Adding a dash of nutrition to their lives - `Kitchen Queen' contest for HIV positive women organised

[Guest guest]

Adding a dash of nutrition to their lives: `Kitchen Queen' contest for HIV

positive women organised

FUN FEAST: Participants at the Kitchen Queen contest organised by the Indian

Community Welfare Organisation in Egmore in Chennai on Sunday. - PHOTO: K.

Pichumani

CHENNAI: Nutrition for the HIV positive was the theme of the Kitchen Queen

contest organised by the Indian Community Welfare Organisation in Egmore here on

Sunday morning.

Fifteen women, including commercial sex workers and the transgendered, were

selected to participate in the contest for people living with HIV/AIDS. They

each made one juice and one solid food item, explaining to the judge why they

chose particular ingredients and what nutrients their dishes had. They were

ranked according to the taste, presentation and nutritive value of the food.

Adithya, a music director who has also anchored cooking shows on television, was

the judge for the event. He has previously taken classes for HIV positive women

on nutrition and food.

Vice Consul General of the United States T. Bedell said the event was an

innovative method to help positive people realise they had space to exhibit

their skills.

P. Krishnamoorthy, Project Director, Aids Prevention and Control Project (APAC),

emphasised the importance of nutrition. Since several participants were taking

anti-retroviral drugs, their food needed to be of enhanced nutritive value.

Some participants were nervous about identifying themselves in public as HIV

positive, recalls Priya Dan, counsellor.

THE HINDU

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