A professor of Nutrition at the University of Ghana, Prof. Matilda Steiner-Asiedu, has cautioned the Ghanaian public against indiscriminate eating as it can affect their health and wellbeing.
She said improper eating is a major contributor to the increasing obesity in the country and that it is important that it is checked “if we want to have a healthy nation”.
She said for example that those who add too much ‘gari and korkor (fried ripped plantain) to their beans – popularly called “Gob3” are not doing themselves any good because it is not a healthy dietary practice.
According to her, though the combination of gari and beans is a fantastic delicacy for most Ghanaians, more gari and korkor automatically increase the energy component of such foods and too much energy can be problematic to one’s health.
She emphasized the need for people to eat in moderation because there is a general increase in overweight and obesity in the country currently – a concern that she said needs to be checked.
Prof Steiner-Asiedu said this in an interview with GhanaNews.TV on Thursday, on the sidelines of a training workshop on nutrition for selected journalists organized by Nestle Ghana Limited in collaboration with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).
She said adopting healthy eating by all will alleviate hunger and malnutrition in the country.
She named features of a quality diet to include variety, moderation, calorie control, balance, adequacy and safety, among others.
First of all is food system that includes all the elements such as environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, among others; and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food and the outputs of these activities including socioeconomic and environmental outcomes.
The workshop was on the team “Inspiring better nutrition and Food and Science”.
While advising the general public, Prof Steiner- Asiedu also urged journalists to champion the advocacy on good nutrition as their contribution towards the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Nutrition.
By MaryAnn Akrobortu || GhanaNews TV