The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is placing emphasis on reducing salt intake starting with children as the world observes ‘Salt Awareness Week’ which ends on Sunday. The major concern is that a high salt/high sodium diet is linked to non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, which can lead to heart disease and stroke, among others, that can be debilitating and/or deadly.
None of this is new information to any of us. It has always been widely disseminated by doctors, nutritionists, health gurus, even old wives and this is possibly their only tale that is true. Persons who are predisposed to hypertension because of their family history tend to watch their salt intake. What has not been done in the past is the targeting of children and reducing salt in their diets.
PAHO/WHO had made a public appeal to the food-processing industry to reduce the salt used in products targeted at children and rightly so. The processed food that appeals to children, including packaged microwaveable foods, sausages, chips, dips and crisps, to name a few, have an inordinate amount of salt in them. Those that are not savoury, have a preponderance of sugar, but that’s for another column.
The impact, if any, of PAHO/WHO’s call for less salt will depend also on the consumers. If the people with purchasing power fail to take a stand, the food-processing industry will not be moved to change the way it operates. But in today’s world where healthy eating is becoming less of a fad and more of a fact of life, that change may well come soon.
In its statement on the issue, the world health body called on parents to be more aware of “sneaky salt” and to escape it by preparing more home-cooked meals using fresh ingredients. This is a call that is very relevant to Guyana where the number of fast-food establishments has increased by at least 200 per cent over the past 10 years. Local tastes for deep-fried, high-fat, high sodium diets seem not to have peaked as more franchises and restaurants and branches of these are opening up countrywide.
The local home-cooked meal that was once held in such high esteem is quickly becoming a thing of the past in the name of ‘development’. We often see government officials attending the launching of these fast-food joints and praising the investors for providing jobs and showing confidence in the economy. At the same time, we have our President and Health Ministry vowing to work towards the prevention and control of heart disease, stroke, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.
In 2007, then Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy had launched a National Oversight Committee for Chronic Non Communicable Diseases (CNCD), noting that in developing countries, including Guyana, these diseases account for more than 80% of the mortality rate. Minister Ramsammy had expressed concern that the country was carrying a huge burden because of these diseases and had said that the committee will co-ordinate and implement activities related to the National Strategic Plan for CNCDs and was responsible for public policy and advocacy, surveillance, health promotion and disease prevention as well as integrated management for CNCDs and risk factors. The committee’s members included stakeholders from the home affairs, education, human services and social security, culture, youth and sport and agriculture ministries, other technical agencies and non-governmental organisations. Dr Ramsammy was the committee’s chair.
Whether the committee accomplished any of its goals is not known, but it seemed to have gone south after 2011 when Dr Ramsammy was moved from the Health Ministry. Last September, the Ministry of Health launched its National Commission for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). This time, a newly-slimmed down President Donald Ramotar was named its chair while its members who were not named were possibly the very same usual suspects from the same ministries. The commission (and not committee as in 2007) has such objectives as to raise awareness in the public about the risks of chronic diseases and to advise the government on policies and legislation that will see the implementation of national strategies and programmes for the prevention and control of NCDs, and also to boost the efforts of organisations that are promoting the prevention and control of heart disease, stroke, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.
It was also said that the commission will also focus on the health and awareness campaign, general health literacy, screening, healthy eating, schools, physical inactivity, the availability and affordability of healthy foods and the importation of unhealthy foods. To date, there has not been any announcement of a single instance where this high-profile commission has even made a move towards beginning any of this.
The point to note here is that committees and commissions don’t bring about change, people do. And they can only do it when they act; talking and planning and wishing and hoping just won’t cut it. Nor should we wait on the committees and commissions. We can all start today, right now by simply choosing not to use the salt.
