Dietitians urge routine checks, professional consultations

Dietitians urge routine checks, professional consultations

Checks
By Uchenna Ugwu
Abakaliki, March 10, 2020 (NAN) The Dietitians Association of Nigeria (DAN), Alex-Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, (AEFUTHA) branch, has advised the citizens to imbibe regular dietary check up.
The DAN also urged frequent consultation with registered dietitians for proper healthy living.
Speaking on behalf of the association, Head of Unit, Nutrition and Dietetics department, AEFUTHA, Lynda Okpara, gave the advice on Tuesday in Abakaliki during the World Registered Dietitian-Nutritionists Day.
The 2020 event was commemorated with the theme: “Diet the Best Medicine, Eat Right, be Active’’.
The Day is celebrated every second week of March.
Okpara said that the call for action was for individuals, including staff members of the department, who rarely give attention to their health and well-being.
She said that the event was an annual programme that created awareness on the importance of the association.
The Dietitian described the health professionals as people who used diet therapy in the treatment as well as management of diseases and well-being of people.
She explained that people did not often visit hospitals to access good health care from professionals.
She attributed it to the difficult economic situation while noting that prevalence rate of non communicable diseases in the society was increasing.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the dietitian-nutrition programme is a week-long event that would feature free screening, counselling of participants and awareness creation to educate students and lectures.
“We will educate the people on proper dieting, sex, gender, life style, environment, economic status, health condition, nutritional assessment, food safety and importance of physical activities.
“We have also decided to reach out to the people with free Random Blood Sugar (RBS), Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), blood pressure, nutrition counseling, among others,” she said. (NAN)
UVU/KTO/DCU
============
Edited by Kamal Tayo Oropo/Donald Ugwu