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DVine Living Essentials stages first health fair

Published:Saturday | April 12, 2014 | 12:00 AM
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Duhaje Jennings (right), bee farmer and honey producer of Dada B's, speaks to Monica Lewis; Bradman Murray (centre), secretary of the Westmoreland Bee Farmers' Association; and Trevor Lewis, president of the Westmoreland Bee Farmers' Association, at DVine Living Essentials Reach 4 Health fair, Gloucester Avenue, last Saturday. - Photo by Barrington Flemming
Desrene Grant-Anderson (right), managing director of DVine Living Essentials, Gloucester Avenue, Montego Bay, shows a bottle of chocolate spread, made from organic Jamaican cocoa beans, to Keisha Whittingham, reiki master. - Photo by Barrington Flemming
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WESTERN BUREAU:

DVine Living Essentials' Hair Skin and Wellness Spa staged its first health fair at its Gloucester Avenue facility in Montego Bay last Saturday. Titled 'Reach 4 Health', the fair focused on healthy living.

Nutritionist and health consultant, Yvonne Bailey, who was also a co-organiser of the fair, said the main objective was to teach people how to reverse the ill effects of poor eating habits and to exercise and relax to achieve optimal health.

"We have seen so many persons agonising over the diseases that are prevalent now. We want people to know that there is an alternative. What you do in your daily life matters," Bailey said.

Founder and manager of Dvine Living Essentials, Desrene Grant-Anderson, said that another aim of the health fair was to teach people about skin and hair health as well as to point them to entities that have the resources to lead them to healthy living.

Lacking resources

"In Montego Bay, certain resources are lacking and people don't know where to get them. So we decided the best way to deal with this was to get people with like minds to come together in one place and to offer the resources and make it free to the public," said Grant-Anderson.

The Lotus Line, with founder, raw food teacher and wellness coach Bena Nakawuki, and earth pastry chef of DVine Eatery, Ronalda Bowes, was a hit with patrons who visited the raw and living-food class.

"Eating raw foods is innate. Processed food takes too long to leave the body and creates problems of sluggishness. Eating the natural way helps to keep people healthy because all the nutritional and medicinal properties are in the food, so they prevent disease and keep people healthy," Nakawuki said.

Delicious live foods

Jean Ann Martin, who attended the class and sampled the Mixed Vegetables Asian Salad, cinnamon rolls, and energy balls, gave the food a thumbs up.

"They were really delicious! I enjoyed them. They were different but really very appetising and something that I would eat daily. I am health conscious, and what I have learnt here I will put into practice," she said.

Patrons were able to sample chocolate delights and aloe vera juice and receive free upper body massage; as well as advice and counselling from the St James Health Department, which focused on mental health.

Other exhibitors included Express Fitness; I'd Rather Fall in Chocolate; Margaritaville; Dada B's (Honey); Fiona's Travel; The Healing Source Medi Spa; Caribbean Producers, which promoted Aloe Vera juice; HerbaLife; and Feed the Fight, which promoted and offered mammograms at a reduced cost.

The organisers said they would stage a bigger health fair for Child Month in May at which parents would learn to prepare healthy, affordable meals for children as well as how to ensure that children maintained optimal health.

- B. F.