Editor’s note: Mutiu Iyanda, the ZENITHBLOG.com partner blogger, in his latest piece explains real reasons Nigerians must tap from four biggest opportunities in Nigeria’s dietary switch market.
His blogs are: http://ift.tt/2iVtmAV, http://ift.tt/2iUENXl
More details in ZENITHBLOG.com’s step-by-step guide for guest bloggers
Food is one of the things living organisms cannot avoid everyday. Survival of everyone is hinged on the extent to which him or her access food and observe consequences of eating it–negative or positive ones.
Failure to note negative impacts of some foods usually has inherent damages to body’s system in short and long periods. Like other countries under the guidance of Food, Agriculture and Organisation (FAO), Food Pyramid was formulated for Nigeria to guide her citizens on what to eat from five food groups.
FAO notes that bottom of the pyramid entails bread, grains and tubers, followed by vegetables and fruits. They are expected to be eaten at every meal. Eggs, fish, meat and dairy are on the third level, and are to be eaten in moderation.
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Oils and fats should be eaten sparingly according to the pyramid, with confectionery limited to rare occasions.
Observations have shown that following these recommendations would be difficult considering continuous use of various preservatives by Food and Beverages companies. What baffles experts most regarding preservatives usage is funding of researches with a view of refuting link between processed food and non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes by companies.
This action has become issue among health professionals and doubting private sectors readiness to join Global leaders in attaining Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, especially inherent business opportunities.
Processed food and Nigerians’ awareness about dietary switch
From small stores to shopping malls, Nigerians are buying and consuming various processed foods mainly those produced using freezing, canning, baking, drying and pasteurising techniques.
These foods are being consumed with little or no knowledge about their disadvantages. Despite being aware of nutritive value of unprocessed foods, working class professionals in Lagos cannot do without eating processed foods daily.
Though the foods are processed at different degrees experts have hinted that processed foods have ingredients that are high in salt, sugar; fructose syrup and fat. These ingredients have been proved scientifically to cause health problems such as Obesity, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, Diabetes among others.
As awareness on diet switch is increasing among the professionals 10 foods in Nigeria’s malls and stores are to be avoided. They need to be avoided because they either contain saturated fat, trans fat, salt or sugar. Normally, saturated fat and trans fat are harmful.
Saturated fat is found in animal foods, hardened liquid vegetable oils, palm oil and coconut oil while found naturally in cows’ milk and beef, but can also be produced industrially through hydrogenation processes to harden liquid fats.
Evidently, consumption of processed foods has contributed significantly to the increase cases of high blood pressure, obesity, cancer and diabetes. Scientists have found more than 20 million cases of hypertension in Nigeria as at 2010, affecting one in three men and one in four women, with the figures set to rise to 39 million cases by 2030.
Study has also established that prevalence of high blood pressure is differed across ethnic groups in Nigeria. Average prevalence rate across the groups is 51.70% while rate is 24.65% among the adults.
Obesity’s prevalence rate ranged from 20.3%–35.1%, while the prevalence of obesity ranged from 8.1%–22.2%. Between 1995 and 2014, female obesity prevalence of Nigeria grew substantially from
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On male population, the rate grew substantially from 1.5 to 5.3 % rising at an increasing annual rate that reached 8.16 % in 2014. Diabetes rate is also growing exponentially. Available data show that in 2015 2.3% of people aged 20-79 years have diabetes.
World Health Organisation recently hinted that each 50-gram (1.8-ounce) portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent. WHO’s data establish that over 2 million Nigerians died due to cancer in 2014 while 102,100 cases were recorded in 2012.
Food reformulation: A realistic opportunity to improve Nigerians’ health
With the high prevalence of these diseases, it has been necessary for companies within food and beverages industry, and aspiring entrepreneurs to consider food reformulation as being envisaged by Global leaders and non-state actors.
This techniques entails reducing or eliminating ‘negative’ nutrients such as sodium, saturated fat, trans-fat, or to increase the content of beneficial nutrients such as dietary fibre, whole grains and unsaturated fats.
This is an opportunity to improve people’s health through improving the nutritional characteristics of commonly consumed processed foods.
Meanwhile, ZENITHBLOG.com had previously reported that about five real reasons Nigerians must invest in coconut plantation business.
Mutiu Iyanda
Mutiu is a research and communications professional. He has a special interest in qualitative and quantitative methods of finding solutions to social and communication issues.
He currently works with Enterprations Limited, a management consulting company, which also provides a platform for working class professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs to own their business.
Enterprations offers strategic tools such as business plan, growth plan and turnaround plan among others for established and aspiring businesses. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of ZENITHBLOG.com.
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