" The Regulating Board Tomato PGI La Cañada Nijar, in association with the Regulating Boards of extra-virgin olive oil Guarantee of Origin Antequera and Montoro-Adamuz , the Serrano Ham Foundation, and the Agriculture and Fisheries Council of the Andalusian Regional Government, have initiated, for the first time in the region, the school campaign ‘Get to Know the Andalusian Breakfast’, which will be carried out in a total of 80 schools in the Autonomous Community. "

The Regulating Board Tomato PGI La Cañada Nijar, in association with the Regulating Boards of extra-virgin olive oil Guarantee of Origin Antequera and Montoro-Adamuz , the Serrano Ham Foundation, and the Agriculture and Fisheries Council of the Andalusian Regional Government, have initiated, for the first time in the region, the school campaign ‘Get to Know the Andalusian Breakfast’, which will be carried out in a total of 80 schools in the Autonomous Community.

This campaign had its starting point in Almería, in the Ferrer Guardia School in Los Llanos de la Cañada, where a hundred young students took part in a talk, during which they got to know about the health benefits and properties of the Andalusian breakfast, based on ingredients such as bread, tomatoes, olive oil and Serrano ham.

The exhibition, in which the representative for Agriculture and Fisheries of the Andalusian Regional Government, Juan Deus, and President of the Regulating Board, Francisco López took part, consisted of making the children aware of the importance of learning “some good habits in order to grow up healthily”.

During the presentation, the importance of knowing all food types, eating “what we need” five times a day and combining this with physical exercise was put across to the students.

They were also shown the Nutritional Pyramid, the foods found at the base of which, such as bread fruit or vegetables being “those which we need to include more of in our diet”. Through this initiative, the children have been made aware that food “provides our bodies with necessary energy and diverse nutritional elements, such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, fats and vitamins”.

A balanced diet should provide the human body with between 1,900 and 2,000 kilocalories a day, of which between 50 and 60 percent should be carbohydrate; between 20 and 30, fat; and between some twelve and fifteen, protein.

In this sense, during the presentation it was stressed that breakfast “is one of the most important meals, making up for between 20 and 25 percent of our energy requirements”, while a light lunch provides us with between 10 and 15¸ lunch, 30; early evening tea, between 10 and 15; and an evening meal 25 percent.

The Mediterranean breakfast should be made up of food such as milk or dairy products, bread, cereals, olive oil, fruit or vegetables, or Serrano ham. One important element in this diet is the tomato, which as well as magnesium provides vitamin C and also lycopene, which protects the heart.

During the exhibition, the young students of La Cañada were invited to make up a recipe with tomatoes from this area of Almería, with olive oil from Antequera or Montoro Adamuz and Serrano ham from the Serrano Ham Foundation, with the aim of entering a prize draw for trips to EuroDisney for the children and their parents.

This campaign was taken to other schools in Almería, such as La Atalaya in Nijar, Madre de la Luz in Almería, Colegio Juaquín Visiedo in Viator, and Colegio Freinet and Virgen del Mar in Almería. On the 10th of the next month it will start in Huelva, in the Colegio Virgen del Carmen, Punta Umbria and continue that week in the Centro Ciudad de los Niños, Centro Juan Luis Vives, Colegio Platero, Isla Cristina and Colegio Virgen del Carmen in Ayamonte

The campaign organisers gave out several boxes to the students of La Cañada, containing tomatoes, a small bottle of olive oil, Serrano ham and an information booklet in order to promote the Andalusian breakfast, and a tale where, through an amusing story about a princess, they get to understand the importance of having a good breakfast based on healthy and nutritious products.