Poor quality diet remains risk factor for ill health – Expert

Country Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Dr Micheal Ojo, says that intake of poor quality diet remains the number one risk factor for ill health.

Ojo stated this in an interaction with newsmen in Abuja.

He noted that the quality of people’s diets depended on their food systems, right from when the food was grown to when it was eaten.

“For many Nigerians, the daily contact with nutrition is only on food product labels. Teaching of Nutrition as a subject starts only in secondary schools and even at that, it is not compulsory.

“No wonder the ability to make informed food choices in adulthood becomes a problem, the dietician said.

Ojo said research had shown that many common food-related ailments such as diabetes and obesity could be prevented or reduced, if there was adequate nutrition knowledge.