Poor diet is fuelling the majority of hospital admissions in Trinidad and Tobago.
That’s according to the Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture, Professor Mark Wuddivira, while speaking at the Closing Ceremony for the International Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Tourism Conference.
“When you look at it, we have good hospitals, which is good. We have good medical care, which is good. But we are not getting to the root of the matter.”
Speaking at the Closing Ceremony for the International Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Tourism Conference on Wednesday evening, Professor Wuddivira said Trinidad and Tobago is treating the symptoms of poor health, but not its cause.
He warned that national food choices and limited nutrition policies are overwhelming hospitals and costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
Professor Wuddivira pointed out that while agriculture receives relatively little support, the health sector is forced to treat diseases that could have been prevented with better diets.
“The root of the matter is the nutrition, the food that we produce, the nutrition that we give to our people because 80% of the people that end up in the hospital is because of the food that they eat, the nutrition that, you know, the poor nutrition that they would have had.”
He argued that national spending tells the same story, with heavy investment in curing people, but far less in preventing illness through better food systems.
With most chronic diseases linked to diet, Professor Wuddivira noted that real progress will require stronger national policies that treat nutrition as a health intervention.
“For us to address this issue, there must be a concerted effort in the area of collaboration. We must see government, academia, we must see the private sector and civil society coming together. And the government plays an important role because that is where the policy comes from.”
Professor Wuddivira shifted focus to T&T’s food import bill. He said discussions must look beyond just increasing the domestic food supply.
“When we speak about our high food import bill, we are looking at just production alone, but there are other components in the food system that are very critical and we often, even by looking at the other components, we often forget about tourism, which is one of the very important aspects of our economy.”
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Ravi Ratiram recently indicated that over the past decade, T&T’s food import bill increased from $5 billion to above $7 billion.