LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-During the month of Ramadan, mama Mubarak as she is fondly called was overjoyed. It was that time of the year when she would encourage her children, even the youngest at 9 years old, to fast until 7pm. It was that month again when she will cook only in the morning and evening for 30 days.
Her daughter, Amina was a cheerful and bright child, but during the fasting month, she was feeling weak and tired at school and couldn’t concentrate.
Her parents were surprised because she wasn’t starving as they provide her huge meals in the morning, which mostly was cassava based and rice in the evening because it was her best meal.
They didn’t realise that she was suffering from a hidden hunger caused by lack of vital nutrients in her daily meals. Unlike before when she would snack during the day on other form of meals, during Ramadan, she had nothing to eat during the day.
Fasting for long periods during the day could deprive ones bodies of essential nutrients, leading to weakness, fatigue, and potential health risks.
Nigeria often faced a problem called micronutrient deficiency, where the food lacked essential vitamins and minerals necessary for healthy growth and development. This deficiency is adversely affecting children, like Amina, causing them to suffer even when they had access to food.
During a media training organised by Nestle Nigeria Plc for the Society for Media Advocacy on Health (SOMAH), health journalists were exposed to the importance of food fortification.
The health journalists were taken on a tour of Nestle Agbara factory, and told of nestle policy on fortification of foods and beverages.
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According to Nestle, the aim of the policy is to promote the micronutrient fortification of foods and beverages at levels that help to improve and maintain health, but in amounts that do not increase the risk of developing adverse consequences from excessive consumption.
Food Fortification
Representing Nestle Nutrition Institute Central West African Region, the manager Dr. Kanalio Olaloku told journalists that food fortification is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of one or more micronutrients (i.e., vitamins and minerals) in a food or condiment to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.
As well as increasing the nutritional content of staple foods, the addition of micronutrients can help to restore the micronutrient content lost during processing.
“Food fortification is widely identified as a cost-effective strategy for addressing micronutrient malnutrition at scale. In Nigeria, food fortification with a focus on vitamin A, iron, zinc, iodine, and other micronutrient remains a major thrust of the effort to eliminate micronutrient malnutrition.
“Micronutrient deficiencies have been an enduring problem in Nigeria. The prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency is estimated at 30% and 70% of children are anaemic. Previously micronutrient deficiency control (MNDC) efforts were limited.
“Deficiencies in iron, vitamin A and iodine are the most common around the world, particularly in children and pregnant women,” she said.
On foods that are mostly fortified she listed them to be breakfast cereals, bread, rice, flour, margarine, salt, snack bars, juices, baby formula, dairy products, edible oils, etc.
Fortification can be carried out by food manufacturers, or by governments as a public health policy which aims to reduce the number of people with dietary deficiencies within a population.
32% Of Nigeria’s Children Are Stunted
Dr. Olaloku told journalists that available data from UNICEF shows that Nigeria has the second highest burden of stunted children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 32 per cent of children under five.
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An estimated two million children in Nigeria suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), but only two out of every 10 children affected is currently reached with treatment.
Speaking on the topic “Malnutrition in Nigeria-Fortification as a strategy for improving nutrition indices,” she urged all stakeholders to work together to ensure that all foods that are consumed by the populace are fortified so as to reduce the health risks that people suffer from consuming foods that are not fortified.
According to her, available data shows that less than 20 per cent of children consume adequate iron rich foods; this she said lies in the fact that most people don’t know the sources of iron in their food.
Noting that certain health conditions can prevent the body from absorbing iron in foods, she said two very important sources of iron include animal sources and plant sources. “Animal sources of iron: crab, fish, crayfish, beef, liver, among others are easily absorbed by the body. On the contrary, she said
“The absorption of iron from plant sources is just 20 per cent and that is not enough for the body. You will be surprised that some other factors in the food can prevent the body’s capacity to absorb iron,” she said.
To achieve food fortification, Olaoku said the commerce and industry sector needs to be able to make sure these foods are in the market and that they are affordable because malnutrition, in every form, presents significant threats to human health.
She said it’s a multi-sectoral approach and not one that can be handled by one person or sector. “All the sectors have to work together in synergy. Without enough iron, your body can’t produce enough of a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen (hemoglobin). As a result, iron deficiency anemia may leave an individual tired and short of breath. One can correct iron deficiency anemia with iron supplementation,” she said.
According to her, being shorter for one’s age is an impact of malnutrition, which has consequences not only in the lives of children but even in their health as adults and as well as in their future. Over-weight is another problem arising from malnutrition.
She said, “So we are talking about undernutrition which presents in stunting; and over-nutrition which leads to overweight and obesity. But there is another third malnutrition issue that sometimes gets overlooked and that is micronutrient deficiencies which is why the fortification of foods will help.
Pregnant Women Too
According to Olaloku, pregnant women are not left out. She said theyt must eat right too. “Ensure that when a woman is pregnant she consumes the daily requirement of iron and that our children are regularly dewormed and fed with iron rich food.
“It’s important at this time that we are fighting a pandemic. We need the iron to support our food and immunity,” she said.
In his presentation, the former Head of Nutrition at the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), Dr. Chris Isokpunwu also advocated the need for pregnant women and all other members of the society to eat meals rich in micro and macro nutrients.
Isokpunwu noted that 58 per cent of pregnant women in Nigeria are suffering from iron deficiency anaemia and similarly 57 per cent of children under five are suffering from nutrient deficiency, according to the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2018.
Speaking on Iron deficiency anaemia, Isokpunwu said many people do not consume enough of iron rich food and this is either because they are not readily available and other extraneous aspects. However, he urged the three tiers of government to make sure women are given complementary iron.
On his part, a nutritionist in Research and Development, at Nestle, Audrey Essilfie disclosed some of the activities of the company in ensuring best practices and satisfying their consumers while assuring that most raw materials used for production are obtained locally.
“If you go to the global cereal market by far, wheat is the dominant grade except maybe for the Horn of Africa where wheat doesn’t grow. So, if we want to use locally grown cereals to have wonderful products like Ceralac; hence, we need to source for more produced locally. Hence, we have to study our local cereals. This is why we do lots of work on maize, sorghum millet, rice and so on because first and foremost they have attractive nutritional profiles and they have a lot of nutrients.”
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Statistics
Globally there are 170 million underweight children, 3 million of whom will die each year as a result of being underweight.
Additionally, WHO estimates worldwide at least 20 million children under five years of age are overweight, as well as more than a billion adults, and at least 300 million adults who are clinically obese.
282 milion people face malnutrition in africa-un global burden of malnutrition
815 million people are undernourished around the globe
3 million childhood deaths (under age 5) globally related to malnutrition
2 billion people are affected by anemia, which is often due to iron deficiency
Obesity is 10 one of the major risk factors for type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases
1.9 billion adults are over- weight or obese globally
41 million children (under age 5) are overweight or obese globally
In Nigeria, the prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) among preschool children is estimated at about 70%
1 in 3 people worldwide suffer from some form of malnutrition’