Most Ghanaian MPs are obese - Dr Nsiah Asare

Most Members of Parliament (MPs) in Ghana are either obese or are diabetic.

According to the presidential advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, statistics available at the clinic in Parliament indicates that most MPs visit the clinic because of high blood pressure.

Dr Nsiah Asare said this whilst contributing to discussions on a research finding by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in Accra.

“I have realised that if you go to Parliament most of them have obesity and diabetes. Their clinic there, I realise what they do is that everybody’s BP is high and they always go there to check their BP”, he said.

He said obesity can lead to hypertension, hypertensive heart diseases and sudden death.

“So you see, people about 34 years and then when you are going for their one-week celebration you hear, gone so soon or what a shock,” he said

The research

According to the GHS research, four out of every ten Ghanaians are obese and this the GHS says is worrying, especially with a rise in cases of childhood obesity in Ghana.

This, according to GHS has many outcomes and puts productivity at risk.

Reacting to the high level of obesity in Ghanaian children, Dr Nsiah Asare said the situation could lead to diabetes, hypertension and heart diseases at a younger age.

He therefore wants special attention to be paid to the growth of the child to avoid needless diseases in the future.

“The most important thing is that we now have childhood obesity. Because you want your child not to do anything, the child does not go for any activity. They drag the child at age two to kindergarten, they go to primary school. You wake the child up at 4 am which means the child did not have enough sleep, and because you are a working mother or a working parent you want the child to stay there till 5 pm when you close before you go and pick the child.”

"You will pay the teacher that he will continue to teach a two-year-old child extra classes, and the child will sit in the classroom and by the time the child reaches home it’s already dark. So no activities whatsoever. Weekend also you don’t allow the child to go to the field and run, run and all sort of things…. So we are developing children with obesity. And that is the most dangerous thing we are developing in our society”, he explained.