ADEQUATE NUTRITION: ITS EFFECTS ON EDUCATION & HEALTHY GROWTH.

The menace of poor nutritive values, over-nutrition, under-nutrition or malnutrition cannot be over-emphasized. It has done more havoc than good in educational sector and also alters the speed growth of improvement in health industry.
Oyegbile (2003) defines nutrition as the study of food and how the body utilizes them. This entails the process by which food is prepared, handled, shared, digested and absorbed in the body. The question comes to our minds, why are cases of mental retardation and death more prevalent amongst Nigerian children. The answer is not far fetched. Ignorance and poverty on the part of most Nigerian parents are some of the key factors that divert their minds away from taken food components in their right proportion.
Brundtland (1999) describe nutrition as a key universal factor that affects, as much as it defines, the death of all people. A banal observation, but the thing is it so obvious a truth that it is regularly overlooked. Well functioning metabolism based on a regular intake of the proper mix of nutrients, safely ingested, prepares our bodies for the main tasks at hand-growth, development, work resistance to infection, and the attainment and enjoyment of physical and mental well-being.
Ignorance as one of the contributing factors to poor nutrition cannot be ruled-out. Nigerians and the rest of Africa today still believe in the intake of luxury and bulky food components without thinking of the nutritive impact. The effects of nutrition not only on growth and physical development, but also on cognitive and social development are well documented. A malnourished child is not only vulnerable to disease. Cognitive development will be in peril, especially during the first three years of life. Stunted physical growth such as in cretinism is closely linked to reduced mental development.
Why are we not creative enough in our country? It is simply because our immune or defense systems are not well boosted as a result of under-nutrition or malnutrition and by so doing, our thinking faculty is not rich enough due to low intelligent quotient. A well-fed child with sound immune system will be highly creative and stands in the best position to prevent or combat infection. This points out the reason why individual, firms and government of ours depend on the handwork of foreign workers, so-called expatriates.
If we were to point to one single factor explaining ill health in one word today, it is poverty. Poverty is the main obstacle to the attainment of health. Poverty leads to ill health but it also works the other way. Ill health breeds poverty. Where there is structural poverty and ill health, there will be poor development, poor nutrition, poor health which will lead to death. Poverty leads to a distorted intake of nutrients, too little, too much, or unsaved or with too great a loss of nutrients. Examples can be traced to diarrhea and errors of metabolism. We easily fall prey to ill health and disease. This is an undeniable physiological reality. Good poverty alleviation program through faithful leaders and proper mix of nutrients under clean and safe conditions must be available to all.
Statistics has it that on the average 18% of government expenditure is on health. Not to forget, children boast of 32% of the entire Nigeria populace. How many times have we thought that government expenditure on health can be reduced if our children are well fed? Malnourished people have a higher degree to susceptibility to infection and vice-versa. If we take good nutrition of paramount importance, our children are less sick and so huge amount the government spends on sick people is drastically reduced. These monies reflect in developing our social, education, infrastructures and other sectors that contributes our economy.
The correlation between adequate nutrition and health growth cum education of a nation cannot be well explained without tracing the source, which is agriculture. The impact of agriculture cannot be sidelined when discussing facts on nutrition. Our agricultural system is nothing to write home about. There is no improvement, no basic amenities, low manpower, inadequate funds and total lack of encouragement. The only thing we embrace in this country remains windfalls from oil sector and how to embezzle money. Most of commercial and subsistence farmers do harvest bad farm output and whenever there is good turnout, the storage facilities will not be good enough to store these outputs and by so doing, micro organisms will gain access into this food stuffs and continue transmission from there; this is one of the reasons while a lot of people in Nigeria do complain of food poison caused by Clostridium botulinum. Other forms of disease like cancer, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, and peptic ulcer can also be linked to poor preservation of food items.
The effects of good nutrition cannot be well explained without remembering the golden words of an Indian man, Sir Mahatma Gandhi of blessed memory “remember the face of the poor malnourished child you came across and measure how your feet can benefit him”. Doctors, nurses, dietetics, pediatricians, governors and directors of higher cadre, this menace of bad nutritive values has drastically affected our educational and health growth in a negative manner. We should always think of the malnourished people, poor people and the majority at large and look for means of rescuing them from diseases and death.

Olajide.Moses
Julius Berger Clinic,
15, Ijora causeway,
Ijora-Olopa, Lagos.
Tel…08034176231
mosmedicals@yahoo.com