60% of Ukrainians ignore diet doctors
Perhaps Ukrainians’ menu will soon be discussed in the parliament. The Academy of Medical Sciences has worked out a concept for the state program on rational nutrition and intends to submit it for Verkhovna Rada’s consideration as soon as possible. Scholars believe that three years (2003-2006) are enough to determine any food deficit at the state level, compiling a miniature Mendeleyev’s periodic table of the elements, which Ukrainians lack for proper nutrition. The next step should be finding a way to tectify this unbalanced situation. Most likely, the best way will be artificially enriching the most consumed foodstuffs with these elements.
So far, it is unknown how much all this will cost. Experts claim that they can only formulate general provisions, while all the rest is up to the deputies who, in the opinion of the Academy’s Vice President Yury Kundiyev, are to secure open passage for domestic products since they contain less chemicals. In addition, producers should be called to observe transparency and guarantee the quality of every component of the final product. Finally, Mr. Kundiyev believes that Ukraine should long have joined the list of 38 countries where bakery products are enriched with folic acid. He maintains that this would help to reduce the number of chronic pathologies by 80% and prevent cardiovascular diseases.
However, the folic acid theme has been under discussion for at least the last five years. Scientists cannot reach agreement on this subject. Previously Olha Tymchenko Ph. D. in medicine, claimed in her interview with The Day that this acid in big doses stimulates the growth of cancer cells. Since all Ukrainians consume baked goods in considerable amounts, cancer statistics have every chance to enrich itself due to this acid.
More and more people in Ukraine abuse the so-called “slow” carbohydrates, or, to put it simply, potatoes, macaroni, and farinaceous food. According to State Committee for Statistics data, compared to 1990 purchasing meat has fallen by 56%, dairy products 45%, and fish 38%. UN research has demonstrated that the average Ukrainian consumes only 33 kilograms of meat, 124 kg of vegetables, and 210 liters of milk per year, which is just over half as in Russia. The energy value of 10 million Ukrainians’ food rations by international standards corresponds to the poverty level. According to our domestic statistics, 90% of Ukrainians lack C vitamin, which leads to anemia, 48% vitamin B, and 35% vitamin A. Ukrainians themselves realize the connection between diseases and nutrition quality: they confessed to the sociologists a balanced diet for one person requires at least 245 hryvnias a month. In fact, according to the monitoring conducted by the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the average Ukrainian spends 106 hryvnias a month on food. In 2002 64% of those polled suffered from lack of meat products, 53% of fish, 33.8% dairy products, and 41.8% fruit.
However, Ph.D. in medicine Iryna Smyrnova from the Strazhesko Cardiology Institute believes that we should blame ourselves for our unhealthy nutrition. Or rather our lack of elementary rules for combining foods and their utility level to blame. It is no accident that in the West books on healthy nutrition form the lion’s share of the total range of books or that a European customer pays more attention to the utility of the product he or she buys instead of its gustatory qualities. In 1996 a poll among 15,000 residents of the European Union member states revealed that for 42% of Europeans the healthiness of the food product plays a decisive role in his/her choice. Simultaneously, according to our sociologists’ data, 45% Ukrainians are unable to even estimate the quality of their nutrition, 10% are unaware of their own weight, 60% don’t consider dietitians’ opinion, while 40% of Ukrainian families never reflect on how much of what foods they consume.
Today, according to Health Ministry data, the morbidity level is 152,000 cases for 100,000 persons. Experts consider this index beyond all bounds. Among most frequent are diseases of blood circulation system (25%), respiratory tract (22%), and digestive system (9.2%). Doctors believe that people are to blame themselves for almost half of these cases, since they disregard the rules of a healthy lifestyle and rational nutrition. The World Health Organization has long designed a concept of healthy nutrition, which assumes that a person has to eat at least 400 grams of uncooked vegetables a day, one’s ration has to include 60% of vegetable food, various garnishes should be consumed at least three times a day, while low- fat dairy products and calcium-enriched leaf vegetables are to be served every day.
In a word, everything is simple: if you want to be healthy, eat healthy.
