THE Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Christianah Adeyeye, on Thursday, advised Nigerians to stop the consumption of sodium (non-iodised salt) to prevent cardiovascular disease.
She gave the advice at the University of Abuja, at a stakeholders meeting on ‘Evaluation Implementation and Scale-up of Nigeria’s National Sodium Reduction Activities.
The programme was organised by Nigeria sodium study in collaboration with the cardiovascular research centre, university of Abuja, George Institute for global health, National Agency For Food And Drug Administration And Control (NAFDAC) Federal Ministry of Health and Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of medicine.
According to her, the objectives of the meeting are to present the preliminary findings of the first phase of the project which involves surveys carried out in FCT, Ogun and Kano and to discuss strategies to scale up reduction of sodium (salt) consumption in the country.
She said, “The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration in collaborations with state, and non-state actors using the scale-up of a national sodium reduction program in WHO’S SHAKE package.
“Purpose of this meeting is to increase awareness of the positive impact of sodium salt reduction on health in the food industry, amongst the policymakers, consumers and other stakeholders on the risk associated with high salt intake.
“Sodium is mainly consumed as salt (sodium chloride) which in the diet can come from processed foods, either because they contain large amounts of salt as ready meals, processed meats like bacon, Corn beef, and cheese.
“There are many mechanisms put in place by NAFDAC to promote and protect the health of our people and one of such is sensitization, well informed, and educated citizenry is the bedrock of effective regulation.”
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, also, observed that the dangers of taking excessive salt is one of the problems facing Nigeria.
