11 Sep 2014

Batswana have been urged to eat healthy food to evade obesity, which has become a problem worldwide including Botswana. 

Speaking at the VIP Health Expo 2014, Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Margaret Nasha, said the number of obese people in the country was increasing due to the fact that Batswana had turned away from their traditional food.

She said many people had become too busy to cook traditional food and resorted to ordering junk food from restaurants. Dr Nasha also blamed the problem of obesity on today’s lifestyle, noting that young people needed guidance as to what to do about their health.

She thus commended the Seventh-day Adventist Church the good initiative of promoting a healthy living at a three day health expo.

The expo is held under the theme Healthy leaders, Healthy Nation, to promote a philosophy of holistic health and healing especially for the leaders of the society who are often busy and fatigued with their work. The expo has also attracted health specialists from as far as the United States of America.

On a related issue, World Health Organisation latest annual statistics, presented by Dr Neil Nedley, indicated that stroke was the second cause of death in Botswana after HIV AIDS.

Dr Nedley noted that their findings showed that a major contributor to this stroke was alcohol consumption.

He also said road accidents in Botswana were in the top ten of deaths causes, and once again attributed to alcohol as the major contributor. ENDS