The Gambia finally has official dietary guidelines to tackle its messed-up nutrition problems. The Ministry of Health, with major backing from the FAO, launched the National Food-Based Dietary Guidelines at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara conference center in Bijilo. Permanent Secretary Dr. Yusupha Touray, speaking for the minister, called it a science-based tool to fight the triple threat of malnutrition, which includes undernutrition, hidden hunger from missing vitamins, and a growing wave of obesity and diet-related diseases.
The guidelines push people to eat more local and diverse foods, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, while cutting back on salt, sugar, and bad fats. Dr. Touray said this mess of malnutrition hurts the country's human capital and economic growth. The UN and FAO reps at the launch, Mandisa Mashologu and Dr. Mustapha Ceesay, praised the inclusive process and warned that rising processed food consumption is a ticking time bomb. The FAO funded the effort with a twenty-million-dollar technical program.
National Nutrition Agency head Malang Fofana pointed out some mixed progress, with improvements in child stunting and breastfeeding, but scary jumps in overweight citizens. He framed the new guidelines as a practical, cultural blueprint for policy and public education to defuse that bomb. The government now wants all sectors, from media to local communities, to actually use them.
The guidelines push people to eat more local and diverse foods, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, while cutting back on salt, sugar, and bad fats. Dr. Touray said this mess of malnutrition hurts the country's human capital and economic growth. The UN and FAO reps at the launch, Mandisa Mashologu and Dr. Mustapha Ceesay, praised the inclusive process and warned that rising processed food consumption is a ticking time bomb. The FAO funded the effort with a twenty-million-dollar technical program.
National Nutrition Agency head Malang Fofana pointed out some mixed progress, with improvements in child stunting and breastfeeding, but scary jumps in overweight citizens. He framed the new guidelines as a practical, cultural blueprint for policy and public education to defuse that bomb. The government now wants all sectors, from media to local communities, to actually use them.
