The Coordinator for the Ghana National Eggs Campaign Secretariat (GNECS), Ms Comfort Kyerewaa Acheampong has appealed to government to include eggs in menu of the school feeding programme.
She stated that eggs contained six grammes of proteins which was necessary for the growth of children and the development of their intellect for academic work.
Ms Acheampong said this during a training by the GNECS for regional and district nutritionists and dieticians under the Ghana Health Service in the Upper West Region on the importance of eggs in the diet of Ghanaians.
The training at Wa on Friday was to equip the officers with more knowledge on the importance of eggs in meals based on recent research findings on the essence of the product.
Contrary to earlier assertion that eggs were harmful to the body due to the high cholesterol, Ms Acheampong stated that studies by various researchers have rendered earlier perceptions obsolete and was therefore necessary to ignite campaign that would encourage people to eat eggs.
“In 2015, together with our counterparts in America, a project dubbed the Ghana Poultry Project which was done hand in hand with the Poultry Association of Ghana revealed that eggs were least consumed in Ghana as a survey conducted revealed that the average Ghanaian consumed between 12-15 eggs per year”, she noted.
This she said was fueled by certain myths and misconceptions about the product saying that some traditional school of thought believed that feeding children eggs would make them thieves and debunked such myths.
She stated however, that after the campaign, another survey which was conducted in 2019 revealed an improvement in the consumption of eggs such that the average Ghanaian consumed 115 eggs annually.
“In all of this children are very much disadvantaged and that is why we believe government can assist and target these children at school to ensure they get adequate nutritional supply” she said and called on Ghanaians to consume eggs as it was the cheapest protein available.
A public health practitioner at the programme, Dr Kwabena Kusi expressed that eggs contained choline which was good for the development of children and said it also contained the right amount of vitamins for blood circulation, improvement of heart conditions and in treating anaemia.
He maintained that studies had shown that the cholesterol produced from eggs was healthy and good enough to replace the bad cholesterol which was naturally produced by the body.
The Deputy Chief Nutrition Officer for the Region, Mr Chrisantus Danaah Dari was excited about the training and said it was going to complement the knowledge of the officers to enable them carry out education successfully to clients at the Out Patient Department (OPD) and other facilities.
“Our duty is to identify better ways to communicate the essence of consuming eggs to the people and help them embrace it without interfering with existing traditional norms and values of the people,” he added.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
