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Sunday, April 28, 2024
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Food

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Health safety practitioner and senior registrar in the Department of Community Health at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr. Odusolu Yetunde, explained that zinc is a common element in human and an essential trace element or micronutrient needed for immune regulating function, which helps to prevent diseases, especially of bacterial and viral origin.

She said: “It is also known for the vital role it plays in the normal growth and development of the reproductive organs and brain. It helps in wound healing and is important for proper sense of taste and smell. It is also associated with assisting the body in the production of protein and its DNA. In fact, zinc has been associated with over 300 biological functions. The body does not produce zinc. So, it must be obtained through food or supplements.

“Zinc deficiency in children is caused, when demand is greater than supply, which can be occasioned by inadequate intake through the diet, decrease absorption due to diarrhoea episodes, as well other malabsorption syndromes.”

She explained that it could also result from a diet high in phytate (it limits the bioavailability of zinc) and some chronic diseases, such as that of liver and kidney. “Zinc deficiency in children is particularly marked by increased susceptibility to such infections as diarrheal and respiratory tract infections and associated growth retardation. Other features of zinc deficiency are dermatitis of the skin, anorexia and alopecia.”

She said deficiency in zinc could also manifest in behavioural changes and neurological disturbances. Also, the deficiency has also been linked to poor cognitive performance, which may affect academic performance, as well as the motor development and activity of children.

She said: “Zinc intake is closely related to protein intake. Consequently, zinc deficiency is an important component of nutritionally related morbidity globally. Its deficiency has been associated with poverty and malnutrition, and is part of the hidden hunger associated with micronutrients.

“Zinc deficiency can also be due to a genetic cause, which manifests in form of a rare autosomal recessive disease called idiopathic acrodermatitis enteropathica (AE) in which the child’s acral and periorificial dermatitis and low serum zinc levels. In this case, treatment with zinc is for life.

There is another type of zinc deficiency known as transient infantile zinc deficiency (TIZD), which is a disease that is clinically indistinguishable from idiopathic AE, although they have different pathologic mechanisms. It occurs during the first six months of life, usually in infants with increased zinc requirements and/or inadequate diet concentrations of zinc, which is due to low zinc levels in the maternal breast milk. Zinc deficiency can be managed in children by supplementation of zinc or by treatment.”

Odusolu disclosed that zinc deficiency is estimated to be related to 750,000 deaths annually and according to the WHO; stunted growth is found in over a quarter of under-five children, and they are at risk of dying and having other adverse consequences throughout life. However, it has been shown that zinc supplementation has greater impact on the linear growth of stunted children, compared to non-stunted ones.

“Zinc supplementation is safe and has been recommended as an effective intervention to reduce morbidity (disease state) associated with especially diarrhoea and lower respiratory tract infections in young children,” she said. “The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for infants aged 0-6 month(s) is 2.0 mg, and it is 3.0 mg per day for young children aged 7-36 months, 5.0mg per day for 4- 8years old, 8.0mg per day for 9-13years old.

“Mild zinc deficiency should be treated with zinc supplementation at two to three times the recommended dietary allowance (RDA), whereas moderate to severe can be treated at four to five times the RDA. The treatment can last from three to four months or as long as six months. Zinc treatment is inexpensive, safe, and easy. It is usually instituted in children with acute diarrhoea episode. Zinc treatment shortens the diarrhoea episode, reduces the risk of episode being persistent, and reduces the risk of future diarrhoea or pneumonia.

“Zinc treatment has been found to reduce mortality. The World health organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have recommended 10-14 days of zinc treatment for under-five children with each diarrhoea illness. The recommended dosage is 20 mg per day for ages six to 59 months and 10 mg per day for age less than six months for a period of 10-14 days.

“Some foods are found to be rich in zinc. Therefore, parents are urged to give their children food rich in zinc, such as meat (beef, pork), poultry (turkey, chicken), fish (sardines, salmon), legumes (beans, kidney beans, lentils), nuts and seeds (cashew, pumpkin seeds), dairy products (milk, yoghurt and cheese), egg, whole grains (oats, brown rice), vegetables (mushrooms, peas and shellfish (oysters, crab), among others.”

