Nutritionists call for better national policy on unhealthy food

| credits: fitnesswithinsight.com

Nutritionists and health experts, on Tuesday called for a more robust national health policy on reducing unhealthy food consumption and prevention of non-communicable diseases.

The government, they demanded, must also be willing to implement such policy, without which the country risks a precarious future.

Leading the call at the ongoing annual conference of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology, a Consultant Nutritionist and Dietician with Rite Dieticians Clinic, Chika Ndiokwelu, said such policy, if well-articulated and implemented, would reduce the risks preventable NCDs pose to Nigerians.

She said the rising cases of NCDs coupled with the threat of communicable diseases put “double burden” on the country and its citizens, maintaining that some of the challenges could be reduced drastically if people imbibe ideal lifestyles and eat balance diets.

The expert said the country’s prevalence of obesity and overweight among children is 12 per cent (a sign of unhealthy lifestyle and eating habit) as against the 10 per cent global average. She said the situation, if allowed to continue, puts greater risk on the future of the country.

NCDs such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases, Ndiokwelu said, kill both the poor and the rich whereas Nigerians still erroneously associate them with the wealthy. And to reduce the risk, she urged individual to focus on addressing related modifiable factors such smoking, harmful alcohol intake, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.

The country, she charged, must also begin to address the environmental and planning challenges that prevent safe active commuting while the society move towards health promoting programmes.

Nigerians and people living in other developing countries, according to the expert, are most vulnerable to NCDs because of absence of treatment facilities.

A panel discussion sponsored by Coca-Cola also brought many other experts together to examine NDS and other health challenges in the country and chart appropriate cause of action. The experts agreed that the country must scale up awareness campaign on the issues.

A professor of nutrition in the Ambrose Alli University, Ignatius Onimawo, reiterated earlier call on Nigerians to stay away from smoked meat especially suya. He noted that breast cancer has strong link with suya consumption.