FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (WHAT ARE YOU EATING, AND HOW SAFE IS IT?)

Food is an essential contributor to human existence. It is the fuel for human growth and development; quality of life depends on food. As the human body absorbs nutrient from food for the body development, other constituents/elements in the food most especially, toxins are also absorbed.

This is why body immunity and otherwise breakdown is majorly due to food ingestion. It is very true that contamination of food is a major cause of health deficiencies. As a matter of fact, food poisoning is estimated to contribute about two hundred thousand deaths to annual mortality in Nigeria. Toxic substances get into food through different means and they should be of major concern to you.

Agricultural products from Nigeria were rejected in Europe because of safety. Think about it, if it is not safe for them, why should it be good for you here? Don’t forget export products will be about our best, so we probably buy and eat something of less quality to what Europe rejects.

Food handling, processing, and storage introduce many toxic materials to food, which is passed down to the consumers and finally affects the quality of life. So eating a balanced diet or being on a diet of fruits is not enough.

How sure are you that the fruits were safe to be consumed in the first place? The consumer has no clue what the food item he is buying has gone through, the type of pesticides used or the type of preservatives added. For example, what if the food was dried by the road side and contains animal dung and car exhaust or if the beans has been preserved with Dichlorvos, the active ingredient in DD force and Sniper? What if the animal slaughtered for your meat is diseased or contains drug residue?

The consumer is buying blindly and unfortunately, there is no way to trace back! Consequently, some of the organs get overwhelmed trying to fight these toxins over time, which may be the reason for the excessive kidney failures, cancer and liver problems we now see in our country.

Obviously, food consumers in Nigeria have been buying and eating blindly but now we need to stop taking chances and make conscious effort to get safe foods.
I am currently making efforts to work with farmers and food handlers to adopt best practices in food handling.

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (SIMPLE WAYS TO REDUCE BLOOD PRESSURE)

High Blood Pressure is a dangerous condition that can damage your heart. It affects one in four people in Nigeria and 1 billion people worldwide. Left uncontrolled, High Blood Pressure raises risk of heart disease and stroke. There are a number of things you can do to lower your blood pressure naturally.

1. EXERCISE:
Regular exercise helps make your heart stronger and more efficient at pumping blood, which lowers the pressure in your arteries.
In fact, 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, such as running, per week can help lower blood pressure and improve your heart health.

2. REDUCE SALT INTAKE:
Salt intake has been linked to high blood pressure and heart events, like stroke. If you already have high blood pressure, it’s worth cutting back your salt intake. Swap out processed foods with fresh ones and try seasoning with herbs and spices, rather than salt.

3. DRINK LESS ALCOHOL:
Drinking alcohol can raise blood pressure. In fact, alcohol is linked to 16% of high blood pressure cases around the world.
Drinking alcohol in any quantity may raise your blood pressure. Limit your drinking to no more than one drink a day for women, two for men.

4. EAT POTASSIUM-RICH FOODS:
Potassium helps the body get rid of sodium and ease pressure on your blood vessels.
Foods particularly high in potassium include vegetables, especially leafy greens, tomatoes, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Fruit, including melons, bananas, avocados, oranges and apricots. Drink more milk, eat more beans and fish such as tuna and salmon.

5. REDUCE CAFFEINE INTAKE:
Caffeine causes an instant boost in blood pressure. It may have a stronger effect on people who don’t consume it regularly.
Caffeine can cause a short-term spike in blood pressure, although for many people it does not cause a lasting increase.

6. MANAGE STRESS:
Stress is a key driver of high blood pressure. When you’re chronically stressed, your body is in a constant fight-or-flight mode. On a physical level, that means a faster heart rate and constricted blood vessels. To reduce stress, listen to soothing music and work less.

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (NIGERIANS INGESTING POISON THROUGH FOOD)

Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has expressed worry about Nigerians not eating well, saying a larger percentage of
the population ingests poison.

Ogbeh, who spoke at the re-inauguration of an Inter-Ministerial Agricultural/ Nutrition Working Group yesterday in Abuja, lamented that there were
deficiencies in most Nigerian diets.

“There is crisis in Nigerian food sector because there is a great deal of self- poison in our diet. Just yesterday, I was talking with the Ministers of Science and Technology as well as Health about a great deal of metal poisoning in our food and the ingestion of dioxin through plastic
pathogens among other things.

