26 January 2024. For our first Food with Friends instalment of 2024, we welcomed our migrant guests in a brand-new location, Landport’s Community Centre. Dr Mark Edwards from Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust joined us for an insightful talk on Bone Health and Osteoporosis before our signature cooked lunch.
Food with Friends is a hybrid event-series funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, which combines health education with providing a nutritional meal to underrepresented ethnic minorities.
We are immensely grateful to Dr Mark Edwards for taking the time to deliver such an interesting and important presentation, covering questions such as:
- How is bone health measured?
- How does osteoporosis affect men and women in different age groups?
- How can we improve bone health?
- Lifestyle choices affecting bone health.
Thanks to his useful insight, we learned that bone health can be improved by avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol intake, as well as performing regular weight-bearing exercise and ensuring an adequate calcium and Vitamin D consumption.
During the stimulating Q&A, we also learned that osteoporosis – a health condition which causes a loss in bone density, making them more fragile and likely to break – is a condition that affects women more than men.
A recent study addressing health inequalities with a focus on muscoskeletal conditions including osteoporosis found that some Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups in the UK are disproportionately impacted due to increased risk factors such as levels of physical inactivity, Vitamin D deficiency, poverty, socio-economic factors, working in manual occupations, and pre-existing long-term conditions such as diabetes.
Given such statistics, raising awareness about prevention becomes particularly necessary.
The lively Q&A session built up an appetite, so everyone was looking forward to lunch. We would like to extend a special thanks to our long-standing partner, a local and family-run Asian catering business. Guests enjoyed a fusion of veggie and meat-based dishes, including stir fry noodles, chicken gujons and chickpea curry.
“Thank you for inviting me. It was a great day, valuable information, delicious food, and the reception of the guests was excellent. May you stay healthy and well, my friends.” – Attendee from Egypt.
We are pleased to hear the positive impact of Food with Friends on our participants’ wellbeing and hope to see you next time for more delicious food and exciting conversations on health-related topics.
Our next Food with Friends event will feature a talk on Menopause, and it will be specifically open to migrant women based in the Portsmouth area.
