Don’t Ignore Connection Between Healthy Living and Food Intake

While delivering the 182nd inaugural lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), on Tuesday, July 8, Professor Oluwatoyin Aletor warned against the urge to ignore the connection between healthy living and food intake.

Aletor, who titled her lecture, “Food Chemical Constituents and Their Value-Addition: Prospects For Enhanced Food Security and Livelihood,” said, “to attain healthy living, the quality of food items consumed by the populace is important. The chemical composition of food plays a crucial role in human health and well-being. She said recent research has unravelled the intricate relationship between the components of our diet and their impact on disease prevention and management, and that “The balance of macronutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, along with micronutrients including vitamins and minerals, directly influences various aspects of human and animal health.”

The lecturer, a professor of food chemistry and analysis, noted that people are becoming more aware of the role that food intake plays in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. According to her, “Nowadays, people think deeply about how their diet can influence their health. This situation supports the development of important trends in food consumption, which has increased consumer interest in foods with natural and health benefits. ” She said this category of food includes enriched food with bioactive compounds such as phenolics, mineral compounds, vitamins and natural colourants. Food rich in or fortified with nutraceuticals/biologically active ingredients has been established as a strategic approach to managing micronutrient deficiency and related diseases. According to her, these types of products are commonly known as functional foods. They are defined as foods similar in appearance to conventional foods, which are consumed as part of the regular diet, and have demonstrated physiological benefits and/or reduced the risk of chronic diseases beyond basic nutritional factors.

Speaking on the chemical composition of foods, she said, “Chemical nutrients are substances found in food that are required by the body to provide energy, give the body structure, and help regulate chemical processes. The composition of these substances affects the nutritional and sensory quality of food products. The chemical composition of foods typically consists of a variety of different chemical components. Additionally, food is often subject to structural modification during storage or processing. Knowledge of the chemical and biochemical composition of foods is important to the health, well-being, and safety of the products for the consumers.”

Professor Aletor, whose research outputs have impacted enhancement of nutrient quality of foods through the knowledge of characterization of food chemical constituents of some alternative food sources and the value-addition/fortification of some non-conventional and underutilized food sources said “green leaves are one of the cheapest and most abundant potential sources of protein because of their ability to synthesize potential food chemicals in foods such as amino acids from a wide range of virtually unlimited and readily available primary materials such as water, carbon dioxide and atmospheric nitrogen and sunlight.”

Dwelling on the value addition of chemicals to foods, she said, “Chemical substances play an important role in food production and preservation. These chemicals are categorized as food additive added to food and drinks for various reasons, such as to maintain or improve their safety, freshness, taste, texture or appearance; food supplement which are concentrated sources of nutrients (minerals and vitamins) or other substances with a nutritional or physiological effect, which include vitamins, minerals, amino acid essential fatty acids, fiber and various plants and herbal extracts; food flavourings added to food to give a difference or stronger taste/smell; food enzymes which are proteins that help speed up the metabolism, or chemical reactions in the body; botanicals which are made from plants, algae, fungi or lichens.”

Further recommendations as elucidated by the lecturer are exploring non-conventional pathways such as underutilized crops/leaves as possible future crops premised on the reports that they are adapted to a range of agro ecologies, and may be nutrient dense and offer better prospects in marginal production areas, which could improve availability and access to nutritious food by rural and poor resourced people. She added that for the safety of food products, it is necessary to ensure the safety of the ingredients used, such as technical aids, additives, flavourings, or colourings.

She solicited the synergy of highly trained specialists in toxicology, nutrition, chemistry, food composition, and risk assessment techniques to gather information on human dietary consumption levels and to make a clear safety assessment decision on food security. Moreover, to the industry, she emphasised the need for synergy between researchers and the food industry to provide up-to-date, science-based advice on matters related to nutrition, food quality, security, and safety.

The doctor, who also spoke on the prevalent perceived malnutrition in developing countries, said “the incidence of food shortages coupled with the increase in the prices of conventional foods in developing countries has given rise to various forms of malnutrition such as kwashiorkor, marasmus, mortality and disease morbidity, especially among the infants and pregnant women. Adequate nutrition is one of the pillars of public health. The estimation of nutrient intake from food consumption requires reliable data from food chemical composition”

To the government, she said consumers expect the government to look after their interests by ensuring that the food industry produces safe and nutritious foods, thereby minimising, if not eliminating, risks to human health. She added that the government should provide financial and technical resources to give such assurances, especially in developing countries, including Nigeria.

The Vice Chancellor, Professor Adenike Oladiji, who chaired the event, described Professor Aletor as an erudite Scholar who knows her onions. She said her lecture will undoubtedly enlighten guests and others on how to eat healthily, improve food quality, and provide solutions to Nigeria’s food needs.