They pointed out that there was high consumption of carbohydrate, because many Nigerians cannot afford to have
vitamins, protein in their diets.”Harping on changing the citizenry’s feeding habit, Ogbeh noted that many Nigerians prefer
swallow foods like yam, cassava, sorghum, maize among others which are injurious to health.

His words: “How do we persuade people to take more of fruits as against the carbohydrate they are used to. For instance, it is an insult in some villages when you tell an elderly man to take banana instead of the pounded yam he is
used to.

That means most Nigerians are
not eating well.” The minister regretted that children do not have access to egg, chicken or beans, resulting in 37% of malnourished children nationwide.“This is extremely
dangerous because this figure represents one third of Nigerian children,” stressing on the need to give children balanced diet during the first five years to enable their
brains develop well.

Ogbeh charged the committee to come up with the right formula for the country to improve its nutrition deficiencies, pledging that the ministry would provide
the needed resources and collaborate with the ministries of Health, Women Affairs, Science and Technology and other agencies to boost the health of Nigerians.

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (ALCOHOL ABUSE LINKED TO HEART CONDITIONS)

A new study suggests that people who abuse alcohol also boost their risk of three cardiac conditions: atrial fibrillation, heart
attack and congestive heart failure.

The possible added risk appears to be about the same as that linked to high blood pressure, smoking, obesity and diabetes, the researchers said.
“We found that even if you have no underlying risk factors, abuse of alcohol still increases the risk of these heart conditions,” lead researcher Dr Gregory Marcus said in an American College of Cardiology news release.

Marcus is the director of clinical research at the University of California, San Francisco’s
division of cardiology.
The study was based on a database of close to 15 million Californians aged 21 and older who had outpatient surgery,
emergency room treatment or inpatient hospital care between 2005 and 2009.

About 2% had been diagnosed
with alcohol abuse.
The researchers adjusted statistics so they wouldn’t be thrown off by various other risk factors. They found that alcohol abusers were twice as likely to have atrial
fibrillation; 1.4 times more likely to have a heart attack; and 2.3 times more likely to have congestive heart failure than other people.

Surprising findings
The study did not prove that alcohol abuse directly caused these risks to rise, however.
Conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity are thought to boost the risk of these cardiac conditions by similar degrees, the researchers said.
Read: Type 2 diabetes and heart disease a dangerous combination
“We were somewhat surprised to find those diagnosed with some form of alcohol abuse were at significantly higher risk of a heart attack,” Marcus said.

“We hope this data will temper the enthusiasm for drinking in excess and will avoid any justification for excessive drinking because people think it will be good for their heart. These data pretty clearly prove the opposite,” he added.
He suggested the new research may be more reliable than previous findings.

“The great majority of previous research relied exclusively on self-reports of alcohol abuse,” Marcus said. “That can be an unreliable measure, especially in those who
drink heavily. In our study, alcohol abuse was documented in patients’ medical records.”
It’s not clear, though, how much the participants in this study drank.

The findings were published on 2 January in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (‘GOVERNMENT SHOULD CURB WASTAGES IN AGRIC PRODUCE AND PRESERVE FOOD’)

As the efforts to position the
Nigeria’s agricultural sector to
become one of the leading
players in food production in
world continue, experts have
called on the federal government to tackle the level of wastage of agricultural produce usually experienced from distribution to the marketplace and develop innovative ways to preserve them.

Speaking during the inauguration of Fruits2go café, the Chief Executive Officer of the café, Tosan Kukoyi, said government should focus on the end product value chain, as a lot of wastages are being experienced from the farm to the market.
According to her, the wastage is
huge and government has not
provided facilities to preserve
these agriculture produce.

She also stated that if government encourages more people and provide the necessary support, most of the agricultural produce will be better preserved thereby reduce the reliance on imported foods which she noted is most
preferred by Nigerians despite
the preservatives it contains,
“most of these imported
products contain products that
are not healthy for the body.”

Kukoyi, who stated that there is
need for more people to go into
farming, commended government’s efforts in positioning sector, adding that Nigerians should create innovations regarding ways of preserving and packaging
agriculture products.
Speaking on the café, she said
the cafe was a healthy
alternative to eateries in Lagos
and they are focused on
wholeness, noting that the
products used are locally
sourced in order to provide
space in the healthy food
options segment where every
member of the family can have a
good meal, snack or drink.

