The burden of malnutrition in Nigeria, which causes the death of nearly one million children under the age of five annually, calls for concern, as the situation is getting worse by the day.
The official results of the Fifth Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS5) conducted in 2016 and 2017 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), shows that malnutrition among children under five years old has worsened in Nigeria, with highest concern in the northern states.
The published statistics show that two out of every five Nigerian children are chronically malnourished.
“It is time to begin to look at bio-organic products. Over two-thirds of African countries are net importers of agricultural products
Recently, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) aka Doctors Without Borders, reported that 33 children had died at an Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Borno State, under two weeks, as a result of acute malnutrition…deaths many say could have been averted through the consumption of nutrient-dense foods. This needless loss of lives requires urgent attention, even as efforts are being made by stakeholders in the health sector to address the menace through a more practical approach.
One of the practical ways to tackle malnutrition, experts say, is the consumption of fortified foods.
Food fortification, according to them, is the practice of adding essential vitamins and minerals such as iron, vitamin A, folic acid, iodine etc. to staple foods to improve their nutritional content. It has been found to be safe and cost effective ways of improving public health around the world since the 1920s. Commonly fortified foods include staple products like salt, maize flour, wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oil and rice.
No doubt, the consumption of fortified food products provides ample opportunities for the intake of these micronutrients, which are lacking in some staple foods in Nigeria.
Chairman, National Fortification Alliance (NFA), Fred Chiazor, told The Point that consuming fortified food is the best and surest way of healthy eating, and combating malnutrition.
“Food fortification is about the enrichment of the food with micronutrients that are essential for proper functioning and growth in the body. So, you make those nutrients available, even if you eat a regular food. For example, if you take regular flour, you would have taken Vitamin A, which is good for proper functioning of the body. That is what we mean by food fortification,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to go for fortified foods, which is highly effective against malnutrition, if well
utilized.
To reduce the high rate of malnutrition induced diseases, Prof. Laolu Akinyele of the Department of Human Nutrition, University of Ibadan, called for the fortification of food products with micronutrients.
Highlighting its health benefits, Akinyele said the importance of micronutrients in the body could not be overemphasized, as their absence affect every stage of the lifecycle from embryo to the adult stage.
He said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended micro nutrients such as iron, folic acid, Vitamin A, Vitamin B12 and zinc to be included in every consumed food.
According to Dr. Larry Umunna of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), malnutrition has become a public health concern in Nigeria as micronutrients were absent in staple
foods.
Umunna stressed that government needed to put in place policies that would ensure that micronutrients were included in foods manufactured in Nigeria to guarantee healthy living, as proper human development was an indispensable tool in a nation’s economic development.
Calling on government to begin to actively tackle the silent emergency, he said, “It is time to begin to look at bio-organic products. Over two-thirds of African countries are net importers of agricultural products.”
The experts concluded that food fortification offers one of the most cost-effective and sustainable approaches to addressing malnutrition in Nigeria.
To make sure that all Nigerians receive appropriate amounts of micronutrients, the experts recommended that the food fortification programme in Nigeria be implemented together with other strategies, including supplementation, dietary diversification, education, biofortification and other public health measures.