She explained that the challenges of daily administration of zinc supplement, especially in poor resource setting like Nigeria, may include constraints of procurement and distribution of supplements over an extended period of time, limited access to and poor utilisation of health services by the target population, inadequate training and motivation of frontline health workers, inadequate counseling of target recipients or their care givers and low adherence by the intended beneficiaries.

“Zinc deficiency can also be controlled, when the problems of hidden hunger are addressed through: Food diversification, which can be done effectively through food based strategies, such as home gardening, educating people on better infant and young child feeding practices, food preparation and storage/preservation methods to prevent nutrient loss.

“Food fortification, which includes commercial food fortification that adds trace amounts of micronutrients to staple food or condiments during processing. This helps to get the recommended levels of micronutrients, when consumed. For example, wheat flour can be fortified with zinc.

Food supplementation: As discussed above, this can be scaled up in our country, as it has been done in some climes (SUZY-Scaling Up Zinc Nutrition in Young Children).

“Food biofortification is a relatively new intervention that involves breeding of food crops, using conventional or transgenic methods to increase their micro micronutrient content. Biofortified foods can provide a steady and safe source of certain micronutrients for those that are not reached by other interventions. Example of biofortified food is zinc rice and zinc wheat, among others.”

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There may not be a fountain of youth, but the food we eat and how we treat ourselves can prevent or even reverse aging. Your body needs the right nutrients to fight off damage, and your skin is no different. Nutrients help the cells replicate and have more energy. Processed foods, stress, toxins and low-nutrient diets will accelerate aging. Protecting yourself from harmful chemicals while getting enough sleep, relaxation and exercise will all help you maintain a healthy glow.

1. Drink plenty of water.
Even with a small amount of dehydration, your body functions in a less optimal way. The instant you’re dehydrated, it will take a toll on your skin, causing it to look dull, flaky, saggy and loose.
2. Eat foods with antioxidants. 
Antioxidants are the best resources your body has to fight disease and aging by reducing damage and inflammation. Inflammation is a leading cause of wrinkle formation. Some of the best sources of antioxidants include:
  • Blueberries
  • Pomegranates
  • Acai berries
  • Goji berries
  • Spinach
  • Raspberries
  • Nuts
  • Seeds
  • Purple grapes
  • Dark chocolate (70% or higher of cocoa content)
  • Organic green tea
3. Have a rainbow-colored plate of food.
Free radicals form in our bodies and cause major damage to our cell structures. The different nutrient-rich foods we eat neutralize them. You need to consume the widest variety of antioxidants you can to fight off the different kinds of free radicals. Think about what colors you’ve missed throughout the day, and try to incorporate them into your next meal.
4. Eat organic foods.
This curtails consumption of aging toxins.
5. Limit your sun exposure. 
Small amounts of daily sun produce vitamin D and are beneficial, but too much sun will damage your skin. Don’t forget to wear your sunglasses, and use zinc or titanium dioxide sunscreen.
6. Opt for natural skin products.
Many skincare products contain harsh chemicals. When choosing moisturizers or makeup, research the ingredients in them the best you can to confirm that they’re safe.
7. Use non-toxic cleaning products. 
It is imperative to limit exposure to toxic chemicals because the skin absorbs them.
8. Own a plant.
Indoor pollution levels can be even higher than outdoor levels. A plant in your home or by your desk at work will act as an air filter.
9. Get enough vitamin C.
A diet rich in vitamin C leads to fewer wrinkles. Researchers have found that skin exposed to vitamin C for long periods of time can produce up to eight times more collagen!
10. Avoid sugar.
It leads to damaged collagen and elastin, which cause wrinkles.
11. Eat healthy fats.
Incorporating foods such as avocados, olive oil, flax seeds, nuts and fish into your diet is important. The fatty acids are crucial for your skin to look youthful.
12. Cleanse your body.
A build up of toxins in the body due to the air, water and food causes damage to the body as well as aging. Detoxing by way of a juice cleanse is recommended for the body to be able to focus on energy production and eliminating toxins. Having a glass of water with squeezed lemon first thing in the mornings is also very cleansing.
13. Engage in activities that relieve stress.
High levels of stress will compromise your skin. Consider yoga or meditating. Eliminate problematic people and activities from your life. Confide in your friends and openly talk to them about your worries and troubles.
14. Sleep.
You skin rejuvenates and repairs itself mostly while you are asleep. Make sure that you not only sleep for eight hours a night, but that it is quality sleep.
15. Exercise. 
It increases the circulation of oxygen and nutrients and releases toxins through sweat, which leads to clearer, firmer skin. Remember to smile. It’s the best exercise for your face.

