WIFE of the Anambra State governor, Mrs Nonye Soludo, has called for urgent action to modify the over-production and over-consumption of foods and beverages that do not have healthy production and nutritional history.
Mrs Soludo, who stated this in Awka, while running a review of her healthy living projects over the last month, on Tuesday, noted that she was concerned about excessive consumption of foods with high content of sodium, sugar and unhealthy fats, as against low intake of whole grains, pulses, vegetables and fruits.
Insisting that going full organic remains the surest way to cut down emerging killer diseases, the governor’s wife stated that reducing sodium intake is one of the most cost-effective measures to improve health and reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases.
She further added that the World Health Organisation (WHO) current statistics that an estimated 1.89 million deaths each year are associated with consuming too much salt calls for another look at the health value of foods that everyone consumes.
Mrs Soludo, who is a practicing nutritionist, listed the primary health effects associated with diets high in salt to include raised blood pressure, increasing risk of cardiovascular diseases, gastric cancer, obesity, among others.
She also called for the reformulation of food products to contain less salt and the setting of target levels for the amount of salt in foods and meals, especially among households.
“For adults, WHO recommends less than 2,000 milligramme per day of sodium; equivalent to just under a teaspoon, while for children aged two to 15 years, it recommends adjusting the adult dose downward based on their energy requirements.
“According to the global health watchdog, this recommendation for children does not address the period of exclusive breastfeeding (0–6 months) or complementary feeding with continued breastfeeding (6 to 24 months).
“All salt that is consumed, WHO says, should be iodised, which is essential for healthy brain development in the foetus and young child and optimizing people’s mental function in general,” she added.
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