The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, has appealed to the federal government of Nigeria to increase taxes on sugary and processed foods to combat malnutrition in the country.
The Director of the panel, Sandy Thomas, made the appeal at a discussion on nutrition in Abuja on Wednesday 10 May 2017.
She expressed regret over the increasing number of malnourished and stunted children especially in the North East and North West of the country saying it is as a result of the consumption of those foods.
The professor also advised the government to subsidise nutritious foods in public places to assist consumers make informed decisions on nutritious foods.
According to her, Nigeria needs to transform her food environment in ways that promote diversity, availability and safety of nutritious foods.
The nutrition expert noted that making nutritious foods available in prisons, hospitals and schools would encourage the consumption of healthy foods revealing that beverage and food companies invested about 17 per cent of the global spending on advertisement in 2012 just to get people patronise their products.
Thomas noted that the consumption of processed foods was the major cause of malnutrition, obesity, type 2 diabetes, stressing that they were on the increase in developing countries.
