Participants at the workshop in Tamale
A leader of the research team at the John A. Kufuor Foundation, Prof Matilda Steiner Asiedu, has disclosed that the high intake of carbohydrate by pregnant mothers can cause maternal mortality during child birth.
According to her, most of the micro deficiencies are not visible until mothers are about to “deliver that is when the deficiency is detected.”
She, therefore, advised that there is a need to include more vegetables, fruits and animal products to food that Ghanaians eat.
Prof Asiedu explained that most Ghanaians eat foods that contain high quantity of carbohydrate throughout the day.
She has, therefore, advised the agriculture sector to grow quality foods to feed Ghanaians properly to help reduce malnutrition in the country.
She made this known at a workshop in Tamale on the ‘zero hunger strategic review’ which seeks to address the problem of malnutrition and under nutrition in Ghana.
Malnutrition is one of the major problems facing the African continent as a whole.
Nearly half of all deaths in children under-five are attributable to under nutrition and this translates into the unnecessary loss of about three million young lives a year.
Under nutrition puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections, increases the frequency and severity of such infections, and contributes to delayed recovery.
The interaction between under nutrition and infection can create a potentially lethal cycle of worsening illness and deteriorating nutritional status.
Poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life can also lead to stunted growth, which is irreversible and associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school and work performance.
Late last year, the John A. Kufuor Foundation started a project to collect information on nutrition in Ghana to help government formulate a policy for the country.
The CEO of the foundation, Professor Baffour Agyeman Duah, told DAILY GUIDE that that scientists have proven that the difference between Africa and those in the Asian and other countries is nutrition “when their babies are born, they make sure the first 1000 days they feed nutritiously to ensure their proper formation.”
According to him, the foundation has realised that though food production is on the rise, nutrition is still a problem, thus, more emphasis is on carbohydrate food, with little vegetables and fruits.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale