AfricaPress-Tanzania: POOR eating habits and bad lifestyles attribute to cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the country.
Moshi District Commissioner Alhaj Kundya said on Saturday that there was a need for people to adopt healthy eating habits and change their lifestyles to have good health and engage in productive work for the benefit of the nation and society in general.
Mr Kundya said this at an event organised by Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) to raise public awareness on nutrition and health related issues at Makomu Secondary School grounds in Moshi Rural District.
The event with the theme “Your Food, Your Immunity, Your Medicine” was also attended by various stakeholders from the government, Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) and World Vegetable Centre.
“Malnutrition has adverse effects on the economy and the health of individuals, family, society and the nation in general. We should understand that there has been an increase in NCDs in society such as diabetes, blood pressure and cancer which have been associated with poor eating habits and bad lifestyles,” Mr Kundya said.
He said fruits and vegetables should be an important part of their daily diets because they were crucial for their health.
Taha Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jacqueline Mkindi stressed the importance of consuming vegetables and fruits as part of a healthy diet.
She said Taha had a special department which dealt with nutrition and gender, whose main objective was to promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables to promote their health and prevent themselves from diseases such as NCDs.
Other issues raised during a sensitisation event included healthy eating habits among various social groups especially children under five years, expectant women and breast feeding mothers and hygienic practices in food preparations to overcome micronutrient deficiency and stunting.
A study on nutritious status conducted in Kilimanjaro Region in 2016 by Tanzania Demographic Survey, which involved children aged 0-59 weeks and women of reproductive age between 15 and 49 years indicated that about 29 per cent of children had stunted growth, 9.2 per cent were underweight, 3.1 per cent had severe malnutrition and 2.8 per cent were overweight, while 48 per cent had blood deficiency.
There were also women of reproductive age (2.1 per cent) who were underweight, while 22 per cent were overweight and 19.9 per cent had stomach bulging beneath the navel and 5.3 per cent had blood deficiency.
Apart from nutrition awareness, Taha has also been promoting healthy nutritious practices through radio stations and social media.
The association has also been collaborating with health facilities to provide health education to mothers on nutrition as well as expectant women and children under five.
Taha has also been sensitising the cultivation of vegetables and raise health awareness on nutritious issues in schools.
Recently, the government cautioned members of the public against increasing cases of NCDs in the country, calling on the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) to direct more efforts towards reducing the burden on government and individual citizens.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, NCDs accounted for 33 per cent of all deaths in the country in 2017 of which 134,600 deaths related to chronic diseases, including blood pressure (13 per cent), diabetes (2 per cent), cancer (7 per cent) and accidents (11 per cent).
