“Undernutrition increasing diabetes and hypertension in Nigeria”- health minister.
At the inauguration of the National Legislative Network on Nutrition and Food Security organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security on Monday, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate, warned that undernutrition and overnutrition are putting the lives of Nigerian children and adults at risk.
He said, “Food security and nutrition, as we know, are key pillars of Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda for Nigeria. And this is a long-standing issue. For many years, we struggled with stunting; we struggled with maternal malnutrition, acute malnutrition, household food insecurity, and also the other side of undernutrition.
“Undernutrition is what we pay the most attention to. It is acute, and we need to deal with it. But, in reality, we have a triple burden of malnutrition in Nigeria. We have undernutrition, acute hunger, and malnutrition, but we also have overnutrition, which is contributing to the fast rate of growth of non-communicable diseases in Nigeria.
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The minister further highlighted the effects of overnutrition on adults, saying, “For adults, hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery diseases are growing partly because of the food we eat—the processed food that we eat. And it’s important to know that undernutrition also puts you at risk of getting overnutrition because, when you grow up and the cells are few, you grow horizontally. Non-communicable diseases are attributed to malnutrition of a different kind.
“Add micronutrient deficiency as the third nutrition deficiency that we are facing. So, concerning this subject, it is not just the calorie deficit but the diversity of our diet. If you go to my village, we mostly eat carbohydrates, a few leaves, and all of those.”
“But diversity in terms of lipid and protein is also important to address these gaps, including the micronutrient deficiency alongside water and sanitation, breastfeeding, and infant and young child feeding. These are all important determinants for what we see both in undernutrition and overnutrition.”.
Overall, the minister called for stronger stakeholder collaboration to help the federal government fight the various challenges facing Nigerians, especially in the healthcare sector.
Content Credit| Igbakuma Rita Doom
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