Practice good lifestyles and eating habits - Prof Akosa

Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, a Cellular Pathologist and Lifestyle Wellness Consultant on Thursday urged all Ghanaians to practice good lifestyles and better eating habits to enhance their lives and wellbeing.

Ghanaians have allowed themselves to be imbibed by Western lifestyles and are now struggling with Western diseases, which the health services of the country cannot control, he said.

Prof. Akosa said this at the 10th National Development Forum in Accra on the theme: “Establishing Preventive Focus for Health; lifestyle for National Development”. The forum was organised by the National Development Planning Commission.

He advised Ghanaians against bad lifestyles such as the poor sanitation, alcohol consumption, and the consumption of energy dense drinks, which were dangerous to the health.

He noted that in Ghana, most beverages have more than the recommended sugar content of 22.5g per cent of energy such as soft drinks, fruit juices, cereals, energy drinks, which invariably affect health conditions.

However, Ghana is undergoing three transitions- demographic, epidemiological, and nutrition transition.

Demographic transition focuses on changes in population from youthful stage, largely from rural with high fertility to ageing and urbanized and low fertility rate.

Epidemiological transition is where the country is moving from complex interplay of health and disease from a society of high death rates from infectious disease and to one in which deaths are from chronic degenerative diseases.

The nutrition transition involves rapid change from traditional diet to foreign highly processed diet.

Prof Akosa said that Ghanaian local foods were healthier than the foreign foods adding that the recommended diet were the fermented unpolished, and high fibre carbohydrates saying an individual should eat at least five portions in a day.

He encouraged citizens to cultivate the habit of exercising regularly to keep them in healthy conditions.

According to him, the benefits of increased physical activity improves mental function, improves sleep and body repair mechanisms and sexual function, adding that regular physical activity reduces the risk of coronary heart diseases, stroke, among others.

Prof. Matilda Steiner-Aseidu, Lecturer at School of Biological Sciences, University of Ghana contributing to the forum said poor diet habits by Ghanaian were one of the major causes of certain diseases in the society.

She said there was the need for health institutions and government to educate the public about the negative effects of taking certain foods beyond the recommended level.

Prof. Reginald Ocansey, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Ghana, said the physical exercises in the schools, which were supposed to help keep students healthy had been role out of the curriculum.

He said there was the need for authorities to revisit the programme into the schools’ curriculum for a healthy body.

He urged Medical Schools in the country to introduce physical activity courses in their academic calendar.