In many African homes, the practice is to serve men more meat with their meals than any other member of the family. It is taken that as the head of the home, the man should eat the bigger portion of the meat in the pot of soup.

Although this a practice that many women, especially career women and nutritionists, always refute, claiming that children need more meat and other proteinous foods for their growth than men, the fact remains that men, in comparison to women, require more protein for their body functions.

Interestingly, Professor Tola Atinmo, in an inaugural lecture entitled, “Nutrigenomics: A neglected cornerstone in National Development”, given at the University of Ibadan, said “women have a lower protein requirement per kilogramme than men.”

According to Professor Atinmo, contrary to the notion many have, the protein requirement of one person differs from that of another just as that of one ethnic group differs from that of another. He stated that people living in developing countries over the years might have adjusted to lower intakes of protein in comparison to whites.

Professor Atinmo declared: “Man’s protein requirements are determined to a large extent by his ecological and socio-economic, nutritional, genotypic and phenotypic background.”

Definitely, the interaction of genetics and environment, nature and nurture, is the foundation for all health and disease. Genes define susceptibility to a disease and environmental factors such as diet and exercise determine who among the susceptible will develop the disease.

Nevertheless, Professor Atinmo declared that science had found out that individuals responded differently to the same diet because of genetic variations. According to him, “individuals have unique combinations of common gene variants that are differentially affected by diet. The relationship between diet and genes influences the effects of diet on susceptibility of humans to diseases, nutrient requirement and even treatment modalities.”

However, Professor Atinmo disclosed that Nigeria’s general dietary guidelines issued for the prevention of chronic diseases did not give due consideration to individual responses to different food items.

“Genome-wide associated studies by large international consortia are discovering genetic variants that contribute to complex diseases. However, nutrient information is missing, which is essential for the development of dietary advice for the prevention and management of diseases, to improve public health.

Non-communicable diseases including all types of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancers among many others, cannot receive proper management if the knowledge of nutrigenomics is inadequate.

Certainly, studies on the role of diets on genes in the human body, termed nutrigenomics, could provide a framework for the development of novel foods for health promotion and for the prevention and management of chronic diseases. Already, some companies are offering diets designed for individuals based on genetic analyses of over 30 gene variations.

Taking into consideration the role of genes on the food requirements of individuals and ensuring that these food requirements are met remains a neglected cornerstone of national developmental agenda. Malnutrition yet undermines economic growth and perpetuates poverty in so many ways.

The consequences of developing countries failing to tackle malnutrition over the past decades, Professor Atinmo declared, are evident in the inadequate progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and poverty reduction.

He stated: “Persistent malnutrition is contributing not only to widespread failure to meet the first MDG (to halve poverty and hunger), but also to failure in meeting other goals in maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, education and gender equity.”

“The unequivocal choice now is between continuing to fail and finally making nutrition central to development, so that a wide range of economic and social improvements that depend on nutrition can be realised.

“Malnutrition slows down economic growth and perpetuates poverty through three routes­­- direct losses in productivity from poor physical status (ill-health), indirect losses from poor cognitive function and its attendant deficits in schooling (poor academic performance), and losses owing to increased healthcare costs.

“Malnutrition’s economic costs are substantial; productivity losses to individuals are estimated at more than 10 per cent of lifetime earnings, and gross domestic product (GDP) lost to malnutrition runs as high as 2 to 3 per cent. Improving nutrition is, therefore, as much, or more, of an issue of economics as it is one of welfare, social protection and human rights.

The effect of an inadequate diet, he said, cut across all age groups. Findings of past studies which Professor Atinmo participated in showed that mothers that gave birth to low weight babies mostly were not consuming enough copper and zinc in their diet. These are micronutrients which play significant roles in the incidence of low birth weight in Nigeria and are mostly derived from foods of plant origin.

In addition, levels of zinc in malnourished children were found to be low. The more severe malnourished the child is, the lower his blood zinc level and the higher his risk of experiencing a retarded growth.

Likewise, a national survey found that dietary vitamin A intake of preschool children was lower in the northern part of Nigeria than in the south. Typically, the risk of vitamin A deficiency based on dietary assessment was greatest between the ages six and 11 months as well as between ages 12 and 23 months, compared to later childhood.

But poor dietary habits affect both children and adults. Professor Atinmo, referring to the general recommendations by the World Cancer Research Fund International in conjunction with the American Institute for Cancer Research, stated that people that eat a healthy plant-based diet are physically active and maintain a healthy weight, are at significantly reduced risk of cancer.

Meanwhile, Professor Atinmo disclosed that Nigeria must rise up to the task of tackling its nutritional issues by imbibing nutrigenomics, stressing that diseases are better prevented and well managed now with the knowledge in this field because all diseases have a genetic predisposition.

He declared that “many developed countries have compiled national general dietary guidelines for the prevention of chronic diseases without considering the effects of genetic variation on dietary responses, despite available evidence. Nigeria can avoid this type of oversight when such a document is being produced.”

Professor Atinmo muted the need to integrate deeper knowledge of nutrition into medical curriculum to expose medical doctors to basic nutrition training and ensure their patients receive a more holistic treatment, of which nutrition is germane.

According to him, nutritional problems had persisted because there was not much investment on a large scale large enough to get tested technologies to those who benefit from them most.

He declared, “the window of opportunity for improving nutrition is small- from pregnancy through the first two years of life, the first 1000 days. The damage to the physical growth, brain development and human capital formation that occurs during this period is extensive and largely irreversible. Therefore, interventions must focus on this window of opportunity. Any investment after this critical period is much less likely to improve nutritional wellbeing.”

He stressed the need to repositioning nutrition as a central pillar of development and ensures attainment of the five out of the eight goals of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“There is very strong evidence that malnourished children are more likely to be below average height when they reach adulthood, to have lower educational achievement, to give birth to smaller infants and have lowest economic status in adulthood, with effects that spill over to future generations.

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