Department of Non Communicable Disease (NCD) within the Ministry of Health & Medical Services has appealed to the general public to eat more locally grown food, in order to maintain good health.
Speaking to the Solomon Star recently, a health officer said, the rising rate of NCD cases in the country is associated with high consumption of imported food, which contains more fats.
She said this following reports that NCD accounts for more death in the hospitals compares to other causes of death.
“It is of grave concern that we must discipline with our diets.”
She also stated that eating more on local food from the garden like cassava, kumara, yam, and vegetables must be practised now, not later in order for us to keep our body healthy.
The health officer added that reducing our salt intake is also important because higher salt content in our body puts more risks to develop cardiovascular disease.
Furthermore, she said regular exercise like road walk, jogging and cleaning up around the residence like weeding, sweeping, splitting of firewood and grass trimming should be part of our leisure activities after working hours.
She encouraged people to drink more fresh water and sleep early to give more time for our body to rest.
“Free our mind from stress, because it relates to high blood pressure, which can resulted in stroke, heart attack, hence we must always think positive, so that happiness that keeps our life long will continue to prevail,” she assured.
She also encourages people to reduce smoking or quit from it and control alcohol intake as well.
“Because these things contributes a lot to the higher risks of having NCD problem.”
By AATAI JOHN
