By Sunday John
Lafia – Some Nutritionists on Wednesday urged Nigerians to eat nutritious food to boost their immune system against coronavirus infection.
They made the call during a virtual training organised for journalists and other stakeholders by Civil Society-Scaling-Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).
The training, which attracted 110 participants from across the country, was aimed at training participants on reporting the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and related issues.
Speaking during the session, Mrs Beatrice Eluaka, Executive Secretary of CS-SUNN urged eating of adequate diet with protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, water and minerals to boost their immune system against COVID-19 infection.
According to Eluaka, medical experts have said that individuals with strong immune system stand a better chance of surviving the virus if contracted.
“People should eat food with locally sourced vegetables and proteins to boost their immune system.
“You must not be rich to eat nutritious food as you can source cheap nutritious food within your environment,” she said.
Eluaka further explained that their organisation had drafted a nutritional action plan to be presented to the Presidential Task force (PTF) on COVID-19 as a guide on the kind of palliative to give to Nigerians to boost their immunity.
On his part, Dr Auwulu Kawu, one of the facilitators, said the lockdown imposed by government to curb the spread of COVID-19 had affected the purchasing power of people.
He added that the economic hardship occasioned by the lockdown had impacted adeversly on the quality of the peoples’ diet.
Kawu also pointed out that social media has also contributed negatively in misleading the public on issues of nutrition.
“Everybody would be posing as a nutritionist in the social media, advising people on what to eat or not to eat,” Dr Kawu added.
He called on journalists to focus more attention on nutrition related reports to correct some of the misinformation in the social media.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training featured paper presentations by resource persons on different topics as well as question and answer sessions.
(NAN)
