National President, Dietitians Association of Nigeria, Prof Elizabeth Ngwu has said that there are only 400 Dietitians to a population of 160 million Nigerians making the country to suffer severe shortage of dietitians.
Ngwu said this in Gwagwalada yesterday during the 4th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the association.
Speaking with newsmen at the occasion, Ngwu noted that in every health institution government should provide one dietitian to four doctors adding that, “government should employ more dietitians in hospitals and health care centres to prevent all these nutritional problems our country is experiencing.’’
She noted that the practice in the country has not garnered sufficient support from the three tiers of government, adding that the dietitians registration board was not yet in place and there were only four hospitals offering dietetic internship training in the country, ‘’ This is an important drawback in dietetic practice in Nigeria’’, she pointed out.
According to her, ‘’ The report of WHO study group on diet, nutrition and prevention of non communicable diseases has identified diet as one of the major factors linked to a wide range of diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, various cancers and stroke.’’
These conditions are the commonest cause of premature deaths in developed countries and they impose major burdens on society, she said.
On the spread of nutrition in the country the Dietitian said, ‘’ ignorance is one of the major causes, although Nigeria is blessed with natural foods but most people do not know what to eat because the combination of food is not there.’’
She warned Nigerians to beware of nutrition guides posted on the internet, saying instead, people should find out the person’s qualification before they get misguided on what they should eat.
Dietitian Chikodi Ugwu, Chairman Abuja Chapter of Dietitians Association told Nigerian Pilot that the essence of the meeting was to create awareness that there were Dietitians in the country and to sensitize people on the need to eat healthy and avoid eating wrongly.
Imobong Matthew, Consumer Services Manager for Nestle PLC, encouraged women to take their place as caregivers in the home and to advise them that good nutrition are not expensive but reachable and affordable.
She advised women to plant green vegetables around their homes and add vegetables to their diets as to get balanced diets. This is one way of empowering women, he said.
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