Nutritionist, Others Raise Awareness On Protein Deficiency, Malnutrition Among Nigerian Children
A Nutritionist, Mr Collins Akanno, has said there is the need to educate Nigerians on healthy nutrition, saying this would help tackle the burden of malnutrition in the country.
Akanno said this at a protein challenge webinar organied by Media Craft Associates with the theme, ‘The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition: Connecting the Dots for Nigeria.’ Mr Akanno said:
“To tackle hunger and malnutrition in Nigeria, we need to adopt sustainable farming, people need to adopt home gardens and there is the need to start investing in agriculture.
“There is also the need for nutrition education in the country to avoid people eating unhealthy meals. People can have money, go to the market and yet purchase the wrong foods if they are not knowledgeable about the right foods to take.”
The specialist added that when people eat unhealthy diets, they were prone to suffer malnutrition. The Chief Executive Officer of Mediacraft Associates, Mr John Ehiguese, said there was the need to raise the awareness on protein deficiency in Nigeria. Ehihuese said:
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“With 10 more years to the deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals, the second SDG, zero hunger goal, can be achieved through food security and good nutrition for the citizens.
“The place of protein in good healthy nutrition cannot be overemphasised. Our agency is currently prosecuting a protein challenge to create awareness on the scourge of protein deficiency in Nigeria and to mobilise stakeholders’ action to mitigate it.”
The Coordinator, Media Centre against Malnutrition, Mr Remy Nweke, tasked the Federal Government to increase the health budget of the country to achieve the SDG-2. Nweke said:
“The health budget in 2018 was N71.11bn, in 2019 we had N50.15bn as health budget while we had 46bn as health budget in 2020. If you look at this outline, it is easier to know that instead of us increasing the health budget, it is reducing.
“For us to make headway as a nation, we must, first of all, ensure that our citizens are healthy. If we must make progress in that respect, it is important for us to take the health sector seriously.”