Eating healthy and preventing NCDs in Fiji
AHEALTHY diet helps to protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as a range of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and other conditions. However, increased production of processed foods, rapid urbanisation and changing lifestyles have led to a shift in dietary patterns.
People are now consuming more foods high in energy, fats, free sugars and salt/sodium, and many people do not eat enough fruit, vegetables and wholegrains.
Diet can depend on an individual’s food choices, but also the availability and affordability of healthy foods and sociocultural factors.
Therefore, promoting a healthy food environment requires involvement across multiple sectors and stakeholders, including government, the public and the private sector.
Governments have a central role in creating a healthy food environment that enables people to easily adopt and maintain healthy dietary practices. Effective actions by policy-makers include:
Co-ordinating trade, food system and agricultural policies with the protection and promotion of public health;
Encouraging consumers’ demand for healthy foods and meals; and
Promoting healthy nutrition across the life course. The WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health was adopted in 2004 by the World Health Assembly.
It called on governments, WHO, international partners, the private sector and civil society to take action at global, regional and local levels to support healthy diets and physical activity.
The highest leading causes of premature death in Fiji is attributed to cardiovascular related diseases, which one can say without hesitation, are the direct result of uncontrolled non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Cardiovascular diseases are commonly caused by uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension and the abnormal increase in the level of cholesterol in our blood vessels.
The above are directly related to our lifestyle, which forms the so called “predisposing factors”, which includes unhealthy diet with lack of adequate physical daily exercises, smoking and uncontrolled consumption of kava and alcohol.
Although, kava is scientifically considered as a natural drink, in Fiji, the traditionally prolonged sitting, the associated smoking with “chasers”, and the tendency to have a heavy meal in the late nights directly leads to obesity and overweight, because the food consumed will not be metabolised or used as source of energy by our body, but stored in the form of fat.
“We eat to work!” And we will not eat to sleep! Food metabolism will need regular physical activity which happens during the day.
Our bodies will require a lot of available energy for our daily activities, and thus, our breakfast should be the heaviest meal of the day.
Unhealthy diet will contribute to abnormally raised blood levels of sugars and fats, which can lead to diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia with hypercholesterolemia.
Uncontrolled diabetes cause gradual obstruction of small blood vessels, which later gives rise to decrease blood flow, and eventually, causes complete obstruction of the blood vessels.
The normal daily functions of our body organs directly depends on the quality and quantity of blood flow, in order to contribute effectively, to the collective well-being of our lives.
Through our local hospital settings, the treatment of complications of NCDs is very common, that it’s almost the same picture of a severe communicable disease!
The frustration and physical emotional impact that directly or indirectly affects our individual and family lives, as we face the dilemma of treating one complication over another is so overwhelming.
Let us sit back and recall the livelihood of our elders in the past for which NCDs was not an issue or a disease. Fiji was not “developed” then!
One factor that stood out clearly was the level of physical activity they did compared with us and as well as, the healthy diet which they consumed, which was always natural and fresh from the farm.
Some school of thoughts may argue that this is normal to have NCDs, however, in Fiji we can still change and reaffirm that NCDs is a preventable diseases.
Leaking taps causes our floors to be wet and slippery, thus, if we want to have a dry floor, we will need to first of all turn off the tap, then mop dry our floors.
We cannot be expecting to have a dry floor through mopping alone.
Likewise, with regard to NCDs, treating the complications will not control and prevent premature deaths, but beginning at the individual level, we must change our mindset to urgently live healthy lifestyles.
We have dietitians around the country who can assist us with a suitable healthy diet plan which when designed and established, will require total and obedient compliance from our side.
In addition, business owners always conduct their annual financial audit in order to monitor and evaluate their annual performance and productivity, and will map plans geared towards improving productivity.
Likewise, we must conduct our day-to-day activities as a business through a six monthly or annual health audit in order to know the status of our health; and that is whether we are free of the NCDs predisposing factors or whether we need to seek professional assistance in the control and prevention of above life threatening lifestyle factors.
In summary, it is of vital importance that we have an urgent change in our mind-set, live a healthy lifestyle with regular physical activity.
In addition, we must visit our nearest healthcare provider to receive the actual status of our health and let us embrace the professional advice with strict compliance.
Individually, we need to effectively contribute to collective performance and productivity of our Fiji.
is a general practitioner at Oceania Hospitals Pte Ltd. The views expressed are the author’s and do not reflect the views of this newspaper.