Aruba Aids Travellers With Excess Weight Issue

Dec. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- Health-conscious travellers concerned about putting on a few extra pounds while enjoying their holiday can keep in trim if they chose the Dutch island of Aruba as their next destination.

The island has an innovative commitment to healthy living for the local population and is making efforts to transfer the drive to its tourism industry.

Initiatives for Aruba residents includes a health bus which visits all parts of the island promoting fitness and offering health screenings. Other projects target schools to reduce levels of obesity in the next decade and encouraging the business sector to stage fitness activities, including walkathons and cycling events.

Across Aruba’s thriving tourism sector, the island’s government is also helping to promote a healthy lifestyle to help visitors keep in trim.

While many resorts have fitness centres and offer group activities, many properties also have their own spas. Invigorating mud wraps, hot stone massages, soothing scrubs, aromatherapy baths and refreshing facials and masks await holidaymakers. Treatments feature local aloe and cactus preparations, desert mud, essential oils, plant extracts, sea salts, fruits and other natural products.

But food is the biggest potential downfall for those watching the ounces. The Slow Food International body is highly active in Aruba, promoting locally produced food, helping to support local farmers and also ensuring consumers have access to ‘good, clean and fair’ food.

Historically, around 90 per cent of Aruba’s food has been imported, so promoting locally-produced food can also minimise the environmental impact of long-distance transportation of food products.

Local representatives of Slow Food International have approached Aruba hotels to encourage them to buy locally-produced food. The Hyatt Regency is one of the first to support the idea, embracing it under the company’s ‘Food, Thoughtfully Sourced, Carefully Served’ international programme.

Local restaurants, too, are targets and they have the scope to buy even more local food and give tourists an authentic taste of Aruban cuisine. Fish is, naturally, an abundant and healthy option, while locally-produced fruit and vegetables include papaya, rich in minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients.

Another ingredient to try is goat, locally-known as cabrito – found in soups, stews and also grilled. Goat is said to be the healthiest of red meats, low in fat and high in nutrients and is easy to digest.

Other healthy options include yoga holidays. Swedish native Helen Brathen is a yoga aficionado based in Aruba and promotes water-borne yoga using a paddleboard.

Helen also organises in-house yoga vacations, complementing yoga lessons with such activities as hiking and sailing, together with healthy food. Throughout the year she teaches morning and evening yoga classes on a new deck between the Manchebo Beach Resort and Bucuti Beach Resort on Eagle Beach.

For more information about Aruba, go to www.aruba.com