Nneka Obi is a wife and mother, she sells Akara to support her family. Not given to eating outside, she cooks almost everything her family eats. Any time she needs vegetable oil to cook, she simply collects from the oil she uses for commercial purposes to cook.
Ikenna and Nneka are some of the people who have developed cardiovascular concerns due to eating habits. He explained that Trans-fat are toxic compounds that are found in foods and many fast foods in Nigeria such as fried foods deep-fried plantain chips, cakes, pastries, including pre-packaged foods and vegetable oil.
According to Mafeni, the reasons why companies and small medium use trans-fat are “because they are easy to use, inexpensive to use, they have a long shelf life, and give foods desirable taste”. These health issues include blood cholesterol which creates imbalance in blood cholesterol levels; risk of heart attack as it generates toxic compounds in the body which leads to insulin resistance and raises the risk of diabetes mellitus.
Daily, many people are coming down with cancer related issues, the treatment of the ailment is no doubt gulping huge resources, while treatment centres is a major concern. He argued “there has been too much unnecessary loss of lives in Nigeria recently. We should not add to this list for something so easily preventable. The future of the country is in our hands, enough of the talking, the time for action is now”.
Eva explained that section two of the Regulation stipulates that “a person shall not manufacture, package, import, export, advertise, distribute, display for sale, offer for sale, sell or use edible fats and oils as specified in the first schedule to these regulations in Nigeria unless, it has been registered in accordance with the provisions of the regulations”.
Anyone who contravenes the provisions is liable to conviction, forfeiture of asset or property, and payment of fine. Amafah said “In 2019, almost 854,000 people died in Nigeria and around 137,000 deaths were linked to cardiovascular diseases, with 3,229 deaths associated with trans-fat related cardiovascular mortality according to Global Health Data Exchange 2022.
For unexplainable reasons, many people especially from 25 years are showing signs of organ collapse and a high number seeking financial assistance for organ transplant to replace kidneys.