Surging Obesity & Overweight in Nigeria: Urban Lifestyle vs Rural Foodways

Obesity was erstwhile considered a “Western problem,” but contiguous it is knocking astatine Nigeria’s door, and not politely. In Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, it is present communal to spot children gulping down fizzy drinks connected their mode to school, young adults skipping meal for nutrient pies and vigor drinks, and bureau workers glued to chairs for 8 consecutive hours. The waistlines archer the story.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity has astir tripled globally since 1975, and Nigeria is nary exception. A 2020 National Health Survey recovered that astir 29% of Nigerian adults are either overweight oregon obese, with municipality women being disproportionately affected. Urban Nigeria is surviving connected the accelerated lane, accelerated food, accelerated work, accelerated stress, and the consequences are dilatory but sure: hypertension, benignant 2 diabetes, bosom disease, and adjacent cancers linked to obesity. It feels similar a faster beingness versus a declining health.

Meanwhile, agrarian Nigeria tells a antithetic story. In villages crossed Benue, Ebonyi, oregon Adamawa, galore households inactive beryllium connected subsistence farming. Diets are heavier successful yam, beans, maize, vegetables, and fish. Physical enactment is embedded successful regular living, farming, fetching water, walking agelong distances. Obesity rates are importantly lower. The urban–rural disagreement paints a representation of however modernization, if unchecked, tin breed soundless wellness epidemics.

Urban beingness promises convenience, but it comes astatine a cost. Studies successful BMC Public Health (2021) amusement that metropolis residents successful Nigeria devour up to 2 times much processed foods than their agrarian counterparts. Instant noodles, bread, fried snacks, and sugary beverages are affordable and accessible, portion caller fruits and vegetables are either overpriced oregon unavailable. Add to this the grind of agelong commuting hours, and workout becomes a luxury galore cannot afford.

The irony is striking. Urban dwellers whitethorn look wealthier, but their wellness choices often marque them poorer successful the agelong run. The soundless value summation creeps in, and earlier long, a 35-year-old banker is connected regular humor unit medication, a communicative becoming each excessively communal successful Nigeria’s cities.

In Nigerian culture, “flesh” was erstwhile seen arsenic a motion of prosperity. A plump assemblage meant you were well-fed, successful, and not suffering from poverty. But successful today’s reality, that cognition is dangerous. The WHO Africa Regional Office has warned that Africa is facing a “double load of malnutrition” undernutrition successful mediocre agrarian areas, and overweight/obesity successful wealthier municipality zones. Nigeria, with its 200 cardinal citizens, is present a textbook illustration of this paradox.

One of the astir worrying trends is puerility obesity. The UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates (2023) revealed that astir 8% of Nigerian school-aged children are overweight, a crisp emergence from conscionable a decennary ago. The culprits are clear: precocious depletion of sugary drinks, processed snacks marketed straight to children, and a deficiency of harmless play spaces successful cities. A procreation is increasing up much indoors, much online, and much overweight than their parents.

Rural Foodways: A Model We Risk Losing

In contrast, agrarian communities inactive exemplary healthier foodways. Freshly pounded yam with rootlike soup, roasted maize, groundnut, and food supply balanced nutrition. Meals are little processed, and lifestyles stay much physically demanding. But modernization is dilatory creeping in. Instant noodles and brushed drinks person reached adjacent the astir distant kiosks. Unless consciousness is raised, agrarian Nigeria whitethorn soon travel the municipality way of rising waistlines.

What Can Be Done?

The authorities tin instrumentality cues from countries that person introduced taxes connected sugary drinks, restricted junk nutrient advertizing to children, and promoted progressive commuting similar walking and cycling.

Second, schools indispensable beryllium astatine the forefront. School repast programs should prioritize local, nutrient-rich foods. Physical enactment should beryllium compulsory, not optional.

Third, Nigerians themselves indispensable rethink manner choices. Drinking h2o alternatively of soda, cooking astatine location alternatively of changeless accelerated food, and walking abbreviated distances alternatively than taking cabs are elemental but almighty steps.

Finally, we indispensable normalize our Nigerian staples. Yam, beans, millet, plantain, groundnut soup, these are not conscionable taste foods, they are nutrition powerhouses. Nigeria is blessed with arable lands and a affluent cultivation heritage; returning to these foods mightiness beryllium the lifeline to warring obesity.

Obesity successful Nigeria is not conscionable astir waistlines; it is astir lifelines. If near unchecked, the rising numbers volition overwhelm our already strained healthcare system. But the solution is not acold away. It lies successful our plates, our habits, and our communities.

We indispensable enactment present due to the fact that portion value tin beryllium gained slowly, the health...