By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Oct. 27, GNA – Forcing children to eat beyond their satisfaction limits can lead to obesity and its associated health issues, Marc Kwame Dzradosi has cautioned.
Dr Dzradosi, Head of Pharmaceutical Services at the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH) in Tema, explained that because a child’s stomach was small, it accepted and digested the quantity it could take, leaving the rest to form fat deposits in the body.
He therefore cautioned parents and guardians against forcing children to eat larger portions of food beyond limit.
He noted: “Now we see a child aged between four and five, but the weight is like that of a 10-year-old. We are also seeing children with heartburns since the stomachs reject the excess food, which then rushes upward; others are also having stomach problems.”
Dr. Dzradosi, who is also a Clinical Lecturer at the Central University and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), gave the caution when he spoke on the topic “Obesity” at the weekly “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility,” a Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative.
The health advocacy platform aimed at promoting communication on health-related topics and setting the medium for the propagation of health information to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy.
The Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office seeks to use the platform to explore the parameters of the four approaches to health communication: informative, educating, persuasive, and prompting.
Dr. Dzradosi expressed concern that children as young as 10 years old were having Type Two Diabetes due to obesity, stressing that when parents give their children high-calorie foods and force them to overeat, they will become obese and grow into adults with obesity.
He said obesity was on the rise in Ghana, indicating that some of the effects of being obese included hypertension, stroke, diabetes, depression, mental illness, joint problems, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases, among others.
“The heart handles a certain weight of your body, so the more weight you gain, the more pressure you put on your heart,” he stressed.
Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager, noted that health issues are non-negotiable and appealed for concerted efforts to create a healthy lifestyle.
Mr. Ameyibor explained that GNA-Tema Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility weekly health dialogue platform also serves as an effective communication channel for health professionals to educate the public on healthy practices and other general health challenges.
GNA