With over 149 million children stunted or too short for their age, there is the need for stakeholders to adopt preventive measures to address the challenge of malnutrition, under-nutrition and deficiencies in essential nutrients, Pharm. Johnson Olusetire, Managing Director/CEO Olpharm Nigeria Limited has noted.
Making reference to the latest report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on the “The State of the World’s Children 2009″, he said Nigeria must prioritize nutrition – “as a health, education, development, and economic issue.”
He added that based on the report, 50 million children are wasted, or too thin for their height; 340 million children – or 1 in 2 – suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin A and iron while 40 million children are overweight or obese.
Olusetire stated this at the presentation of Hexagon Nutrition products in Nigeria, which he said was aimed at contributing to the Global Scaling Up Nutrition Movement.
Olpharm Nutrition partnered Hexagon Nutrition, the number 1 global nutrition company, to face Nigeria nutrition challenges and proffer solutions by identifying the support we all need to accelerate efforts and achieve success.”
According to him, global bodies identify Good Nutrition as the foundation for development.
He blamed the “triple burden of malnutrition– under-nutrition, hidden hunger and overweight” on “a broken food system that fails to provide children with the diets they need to grow healthily.”
He however noted that governments, development agencies, foundations, civil society groups, businesses and the research community “are aligning their focus on the full spectrum of people’s nutrition – bringing together all forms of malnutrition (including specific nutrient deficiencies, under-nutrition and over-weight)”
