Nutrition and lifestyle are critical parts of health and development. Healthy nutritional and lifestyle practice are basically the key to achieving a good quality of life and health. They both play a major role in the prevention of many chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders and osteoporosis. A poor nutrition and an unhealthy lifestyle affects our immune system, reduces our level of productivity and leaves us vulnerable to disease. Annually, 2.7 million deaths are attributable to diets low in fruits and vegetables while 1.9 million deaths are attributable to physical inactivity (WHO, 2016). Generally healthy nutrition is about eating the right food in the proportion that is good for the body. Healthy lifestyle is a way of living that lowers the risk of being seriously ill or dying early. As the rate of nutritional deficiencies and unhealthy lifestyle continues to rise in Nigeria, so does the burden of diseases, leading to a steady increase in the rate of disability, morbidity, and mortality.
“Healthy Eating Healthy Living” programme is a doorstep community educational and awareness campaign on nutrition and lifestyle. It was designed to address the impact of nutrition and lifestyle choices on health and heath outcome in our society. This programme is driven by the fact that quality of life can be improved and many lifestyle related diseases prevented and mitigated if individual are informed and educated on the impact of their nutritional choices on their health and health outcomes.
Our major focus was individuals in the lower socio-economic strata where knowledge and awareness is poor. The nutrition and health project commenced in July, 2015, it ran for 21 months reaching 195,539 women in 82 rural and peri-urban communities in Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Ogun states.
The main target group for this programme are women in peri-urban and rural communities because knowledge and awareness are poor among this group and impact of poor nutritional and unhealthy lifestyle are more profound in these areas. These disadvantaged groups have a higher tendency to develop chronic diseases as a result of poor nutrition and unhealthy lifestyle compared to higher socio-economic groups. This programme has successfully reached 196,536 women in over 96 peri-urban and rural communities in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun state. This programme has been successful in achieving a 70% increase in knowledge and 60% change in behaviour in these communities.
Our goal is to extend our reach to other areas of our society and we are continuously seeking partnership to ensure this is achieve.
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