On today’s show, we had Victor Ajieroh, Senior food systems, and Nutrition specialist who spoke extensively about Nutrition and Nigeria’s development.
Nutrition is the process of consuming, absorbing, and using nutrients needed by the body for the growth, development, and maintenance of life.
To receive adequate, appropriate nutrition, people need to consume a healthy diet, which consists of a variety of nutrients—the substances in foods that nourish the body.
However, according to Victor Ajieroh, nutrition is a package and it starts with food to the nutrients derived from water which is an important nutrient. When you look at it like taht you will realize it goes across, agriculture, the environment and wealth so we need to look at it comprehensively and those things that can enable individuals in a society to be able to thrive and get nourished.
But when it comes to nutritional development, it’s about people and when you put people first, you need to address their basic and fundamental needs.
Nutrition plays a critical role in human resource development since deficiencies in essential nutrients lead to malnutrition, which affects an individual’s mental and physical state, resulting in poor health and poor work performance.
Good nutritional status can only be realized and sustained when individuals within families and communities are food-secure. Food security has been defined as access by all people at all times to the food needed for a healthy life (FAO/WHO, 1992a).
Food security has three important dimensions: adequate availability of food supplies; assured access to sufficient food for all individuals; and its proper utilization to provide a proper and balanced diet.
The state of hunger and malnutrition within a country is related to its level of development (OMNI, 1998).
The relationship between nutrition and human resource development was best described by the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) held in Rome, which, in its World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition, stated that the nutritional well-being of all people is a pre-condition for the development of societies and is a key objective of progress in human development.
The World Declaration of the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) emphasized the need for all governments to:
ensure that development programmes and policies lead to a sustainable improvement in human welfare mindful of the environment and should be conducive to better nutrition and health for present and future generations.
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