Daily Champion (Lagos)
June 23, 2004
Posted to the web June 24, 2004
Lagos
With the World Health Organisation (WHO) sounding the alarm that one billion adults are overweight world wide, 300 million of them clinically obese, it is time to pay more than a passing attention to this gradually encroaching public health problem.
It is moreso with the WHO's insistence that 115 million people in the developing world, Nigeria inclusive, suffer from obesity-related problem. Indeed, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) labels obesity "The Developng World's New Burden". There is dearth of data on this problem in many developing nations, notably Nigeria, but already it is estimated that close to 19 per cent of the citizens of Ghana and Togo are obese.
This situation is indeed worrisome since it compounds the already existing burden of under-feeding ravaging millions of people in the developing world. With time and inadequate efforts, it is believed that obesity-related health conditions might overwhelm health resources stretched thin by other nutrition-related ailments.
Ordinarily, obesity would just pass for a social nuisance if not for the fact that it is regarded as a disease. It also increases the risk of many grave health conditions. At the national level, it could weaken a country's development by diminishing people's capacity to work and diverting scarce resources provided for healthcare.
This imperceptibly growing malaise can be blamed on a number of factors bothering mostly on significant changes in lifestyle in most developing nations. These changes present in the form of less physical activity, urbanisation and shift in tradional African dietary habits and patterns.
The International Obesity Task Force also pointed out that the massive importation of food by developing nations equally comes with the importation of unhealthy food habits. It expressed concern that traditional diets rich in grain and vegetables are increasingly giving way to imported high fat and sugar foods.
Some analysts also blame increasing obesity in poor countries on unwholesome practices in food exportation by the more affluent nations. They revealed that developed nations keep leaner cuts of meat and healthy portions of food for their citizens while exporting high-fat remainders to third world countries.
Also worthy of mention is the flooding of many developing nations by local and global fast food chains such that there is more temptation to bite with the easy availabilty of junk food. This is particularly worrying since this trend is a major contributory factor to the growing rate of childhood and teenage obesity.
But this problem is not without solution. Experts, however, insist that the solution starts from acknowledging the problem. Herein lies our weakness in the matter since obesity is often regarded in our setting as a sign of good nutrition. This is, however, far from the truth since most obese people suffer from vital nutrients deficiency also found in their under-fed counterparts.
So it follows that the first step is to accept that together with under-feeding, we now have the problem of over-feeding. It has to be recognised as a public health problem capable of wreaking havoc over time. This will lead to action of some kind quite unlike the present situation where the problem is given little or no attention since it is considered less grave than under-feeding.
The next line of action is enlightenment of the masses, especially in urban areas, on basic facts about obesity. This should go hand-in-hand with information on healthy eating and living habits.
We might also borrow a leaf from some countries like Britain and Australia where obesity has gone into the political arena due to recognition of its dangers. In those countries, citizens are demanding tangible actions from their government on ways of combating the problem.
Health authorities and concerned citizens also have to look more closely into the growing fast food industry in Nigeria with a view to enforcing healthier food preparation. There should be standards of practise. Also, fast food chains in Nigeria should on their own promote good, healthy foods especially for the benefit of the vulnerable group, the children, that constitute a major chunk of fast food consumers. The on-going legal war with the fast food giant, McDonalds, by many people bugged down by obesity in several countries is insructive in this respect.