A Professor of Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, Juliana Anyika-Elekeh, has called for the adoption of proper nutrition practices to prevent anaemia and other nutrition-related health challenges among adolescents.
Delivering the university’s 64th Inaugural Lecture, titled “Adolescence: A Bridge Between Childhood and Their Need for Adequate Nutrition,” Anyika-Elekeh cited a World Health Organization (WHO) report indicating that over two billion people globally suffer from anaemia, while about five billion, representing 80 per cent of the world’s population, are iron-deficient due to poor dietary habits.
She defined adolescence as the period between the ages of 10 and 19, describing it as a critical transition between childhood and adulthood.
Adequate nutrition, she explained, involves consuming meals containing all essential nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, and water in the right proportions.
Anyika-Elekeh explained that anaemia occurs when the body lacks sufficient healthy red blood cells or haemoglobin to transport oxygen to tissues, leading to fatigue, weakness, and shortness of breath. She attributed this largely to poor and inadequate nutrition among adolescents.
To address this, she advised adolescents to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables while reducing consumption of soft drinks and junk foods. She also called for aggressive nutrition education programmes targeted at both adolescents and their parents.
According to her, three major actions could help improve adolescent feeding habits: Nutrition education for adolescents and their parents to promote healthy eating practices; early inculcation of proper feeding habits beginning from childhood and continuous nutrition awareness campaigns within schools, as well as communities.
Anyika-Elekeh also urged the university to ensure that only nutritious snacks are sold within the school premises and that fruits and vegetables are made available in shops to boost students’ micronutrient intake.
She noted that nutritional requirements increase significantly during adolescence, with females requiring about 2,200 kilocalories daily and males between 2,500 and 3,000 kilocalories.
The nutrition expert further appealed to the federal and state governments to support farmers to produce food on a larger scale through access to loans and timely payment of workers’ salaries, saying such measures would empower parents to provide adequate meals for their children.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Maduebibisi Iwe, who is also a food scientist, emphasised that proper nutrition and balanced diets are essential for healthy growth and national development.