Kukoyi said the brand is targeted at children because there are no smoothies’ stores or café targeted children, while stressing that they have taken their services a step further to schools to package healthy lunch for school pupils.
She added: “The school
authorities have also given us
the opportunity to talk with the
parents of these kids on the
importance of eating right and
not compromising with the
cheaper alternatives that are in
the market.

Parents are excited to bring their children here because of what we are offering such as the popsicles
which looks like ice-cream, but
it is made from pineapple fruits
and other fruit addition. The
parents of these pupils reach an
agreement with us and they pay
for the lunch we serve their
pupils, on a term basis.
We have covered two major schools.

“Children love our smoothies
and juices. We are creating
excitement for our customers
and still focused on the core of
the business. We have juices,
and healthy Yogurts made
without preservatives. We only
persevere these Yogurts with
refrigeration. This is the first
branch, but we are looking at
opening four other locations in
2017.

“Government should evaluate
the agricultural value chain, the
players and know where the
challenges are coming from,
then address it. I think the
challenge before the administration facing is
implementation. For private
entrepreneurs, we will try our
best to set the stage, within our
capacity.

The bank is not helping us with the interest rates they are giving. It is difficult if you don’t have funds. There should more credit facilities to encourage entrepreneurs.”

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (‘PLASTIC RICE’ IS RATHER CONTAMINATED RICE, SAYS NIGERIAN FOOD AND DRUGS BODY)

Nigeria’s food and drug agency has confirmed preliminary tests on intercepted rice that it is not “plastic rice” but rather contaminated rice.

The Acting Director General of the
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Yetunde Oni said that according to the final test results, the suspected rice is unwholesome.
“Based on the above laboratory
result, the product is not plastic but rice contaminated with micro
organisms above permissible limit, hence the seized rice consignment is unsatisfactory and, therefore, unwholesome for human consumption,” Oni said on Thursday at a joint press conference with the Customs Service.

“ Based on the above
laboratory result, the product is not plastic but rice contaminated with micro organisms above
permissible limit, hence the seized rice consignment is
unsatisfactory and, therefore, unwholesome for human
consumption. ”

She added that the consignment will be destroyed by the Customs Service and warned the public against consuming such unwholesome rice.
The 102 bags of rice branded Beat
Tomato Rice were intercepted by
Customs authorities in Ikeja, the
state capital of Lagos State, after a
tip off that it was the rumoured
“plastic rice”.

One person was arrested in
connection with the commodity and its distribution.
Nigeria’s Health Minister, Isaac
Adewole later dismissed the “plastic rice” claims after preliminary tests.

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (AFRICA RISKS IMPORTING $110b FOOD IN 2025)

The Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr. Nteranya Sanginga has warned that the
neglect of agriculture would cost Africa continent $110b in terms of food imports in 2025, up from the current $35billion.

Sanginga, who stated this while
addressing members of the Board of Trustees of IITA and researchers during the 2016 Partnership for Development Week (P4D Week) in Ibadan, Oyo State, said there are negative consequences if Africa continued to pay lip service to
agriculture and fails to invest in the sector.

Besides, he said failure to invest in
agriculture would deprive the continent of necessary jobs and further fuel the spiralling rate of unemployment among the youths. The DG acknowledged that though some African governments have come to the
realisation that agriculture was one of the ways to save the continent from the situation, most countries were not investing enough in the sector.

“Take for instance, the commitment to invest at least 10% of national budgets to agriculture. Not many countries are meeting this goal,” he said.
He commended the African Development Bank for the new initiative–Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation
(TAAT) – to transform agriculture in the continent. He explained that the TAAT program is a new initiative of the AfDB in
collaboration with the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research
(CGIAR), under the Feed Africa Initiative to drive agriculture development on the continent.

Through the TAAT program, the Bank aims to invest more than $800m in the agriculture sector. The funds would be channelled into upscaling of proven innovations that will improve the fortunes of farmers and address the twin problem of food insecurity and unemployment.
Sanginga also reiterated IITA’s
commitment to supporting African
smallholder farmers in the context of agribusiness such that agriculture transcends food for the fork to money in the pocket.

According to him, IITA will continue to respond to the needs of Africa by developing innovations that will provide
answers to Africa’s food insecurity. To this end, IITA will be demonstrating its scientific leadership not only in terms of
qualitative research in the lab, but also impact in farmers’ fields.
The DG, who began his second tenure earlier this year said IITA’s priority for the future would focus on research, capacity development, partnerships, impact at scale, and delivery.

