform Gezonde Voeding 0-4 jarigen (Healthy Food 0-4 year olds), GroentenFruit Huis and Koppert Cress, to jointly show what the parties represent in the future as well. Rob Baan: "We need know-how for horticulture to be proud of their products again. Not because of kilos, profit and other economic interests, but because of the enormous contribution to the health of our parents, our generation and our children and grandchildren."

That pride also shows in the Trotse Tuinders Magazine (Proud Growers Magazine) that will be handed out at the convention. An initiative of four communication specialists who are sympathetic towards horticulture, and believe that the Dutch horticulture sector has a right to be proud of the products it grows.

Over the next five years, as far as Koen Joosten and Rob Baan are concerned, certain things will have to change in healthcare and the fruit and veg sector. For healthcare, that is: "more focus on health education, in close conjunction with Platform Gezonde Voeding 0-4 jarigen, with all representatives 'speaking the same language'. Intensification of Public Private Partnerships (PPP), with municipalities and other healthcare organizations being involved. But also investment in education and awareness, and showing scientific vigour by better marketing recent studies," Koen Joosten says. He thinks more should be done to promote a healthy lifestyle for young children.

Vegetables are tasty, and could be eaten a lot more often. That's the angle taken by the GroenteCongres on March 26 in the WTC in Rotterdam. The organizers, the GroentenFruit Huis and Platform Gezonde Voeding 0-4 jarigen, bring together professionals from food horticulture and healthcare. Never before did such diverse sectors talk about the power of vegetables. The message that every visitor will certainly take home, is that vegetables are above all tasty, and that eating vegetables is fundamental to good health. More information and registration: www.groentecongres.nl