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When next you handle a dirty currency, try and smell it. You’ll be surprised at how irritating to the nose it could be!

We are talking about any currency here, and not just the naira. However, because the majority of us only have access to our legal tender, we might as well focus on the naira.

The way the local sellers, especially the market women, handle the naira notes range from bizarre to the ridiculous.

Have you ever been handed money that was drawn directly out of the brassieres? Say, how does it feel holding money that has been soaked in someone’s sweat?

What about butchers who habitually smear money with blood of animals? Give them a neat note and right in your presence, they will smear it with blood, sending the pollution course in motion immediately.

As for bus conductors, if the naira could talk, it would cry foul each time those uncouth commercial bus conductors and the drivers use it to wipe sweat or clean dirty nose!

To some people, the naira note comes handy for picking ears. They simply roll it up and use the sharp edge to draw out ear wax.

And, what about people who lick their fingers repeatedly just to be able to separate the notes as they count money!

How often do you come across badly soiled naira, even when you withdraw money from the ATM? Usually, what comes out of the ATM are limp, torn and smelly notes that should have been withdrawn from circulation ages ago!

Yet, apart from the national shame that we feel each time we come across these badly handled notes, physicians are saying that dirty currencies are fully of germs that readily transit from hand to hand, such that no one could escape getting infected once you handle the money.

Germs and pathogens on money

When a child is playing with money, the average adult is only concerned about the money not getting lost. We hardly think of the possible ill health that could result from having an encounter with soiled notes!

Yet, unlike other commodities that could be neglected if found lying carelessly on the floor, the average person would pick up money, even if it perches atop a mound of poop! And when such money lands in your palm, you have no way of knowing how far it has travelled before it gets to you.

As such, it is dangerous to get careless with money by using your lips to hold it, for instance, while searching for something in your bag; or by allowing a child to play with money unsupervised.

A virologist with the Ministry of Health, Dr. Tolu Samuel, says the way the naira is treated leaves no one in doubt that each note carries thousands of several types of bacteria on its surface.

She says that without any fear of contradiction, the common bacteria that are likely to be found on dirty notes include the types that will be found in the mouth, bum and poop.

Elaborating further, the scientist says the act of licking the fingers when counting money introduces microbes that reside in the mouth; while those who don’t clean their hands properly after each bathroom use are responsible for the bacteria that are traceable to the private parts and poop.

She adds that though many viruses and bacteria cannot survive on any surface — including money surface — for more than 48 hours, live flu virus can survive on paper money for up to 17 days!

She says this is because, even without playing dirty with a currency, the human hands are colonised by millions of bacteria; and because money exchanges hands frequently, it is easy to pass pathogens around as money exchanges hands!

She counsels, “While scientists are not able to categorically say how much money aids in the transmission of disease-causing bacteria, common sense dictates that you should wash your hands after handling money, just the way you do after using the bathroom.”

Samuel warns that with the way some naira notes are heavily soiled, she wouldn’t be surprised to find multi-drug resistant pathogens on any of them if taken to the laboratory for analysis.

“What this suggests is that the population is exposed to the risk of not having effective prevention and treatment of a range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi,” Samuel warns.

Indeed, scientists warn that patients who have infections that are caused by drug-resistant bacteria are generally at increased risk of worse clinical outcomes, including death!

Have you ever taken ill after eating out, even in a swanky restaurant? It happens quite frequently and we sometimes think it’s because we developed sensitivity to the food.