He said IITA’s internal reorganisation had put the institute in a better position to
address the challenges confronting Africa, calling on researchers to redouble their
efforts and commitment to the ideas, mission and vision of the institute, which includes lifting out of poverty 11 million Africans, and the reclamation of 7.5 million
hectares of degraded land and putting them into sustainable use.
Chair of IITA Board of Trustees, Prof. Bruce Coulman commended Sanginga for efforts at repositioning IITA for the challenges ahead, stressing that the Board was convinced that “IITA is in safe hands.”

He emphasised that IITA would continue to support Africa in achieving the goal of eradicating hunger and poverty in Africa.
The P4D Week is an annual event that brings together more than 200 international researchers working for IITA across the world to review, share experiences and plan for the way forward.
Deputy Director General, Partnership for Delivery, Dr Kenton Dashiell said the P4D week’s emphasis for the year was not just
on research, but also on delivery at scale.

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (HOW BUHARI CAN ENSURE FOOD REVOLUTION IN NIGERIA)

A retired Deputy Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bishop Fred Adoyi on Monday said that there would be food revolution in the country next year if all Nigerians are encouraged to embrace agriculture.

Adoyi said in Makurdi while receiving an award of honour from the National Farmers,
Export, Cooperative Congress (NAFECC) that with the increase of farm produce in some states of the federation such as, Kebbi this
year, there won’t be any fear of famine in 2017 as being speculated in certain quarters.

He opined that the country would witness reduction of food crisis next year following the current increase in production of food
crops in several states occasioned by the support received from the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration and states government.

The ex-banker now turned Bishop of Mount Zion of Fire Church in Makurdi stressed the need for the federal government to sustain
the effort of revolutionising the agricultural sector by encouraging every Nigerian such as civil servants, schools, corp members and public servants to own a farm.

According to him, with the involvement of everyone and encouragement from the governments to provide necessary farm inputs while banks reduces loan interest rate to between one and nine percent, there would be inevitable revolution in food production in the country such that will grow the nation’s GDP and increase internal reserve.

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (WHY MALNUTRITION IS CRIPPLING NIGERIA)

Lack of access to sufficient food due to an ongoing conflict in northeastern Nigeria will lead to the death of 75,000 children in
the next few months if left unresolved, UN says.
The treatment provided by UNICEF for malnutrition has a cure rate of 86%.

Imagine catching fish. You reel the fish in, bring it onto your boat and take it home where you also grow crops.
Day after day, you are self-sufficient. You can keep feeding yourself and your family because of easily accessible food.

Then one day an insurgency comes. You have to leave home. You go to a camp where the inhabitants are provided with
locally grown food. Where once you ate several meals a day, you now have to wait for days without food in between ration
deliveries to the camp. This is the reality for Aboubaccar, an internally displaced person (IDP) at a camp in Borno state, Nigeria, as reported by the United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP).

He has 13 children to feed.
This is also the reality for 4.4 million people in northeast Nigeria who have been affected by food insecurity, a situation so severe the United Nations expects 75,000 children to die within the
next few months if they do not receive proper treatment for malnutrition.

The lack of food affects children more than any other age group. When Dr Joanne Liu and Dr Natalie Roberts of Doctors without Borders (MSF) went to Nigeria earlier this year, they were astounded by how few children
under the age of five were to be seen.

“Almost none,” they reported in a piece for Time as they wandered through Borno state. The children were gone, having starved to death from malnutrition.
Malnutrition is a condition which “occurs when a person’s diet doesn’t contain the right amount of nutrients .” This can lower
immune resistance to disease.

“A malnourished child is nine times more likely to die from another illness such as malaria or pneumonia or diarrhoea,” Doune Porter, the UNICEF Chief of Communication in Nigeria, told TRT World.

“(Children under five) are the most
vulnerable to malnutrition and most likely to suffer consequences, and permanent
consequences, because this is a time of great development for children,” Porter added.
UNICEF funding to provide children with the treatment they need to recover from malnutrition is running low. (AP) “Poverty, armed conflict, irregular rainfall
and high unemployment in parts of Nigeria contribute to high levels of food insecurity and chronic malnutrition,” the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) said on its Nigeria factsheet.

The primary region of farming has always been in northeastern Nigeria. Agriculture there has been disrupted by the Boko Haram insurgency that has been brewing
in the region since 2009. Boko Haram, headquartered in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, is the armed group responsible
for the massacres of thousands of civilians and for the kidnapping of 276 Chibok school girls in 2014.
“The violence increased dramatically around 2013 […] because of the violence, farmers were not able to plant. In many
cases, people fled their homes and had to leave their food stores behind. And of course [they] did not have access to agricultural land,” said Porter.

