Nutrition: a business for all
That nutrition is important to life is undeniable. However, knowledge of nutrition is not enough; its applicability should be the ultimate.
Knowledge is required to produce whatever would be needed as food. Otherwise, it would lead to a shortage of nutrients which could in turn lead to malnutrition. So, through knowledge, supplements would be known, as well as how the nutrients could be supplemented, while the government should also intervene to make provision for supplements like vitamins A, C, after their deficiency in people has been ascertained.
Poverty plays a dehumanising role in malnutrition. With food as the take-off point, the government should adhere to the constitutional needs of the provision of components of nutrition for the masses, in addition to enlightenment whose efficacy has over the years proved vital in getting the nutrition message across to especially the poor and vulnerable of the society.
Although this campaign may seem easy and even seamless, it may still prove difficult, if not impossible, no thanks to such a campaign clashing with the people’s traditions and beliefs, leaving the government as the biggest stakeholder to interact with the public and guaranteeing them access to good food and potable water to guarantee the nutrients they need for sustenance.
Normally, children would like to have their way when it concerns certain local foods that they would not take but which are nutritious to their health because they contain iron. The parents have a responsibility to incorporate the nutrients that the children do not like into the ones that they like for easy intake. This particular method has helped to feed many children and even adults and saved them from the scourge of malnutrition.
Perhaps, unknown to many, the rich in society also have problems with nutrition. Contrary to what may have been said in the past and present, many of them are not well enlightened to what good nutrition entails. Meanwhile, malnutrition has been for many years said to be an ailment of the poor. But research has shown that malnutrition is as vast among the poor as it is among the rich. The only difference is the demography between both sides, which makes the society tend to focus more attention on the poor based on the assumption that poverty is the only cause of malnutrition. Several efforts have been made in recent times to quell this mentality but there has been little or no headway.
Nutrition being everybody’s business is not necessarily the economic side of income earning. It only stresses that everyone should be concerned about the intake of food and what happens to the body after the intake. Too much food intake, for instance, can lead to overfeeding and obesity with unpleasant consequences. The economic situation in Nigeria today clearly shows how expensive it is to seek conventional treatment for any health issues. But it is also given that food intake must precede medicine consumption to make the healing certain.
Educationists have factored in nutrition with regard to enlightenment on foods and the nutrients derived from them. They explain the tents of balanced diets as the game changer of sorts, putting everything in proportion. The knowledge of this mainly constitutes the business of how to provide treatment using nutrition to complement. When the immune system that is built in the breastfed child is talked about, the hygiene of feeding the infant with breastfeeding will also be talked about. Also, although there are people that are average income earners who can afford any kind of food they want, a lack of proper knowledge may still lead them to eat wrongly and cause trouble for themselves.
Prevention comes with the business of being conscious. So, advocates can rake in fortune through education and enlightenment, while much more money can also be made through offering consultancy services in nutrition that target particularly the prevention and management of crises.
Ignorance has led to the loss of money by many in the country who ordinarily would impart even minimal knowledge that has more to do with experience than expertise. Whenever nutrition is being discussed, there is the tendency for many Nigerians to surrender the subject to only health workers. But the money-making aspect of nutrition is as open to the health workers as it is open to artisans, building contractors and sundry other members of the society. Even the government stands to gain far more resources than it invests in the country’s nutrition if it stops paying lip service to the resolve to make Nigeria a healthy country. Could it then still be ignorance on the part of the government that makes it overlook this money-making potential of nutrition year in year out? A body as the government with all the means of education and exposure at its disposal should easily deal infant and adult malnutrition with a fatal blow. So, questions should be asked as to why infant and adult malnutrition still persists on a large scale in the country.
Afolabi Gambari
That nutrition is important to life is undeniable. However, knowledge of nutrition is not enough; its applicability should be the ultimate.
Knowledge is required to produce whatever would be needed as food. Otherwise, it would lead to a shortage of nutrients which could in turn lead to malnutrition. So, through knowledge, supplements would be known, as well as how the nutrients could be supplemented, while the government should also intervene to make provision for supplements like vitamins A, C after their deficiency in people has been ascertained.
Poverty plays a dehumanizing role in malnutrition. With food as the take-off point, the government should adhere to the constitutional needs of the provision of components of nutrition for the masses, in addition to enlightenment whose efficacy has over the years proved vital in getting the nutrition message across to especially the poor and vulnerable of the society.
Although this campaign may seem easy and even seamless, it may still prove difficult, if not impossible, no thanks to such a campaign clashing with the people’s traditions and beliefs, leaving the government as the biggest stakeholder to interact with the public and guaranteeing them access to good food and potable water to guarantee the nutrients they need for sustenance.
Normally, children would like to have their way when it concerns certain local foods that they would not take but which are nutritious to their health because they contain iron. The parents have a responsibility to incorporate the nutrients that the children do not like into the ones that they like for easy intake. This particular method has helped to feed many children and even adults and saved them from the scourge of malnutrition.
Perhaps, unknown to many, the rich in society also have problems with nutrition. Contrary to what may have been said in the past and present, many of them are not well-enlightened to what good nutrition entails. Meanwhile, malnutrition has been for many years said to be an ailment of the poor. However, research has shown that malnutrition is as vast among the poor as it is among the rich. The only difference is the demography between both sides, which makes the society tend to focus more attention on the poor based on the assumption that poverty is the only cause of malnutrition. Several efforts have been made in recent times to quell this mentality but there has been little or no headway.
Nutrition being everybody’s business is not necessarily the economic side of income earning. It only stresses that everyone should be concerned about the intake of food and what happens to the body after the intake. Too much food intake, for instance, can lead to overfeeding and obesity with unpleasant consequences. The economic situation in Nigeria today clearly shows how expensive it is to seek conventional treatment for any health issues. But it is also given that food intake must precede medicine consumption to make the healing certain.
Educationists have factored on nutrition to enlightenment on foods and the nutrients derived from them. They explain the tenets of balanced diets as the game changer of sorts, putting everything in proportion. The knowledge of this mainly constitutes the business of how to provide treatment using nutrition to complement. When the immune system that is built in the breastfed child is talked about, the hygiene of feeding the infant breastfeeding will also be talked about. Also, although there are people that are average income earners who can afford any kind of food they want, a lack of proper knowledge may still lead them to eat wrongly and cause trouble for themselves.
Prevention comes with the business of being conscious. So, advocates can rake in fortune through education and enlightenment, while much more money can also be made through offering consultancy services in nutrition that target particularly the prevention and management of crises.
Ignorance has led to the loss of money by many in the country who ordinarily would impart even minimal knowledge that has more to do with experience than expertise. Whenever nutrition is being discussed, there is the tendency for many Nigerians to surrender the subject to only health workers. But the money-making aspect of nutrition is as open to the health workers as it is open to artisans, building contractors and sundry other members of the society. Even the government stands to gain far more resources than it invests in the country’s nutrition if it stops paying lip service to the resolve to make Nigeria a healthy country. Could it then still be ignorance on the part of the government that makes it overlook this money-making potential of nutrition year in and year out? A body like the government with all the means of education and exposure at its disposal should easily deal with infant and adult malnutrition with a fatal blow. So, questions should be asked as to why infant and adult malnutrition persists on a large scale in the country.
