Stop spending on biscuits, buy eggs instead for your children - Nutritionists
Nutritionists are urging Nigerian parents to prioritize buying eggs over snacks like biscuits to combat high rates of childhood malnutrition. They argue that eggs provide essential nutrients for brain development and growth, despite rising food inflation.
Why it matters
Addressing childhood malnutrition is vital for long-term development, yet economic pressures are making basic protein sources increasingly unaffordable for many families.
Citing the nutritional benefits of eggs, nutrition experts have urged parents to divert money used in buying biscuits, sweets, and other sugar-sweetened beverages into buying eggs for children under five.
They explained that feeding children under five an egg daily can help in curbing Nigeria’s high burden of malnutrition.
They urged parents not to allow soaring food inflation to deny their children the basic high-nutrient food, such as eggs, they need for healthy growth and brain development.
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and nutrients, according to the World Health Organisation.
It explained that malnutrition covers two broad groups of conditions: undernutrition, which includes stunting, wasting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies; and overweight, obesity, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.
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