Expert warns against packaging foods in aluminium foil

A health expert, Professor Linus Ezenweke, has raised alarm over the increasing consumption of foods and edibles packaged in aluminium foils by the Nigerian public.

Ezenweke, a lecturer in the Department of Applied and Industrial Chemistry, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State, said that many cancer patients could have gotten it from consuming fruit juice and ‘Moi-Moi’ packaged in aluminum foils, a popular practice in most eateries and kitchens.

Delivering a paper at the 5th Inaugural Lecture of the institution, Ezenweke attributed the current high incidence of cancer to the negligence of the traditional feeding and cooking methods.

He said that aluminum accumulates in the kidneys, brain, lungs, liver and thyroid where it competes with calcium for absorption and can affect skeletal mineralisation.

While canvassing wrapping and cooking of foods with leaves instead of metals in form of aluminum foils, Ezenweke revealed that aluminum is one of the toxic metals. He said studies have revealed that it targets the central nervous system and contributes to brain diseases through the production of oxidative stress.

His said aluminum intake also exposes people to health risks that could be harmful especially to sufferers of ailments like bone diseases or renal impairment, often reducing the growth of human brain cells.

“People should be aware that in practice, many of the things we eat are artificial and we tend to lose our immunity because most of them are contaminated with metals. We have left our roots, the culture of our parents where ‘Moi-Moi’ for instance, and other foods that are wrapped and cooked, are done with leaves instead of using metals in form of aluminum foils.

“Most of these foods and vegetables contain heavy metal that are detrimental to the health and are the source of cancer which is excessive growth of cells caused by the catalysed metals,” he said.

He stated that maintaining a healthy lifestyle and avoiding the risk factors responsible for majority of these cancers can help to reduce the global burden of the disease.

He said that having a small garden for planting vegetables with compose manure application would ensure production of organic instead of inorganic foods.

Ezenweke said people should avoid unhealthy diets, canned foods, red meat and animal fat, but eat more of freshly prepared food, including fresh vegetables, fruits, and legumes.