The damage in the region is cumulative, Porter confirmed: “Between violence and reduced food seeds, this year we are actually in a situation where a couple of months ago there were pockets of 65,000 people living in famine.”
The food crisis in the area has even driven Boko Haram into neighbouring Cameroon to look for food.

“Farmers [have been] unable to cultivate their land for several years,” said Adel Sarkozi, the West African regional communication officer for WFP.
“[It is] difficult to reach people in need due to insecurity and remote location.”

The issue of not having access to conflict-affected areas compounds the problem.
“There are vast areas in Borno state which are the worst of the affected and are completely inaccessible. We have no idea
what is happening to people there,” Porter said.

Aid trucks attempting to enter such areas have not been able to deliver food.
The UN reported aid trucks going into conflict-hit areas as being ambushed by suspected Boko Haram fighters, leading them to temporarily suspend operations
earlier this year.

Another contribution to the food
insecurity is economic instability in the region, according to the WFP. Commodity prices have soared due to a weak currency, making food unaffordable.

The issue of food in IDP camps running low is further exacerbated by the insecurity in the region. (AP) Aid agencies in the area have attempted to mitigate the shortage by sending food to those who do not have enough.

FOODIE NAIJA UPDATE (NIGERIA SHOULD PROMOTE SMEs TO ENHANCE ECONOMIC GROWTH, FOOD SECURITY)

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has called for the promotion of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to enhance economic growth and ensure food sustainability in the country.

Ganduje said this at the third edition of the Nigeria Entrepreneurs Award in Abuja on
Friday night.
The governor said that the SMEs needed more attention than they were currently getting to promote the efforts of the Federal Government to diversify the economy.

“In order to feed ourselves, produce and export, we have to look at the SMEs,” he said.
He said the state was investing in basic infrastructure to ensure that SMEs were actively involved in “stimulating commercial activities”. “We have 37 very strong micro-finance banks and we have an agency responsible for the banks.

“We secured a loan of N2 billion we distributed through the banks to farmers, real farmers, and we provided the sum of N100 million for weak farmers to buy improved seeds.
“We produce fertilisers beyond the boundaries of Kano which has more qualities than imported ones.”

Ganduje added that youths in the state were also being trained in different skills to build the manpower gap in the state.
He noted that promoting youth development and skills acquisition in the country would impact on its economic growth.

The Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Mr Bashir Wali, said that SMEs were regarded globally as the bedrock of development in any economy.
Wali was represented by Head of Strategic Planning, NEXIM, Mr Tayo Omidiji.

The NEXIM boss said that there was need to develop proper police responses to the issues and challenged SMEs in the country
to support efforts by the government to diversify the economy and enhance economic growth.

“In Nigeria, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency has observed that there are about 37 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in Nigeria employing about 60 million people.

“The MSME sector is also also reckoned to contribute about 50% to the GDP and 7% to export earnings.”
He disagreed with the notion that the major challenge of SMEs was poor access to finance.
He said that improper project project conception, implementation and poor
management practices were the main challenges of SMEs.

“Other challenges include poor access to market, poor record keeping, lack of corporate governance practices and absence or lack of proper business plans.
“Once these issues have been addressed, entrepreneurs will have access to finance and incidents of business failure will reduce and sustainable growth and development can be achieved.”

The co-Founder, Nigeria Entrepreneurs Award, Mr Joshua Uwabor said that encouraging and rewarding entrepreneurial instinct was the economic success of any
nation.
Uwabor said that the award ceremony was aimed at celebrating and promoting the
achievements of entrepreneurs in the country.

“We owe it as a sense of responsibility to always celebrate and promote their (entrepreneurs) achievements.
“They are men and women, who against the tide of recession and economic challenges continue to innovate and provide opportunities for ideas to blossom into job opportunities and economic growth for the nation.”
He added that the event was also to recognise and celebrate the country’s most innovative entrepreneurs, business leaders,
corporate organisations and heads of government agencies that “embody a spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity”.

“We had a call for nomination in May which was open till July; we had the advisory board that did the screening and we put them into categories for voting.
“We had a voting platform for young emerging entrepreneurs on our site and for the organisations we placed them in different categories and had the public vote
for them.”

Highlights of the ceremony included the presentations of different categories of awards to recipients.