Daily Trust

Over-nutrition contributi­ng to diabetes, hypertensi­on in Nigeria -Health minister

The Coordinati­ng Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate, has warned that under-nutrition and overnutrit­ion are putting the lives of Nigerian children and adults at risk, hence the need for concerted efforts to tackle the menace.

He made the call while speaking 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.

He lamented that the country had struggled with acute malnutriti­on and there was a need to deal with it and the issue of over- and under nutrition.

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 but also the other side of under-nutrition.

“The under-nutrition 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 the under nutrition, acute hunger, malnutriti­on but we also have the over-nutrition which is contributi­ng to the fast rate of growth of non-communicab­le diseases in Nigeria.

“For the 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 under-nutrition also puts you at risk for getting over nutrition, 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 micro-nutrients deficiency as the third nutrition deficiency that we are facing. So, in relation to this subject, it is not just the Caloric deficiency but the diversity of the diet that we have. If you go to my village, we mostly eat carbohydra­tes, a few leaves and all of those.

“But, the diversity in terms of lipid and protein are also important to address these gaps including the micronutri­ents deficiency alongside water and sanitation, breast-feeding, infant and young child feeding. These are all important determinan­ts for what we are seeing both in under-nutrition and over-nutrition”.

The minister, therefore, called for a stronger stakeholde­r’s collaborat­ion to help the federal government fight the various challenges facing Nigerians especially in the healthcare sector.