Surge in unhealthy food sales worries experts

Children across the globe in their developmental stages have been exposed to a variety of feeding patterns in recent times.

However, advertising and other forms of food and beverage marketing to children are extensive and primarily concern products with a high content of fat, sugar or salt.
Evidence shows that television advertising influences children’s food preferences, purchase requests and consumption patterns.

Furthermore, a wide range of techniques are used to market these products, reaching children in schools, nurseries, and supermarkets; through television and the Internet; and in many other settings.

In the light of this imminent danger, health experts have called for efforts to ensure that children everywhere are protected against the impact of such marketing and given the opportunity to grow and develop in an enabling food environment — one that fosters and encourages healthy dietary choices and promotes the maintenance of healthy weight.

In an interview with BusinessDay, Edimasan Temiye, chairman, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos Chapter, disclosed that poor diet is one of the four common factors associated with the four main noncommunicable diseases (cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and chronic lung diseases), which are responsible for around 60 percent of all deaths globally.

Temiye, who is also a consultant Paediatrician at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, noted that according to recent statistics, more than nine million deaths are premature (people dying before reaching 60 years of age) and this could have been prevented through low-cost measures at the world's disposal today, including measures to stop tobacco use, reduce the harmful use of alcohol, and to promote healthy diets and physical activity.

He said: "Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers and diabetes, today represent a leading threat to human health and socioeconomic development. However, encouraging healthy dietary choices for children and promoting the maintenance of a healthy weight is critical in preventing occasions of coming down with non-communicable diseases."

Alexandra Anga, consultant Paediatrician, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), disclosed that unhealthy diet is a key modifiable risk factor for NCDs. Anga stated that while deaths from NCDs primarily occur in adulthood, the risks associated with unhealthy diet begin in childhood and build up throughout life. She noted that obesity now ranks as the fifth leading risk for death globally.

According to Anga, “it is estimated that in 2010 more than 42 million children under the age of five years are overweight or obese, of which nearly 35 million are living in developing countries. Overweight during childhood and adolescence is associated not only with an increased risk of adult obesity and NCDs, but also with a number of immediate health-related problems, such as hypertension and insulin resistance. We must not lose consciousness of the fact that today’s food environment is quite different from that experienced by previous generations.

“Globally, an extensive variety of food and drink products are now available in most markets, offering palatability, convenience and novelty. But at the same time, the wide availability and heavy marketing of many of these products, and especially those with a high content of fat, sugar or salt, challenge efforts to eat healthily and maintain a healthy weight, particularly in children. Unless addressed, unhealthy diets, in conjunction with other risk factors, increase NCD prevalence in populations through raised blood pressure, raised blood glucose, abnormal blood lipids and overweight/obesity.”

To safeguard the future of younger generations in Nigeria and across the globe, there is the need to identify the most suitable policy approach, given national circumstances, and develop new and/ or strengthen existing policies that aim at reducing the impact on children, of marketing of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, or salt.

For Ala Alwan, assistant director-general, Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health, World Health Organisation, “there is the need to establish a system for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children.

“Also, active steps should be taken to establish intergovernmental collaboration in order to reduce the impact of cross-border marketing, not forgetting the co-operation of civil society, public and private stakeholders in implementing the set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children in order to reduce the impact of that marketing, while ensuring avoidance of potential conflicts of interest.”