Just as an unsanitary environment can be a cause of illness, poor lifestyle and particularly poor eating habits can have serious consequences on human health.
According to nutrition experts, diet-related chronic diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Whether we are in poor or rich countries, the observation is the same; there are more and more people suffering from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (aneurysms, heart attacks, hypercholesterolemia, high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke, etc.), dental diseases and others.
Diseases have always existed but they have taken on worrying proportions on a global scale and prompt us to question the role of diet in human health. In a world that is increasingly attractive and competitive on all levels and particularly that of food, we have the impression that consumers are more concerned about taste and quantity rather than nutritional values and recommended daily portions by experts. Eating too fatty, too sweet, too salty has become a daily habit that many people are not ready to break even if it is said that it will have a bad impact on their physical and even mental health.
Figures that worry and increase over time
According to a study by the Pan-African Health Organization, the number of people with diabetes worldwide increased from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014. Additionally, in developing countries, the number of people who are overweight and obese increased from 250 to 904 million between 1980 and 2008 (latribune.fr – January 2014).
The results of work published in the New England Journal of Medicine (an American medical journal) in 2015 reported 700 million obese people worldwide (including children and adults). According to the World Health Organization, in 2022, 2.5 billion adults aged 18 and over were overweight and of this total, more than 890 million were obese.
In Africa, as the daily journal le monde reported in 2023, more than one in two diabetics are unknowingly ill. In addition, 24 million people were affected by the disease in 2021. A figure which is expected to double according to the World Health Organization by 2045.
Ourworldindata.org reports to us that in 2000, around 14 million people around the world died from cardiovascular disease compared to 18 million in 2019. The World Health Organization specifies that they are the main cause of death in the world with 17.9 million deaths each year. The same organization reported in one of its studies information from the Global Burden Disease that in 2019 3.5 billion people were affected by oral diseases in the world and that untreated tooth decay is the one of the most widespread non-communicable diseases among 14-21 year olds.
Prioritize quality and not quantity
Faced with a growing threat which is making many people unhappy, preventive solutions are recommended by experts with a view not to not or no longer contracting these diseases, but rather to reduce the risk of contracting them because in fact no one is safe. Among the range of measures recommended and which boil down to the prohibition of excesses, the privileging of food quality over quantity is especially strongly recommended even if some believe that it is not by favouring a quality which does not take into account their cultural and economic context that they will not get sick. Indeed, among those who prioritize quality because they have the necessary means, there are others who prioritize quantity because they do not have the means to satisfy these requirements. Moreover, the problem is even more cultural than economic because in fact and still according to certain experts, Men being determined by the environment, and consequently by the foods found there, will not fall ill because of a permanent consumption of one or more foods that belong to one's cultural context but rather by adopting foreign eating habits. In this sense, quality takes on a cultural dimension independently of economic, political and climatic reasons which can affect human daily life and lead to famine and malnutrition, particularly in Africa.
A person who lives in Africa and Cameroon in particular and who has the habit of eating, for example, solidified corn porridge (couscous) every day with vegetables, will not have the same health if he starts eating frozen foods and canned foods every day.
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If the rate of food-related diseases continues to increase, it is perhaps more because of genetically modified organisms, the abusive use of pesticides, the proliferation of counterfeit products, the abusive consumption of more sweet and attractive among other things to the point where malnutrition is no longer only the fact of a continent but of the whole world because when some complain of famine and malnutrition because of drought, others complain junk food (malnutrition) due to excessive consumption of fatty, sweet, salty, frozen and canned foods.
To think about quality and living well, you must first think about yourself and favour local quality products even in a context characterized by counterfeiting or the adoption of reprehensible means and methods to make money in disregard for the lives of others. In a context where we are no longer sure of anything it is important to favour foods grown in our environment, to clean up your living environment, Favoured organic foods, fought against drought by planting trees, consumed salt and sugar in moderation, practiced physical activities and leisure activities, breathed deeply every day, avoided excessive pleasures and finally campaigned for the end of conflicts and wars in the world and in Africa particularly.
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