Dietitian Ms Pearl Salormey has expressed concern over the rising incidence of Type 2 diabetes among children, warning that a condition once largely associated with adults is increasingly being diagnosed in obese youngsters. She has therefore urged the government, schools, and parents to enforce stricter dietary regulations to help curb the trend.
In an interview with The Mirror in Accra last Tuesday, Ms Salormey explained that while Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition linked mainly to genetics, Type 2 diabetes is driven by lifestyle choices. As Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (GAND), she attributed the surge to a changing food environment in which many children consume unhealthy meals and sugary drinks instead of balanced, home-prepared diets.
“Previously, we did not record many of these cases among children, but gradually we are seeing more, even in children as young as 11, and it is worrying,” she noted.
Unhealthy food environment
Ms Pearl Salormey has partly attributed the rising incidence of childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes to Ghana’s increasingly unhealthy food environment, where energy-dense, nutrient-poor meals and sugary beverages are more accessible and appealing to children than wholesome, home-cooked diets. She explained that excessive consumption of fast foods, sugary drinks, and highly processed snacks is driving obesity among children, significantly heightening their risk of Type 2 diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.
While acknowledging that genetics may play a role in some cases, she emphasised that lifestyle and environmental factors remain the dominant causes. “The environment creates the opportunity for some of these things to happen,” she noted, adding that children are frequently exposed to unhealthy food choices both in schools and within their communities.
Call for healthier schools
Ms Salormey called for stronger government policies to improve the school food environment by regulating the sale and marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages on school premises. She urged school authorities to adopt nutrition-friendly policies that prioritise healthy meals and snacks, while limiting children’s access to sugar-sweetened drinks and highly processed foods.
“Strict rules should be made in schools to help make the school food environment much healthier for children and prevent some of these things from happening,” she said. She also encouraged parents to reinforce healthy eating habits at home by preparing balanced meals, reducing children’s consumption of junk food and ensuring they engaged in regular physical activity.
Beyond schools and homes, Ms Salormey called for sustained public education and media advocacy to keep Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, high on the national agenda. According to her, continuous awareness campaigns could influence public policy, promote healthier lifestyles and encourage people to seek early screening.
She warned that many people were unknowingly living with diabetes until they developed life-threatening complications. “There are people who are walking around and they don’t even know they have these conditions until one day they get a heart attack or a stroke before they realise it,” she said.
Healthy food choices
Ms Salormey encouraged parents and caregivers to make nutritious, balanced meals the foundation of children’s diets by incorporating more fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and lean sources of protein into their daily meals. She recommended fresh fruits such as oranges, bananas, apples, pawpaw and watermelon as healthier alternatives to sugary snacks, biscuits and confectionery.
She also advised families to include vegetables such as kontomire, cabbage, carrots, garden eggs and okro, noting that they provide essential vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre needed for healthy growth and disease prevention.
She further suggested replacing refined carbohydrates with whole-grain and fibre-rich foods such as brown rice, oats, millet, sorghum and whole-wheat bread, while encouraging regular consumption of beans, cowpeas, bambara beans and groundnuts as affordable and nutritious sources of plant-based protein.
The dietitian also advised parents to serve more fish, skinless chicken, eggs and other lean proteins, while limiting processed meats, fried foods and meals high in saturated fats. She further encouraged families to replace sugar-sweetened beverages with water, fresh coconut water or unsweetened natural fruit juices consumed in moderation.
According to Ms Salormey, small but consistent improvements in children’s eating habits, combined with regular physical activity, could significantly reduce their risk of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and other diet-related diseases, laying the foundation for healthier lives into adulthood.
Source: Gloria Apprey