Well, may be; as researchers warn that those who prepare food after handling contaminated currency notes have a higher risk of infecting themselves and others with food-borne pathogens such as shigella and salmonella.

Samuel says when you contact either salmonella or shigella, it can lead to abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhoea and fever, which will require medical attention without delay.

“What this translates into is that those who handle food must be careful to wash their hands after handling money. Otherwise, they may transfer disease pathogens that are on the surface of money into food. The situation is worse when that food wouldn’t need to be cooked before eating,” the virologist says.

The bottom line: Wash your hands frequently.

PUNCH.

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We know how hard it can be to stop yourself from reaching for the candy but these battle-tested strategies will help you crush cravings and avoid weight gain.

Keep the enemy out of the house

Know your enemy, and even if it’s healthy, if you are likely to overeat it, keep it out of your cupboard, office, car, glove compartment, desk, or anywhere it will be a temptation.

Eat by the plate

Make breakfast a crave-crushing protein shake, and for your meals combine clean, lean protein with healthy fats, tons of leafy and cruciferous veggies, and slow-release high-fibre carbohydrates

Eat by the clock

Eat within an hour of waking up to get your metabolism going for the day. Then eat every four to six hours. Stop eating three hours before bed. Let’s face it, when you skip meals or space meals too far apart, you are going to reach for something easy and quick — which usually means it isn’t healthy.

Write it down

One study found that people who wrote down everything they ate lost twice as much weight as those who didn’t. If a supplement made that claim, you would be all over it. The nice thing about journaling is this: Let’s say at 4 p.m. you have this crazy craving. You can go back and review, “What did I do at lunch? What happened to create this craving?”

Beware of snacking

When you eat every four to six hours, you stabilise your blood sugar and you shouldn’t be hungry. Between meals, you should be drinking filtered water and crave-busting green tea.

If you are hungry, look at your journal and determine whether you ate enough. If you’re doing everything correctly yet still get between-meal munchies, reach for some slow-roasted or dehydrated almonds, or maybe a protein shake. First, just determine whether you’re really hungry or just succumbing to a bad habit.

Create accountability

Commit to yourself. Write down your goal, have a bathroom talk with yourself if you feel tempted at your next social gathering, and remember that little black dress (or maybe skinny jeans) that awaits you for that big New Year’s Eve party.

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Ordinary life may constantly present to us many hardships, challenges, problems, and undesirable issues (as well as joys and positive experiences).   The comforts of good food, a good home, and a good family life are the ordinary means of retirement from each day’s work and social experiences.

If you could invent or find a moodometer to measure your mood, you may find a depression in mood when hungry and tired and an elevation in mood after eating a meal that is good, nice, and delicious.

The human mind of a person in a civil society requires an ability to keep its balance or to keep balancing itself throughout a life of mental bombardments.  Many factors make up a fit mind and the chief amongst these factors may be good nutrition of the brain, regular use of the brain in thinking, and regular use of the mind in prayer.  Nutrition of the brain may be ultimate as the living brain is what makes thinking and prayer possible.However, a biologically alive brain does not always make a good mind without regular and effective exercise of thought and prayer.

Food that yields good nutrition is important.  What a person eats or doesn’t eat can help him or her remain mentally balanced or can make him mentally unbalanced.“A hungry man is an angry man” says an English proverb. Can food and eating habits run us psychotic, depressive, or manic? Bloody uprisings and revolutions arise from hungry people exploding against real or perceived oppressors. Women know that one of the easiest ways to a man’s heart or wallet is his stomach.  A man will think positively towards you if you feed him well.

The Mental Health Foundation (http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/d/diet/) indicates that someresearch show that:  “Nearly two thirds of those who do not report daily mental health problems eat fresh fruit or fruit juice every day, compared with less than half of those who do report daily mental health problems. This pattern is similar for fresh vegetables and salad. Those who report some level of mental health problem also eat fewer healthy foods (fresh fruit and vegetables, organic foods and meals made from scratch) and more unhealthy foods (chips and crisps, chocolate, ready meals and takeaways).”  Now all these foods are good to some extent but the proportion or frequency in which they are consumed is what matters for good brain function.

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