Communication, Innovation, Debate

Les Nids d'Or de Nestlé

Eating for a healthy lifestyle

Recently I attended the Nids d'Or, a sort of Oscar ceremony hosted by the Nestlé Foundation for champions of healthy living. An interesting concept that I think is worth a mention...( the idea of nest comes from part of William Blake's Mariage of Heaven and Hell' : 'the bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship'...honouring work that has been accomplished and encouraging new initiatives)

The Nestlé foundation saw its official birth on 8th March 2008 (International women's day...but I'm not sure there's a connection). Its principal aim is to study our eating habits and act upon them...in order to contribute to a healthier society. I'm not going to go in to all the details here but there is an interesting book 'Foundation Nestlé France' which explains far more about the company and its 'charity' Foundation as well as the Nids d'Or.

The evening ressembled some kind of Oscar ceremony with all the starbizz qualities needed (and some fantastic skits by Anne Roumanoff a really provocative French comedian)...lots of well dressed people looking very well known and very much as though one should know who they are...and of course on that account I didn't do very well...The star of the evening was the Nestlé President, Eugenio Minvielle who, as President of the Foundation, took us through its aims and the idea of the Nids d'Or.

There are four categories for which prizes (notably a sizeable cheque and other forms of support) are awarded : Nutrition and health, nutrition and physical activity, nutrition, taste and pleasure, and nutrition and education. Various charity projects had been selected as nominees and to present them came a panel of judges, either experts in nutrition or personalities who had some connection to one of the categories...and here again I can't go into details as I'd requested info after the show and still have received nothing (perhaps the whole thing is meant to be very hush hush !). No, you can find all the details on the website : www.fondation.nestle.fr/ and fondation.nestle.fr/nids-d-or.aspx

There were some really interesting projects notably on child nutrition and help for the elderly...inspirational and hopefully longlasting. I will be following the outcome of these awards and will keep you posted.

I suppose the only downpoint was the wonderful cocktail party afterwards...what a disappointment to find that not only was there no Nestlé branded food disguised as cocktail eats (imagine, powdered milk filled macarons ! mmm)...but there was not even a hint of healthy eating (although one could argue that French food, is, in essence, healthy and therefore there was no need to go over board in a pretence of healthy looking food...) anyway, it didn't really matter as the champagne was great !

The way we eat is crucial to what we become and it should be of concern to us more than ever before...global warming is affecting crop supplies, fast food is making us obese, lack of exercise is turning our bodies into inanimate objects...and our metabolisms are slowing down...if you get the chance to see 'Wall E' do; the 'humans' are a taste of what might be in store if we don't pay attention to the message these Golden Nests are trying to get across...eat to keep healthy!

Mots-clés : healthy eating, les Nids d'Or, Nestlé, nutrition, Wall E

Ecrit par Caroline le Mardi 23 Septembre 2008, 01:55 dans "Innovation & ideas"

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