1,000 recipes on new healthy eating platform

The Flemish Institute for a Healthy Lifestyle has launched a website and mobile app with basic information about healthy foods. The institute, a Flemish government agency, created Zekergezond.be to provide consumers with reliable information about nutrition.

The platform also comes with no less than 1,000 recipes, all based on the food pyramid – veggies and grains at the top, meat and dairy at the bottom – and using fresh ingredients that are readily available. The government hopes that more people will cook more regularly with the easy-to-follow recipes.

“All of the recipes are healthy and at your fingertips,” said Flemish public health minister Wouter Beke, who demonstrated the app yesterday by cooking up some minestrone soup.

The recipes on Zekergezond.be are searchable according to a number of criteria such as starter, main meal, budget friendly, level of difficulty and vegetarian. Users can also plan their menus for the week and make shopping lists. Those who create an account can get suggestions based on dishes they’ve already chosen to make.

“Most Flemish people could stand to improve their diets,” said Loes Neven of the Flemish Institute for a Healthy Lifestyle. “One of the ways to do that is to cook yourself with basic ingredients like vegetables and fish, sometimes vegetarian with legumes. The app offers options to do that.”

Photo courtesy Vlaams Instituut Gezond Leven