Watch what you eat and drink
The majority of the ready-to-consume snacks and beverages like fizzy drinks, chips and fried chicken contain substances harmful for health and are responsible for non-communicable diseases, found local researchers.
In Bangladesh, non-communicable diseases account for 67 percent of total deaths, according to the World Health Organisation.
The top-selling fizzy drinks in Bangladesh were found to contain heavy metals such as lead and chromium at a higher level than the allowable limit recommended by the WHO, found researchers of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).
The study involved testing the top 10 soft drinks and five energy drinks in the country in terms of sales. The report did not disclose the brands tested.
The maximum allowable limit for lead in a day is 0.01 milligrams per litre (mg/L) and for chromium 0.05 mg/L.
But the median level of lead in the soft drinks was 0.21 mg/L and in the energy drinks 0.19 mg/L. The median level of chromium in soft drinks and energy drinks was 0.13 mg/L.
The majority of the fizzy drinks had extremely erosive pH for dental health, the study found.
A pH level lower than 3 is damaging for teeth and the soft drinks' pH was found to be 2.8 and the energy drinks' 2.9.
Besides, the total sugar content in one serving (250 ml) of the soft drinks is 20.8-28.8 grams (gm). For energy drinks, it is 22.6-37.0 gm.
The maximum allowable daily level under WHO guidelines is less than 25 gm.
"If anybody consumes a single serving of fizzy drink, it gives enough sugar for a person in a day," said AHM Golam Kibria, lead investigator of the study, at the event where the findings were disclosed.
Energy drinks are banned in a 2018 regulation, but they are still sold under different names, said Sahadev Chandra Saha, deputy director at the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority.
A similar study was conducted on the popular fast foods fried chicken and French fries by the top five brands in terms of sales and the findings were equally alarming.
One serving of French fries (100gm) was found to contain 0.45 gm of sodium -- which is one-quarter the daily recommended limit of 2 gm -- and 0.093 mg of arsenic, which is 42.3 percent of the maximum allowable limit of 0.22 mg.
There was 0.11 gm of trans-fatty acids, whose daily allowable intake amount is 2.2 mg, and 0.003 mg of lead, whose daily limit is 0.25 mg.
One serving of fried chicken (100gm) had 0.46 gm of sodium, 0.0053 mg of arsenic, 0.006 mg of lead and 0.13 gm of trans-fatty acid.
"Awareness among the consumers and strict monitoring by the regulatory bodies of Bangladesh should be raised to reduce the health impacts of fast food," said Sajia Islam, lead investigator and a researcher at the Department of Public Health and Informatics at the BSMMU.
Meanwhile, nine commonly consumed packaged snacks such as crisps, Bombay mix, fried peas, fried pulse, noodles, biscuit, lozenge, lollipop, milk chocolate, chutney and ice cream were found to contain excess amount of salt, sugar and saturated fat.
None of the brands could make health claims in the star rating scheme and the UK traffic light system due to the high content of the critical nutrients and most of the products misreported the nutrient content in the label, said Mohd Abdullah Al Mamun, assistant professor at National Heart Foundation Hospital and Research Institute.
"There is an urgent need for modification in the processing of commonly consumed packaged and processed foods to make these healthy and strict regulations for appropriate nutritional labelling," he added.
All three studies showed that most of the readily available foods and packaged foods consumed every day have been increasing the risk of non-communicable disease, Md Khalequzzaman, associate professor of PHI at the BSMMU, told The Daily Star yesterday.
"Businessmen control the market as per their will -- such injustice is not seen anywhere in the world," said Enamul Hoque, deputy director at the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution.
At the discussion session, experts and researchers from different institutions and government regulatory bodies stressed on collective approach to stop the consumption of unhealthy fast food.
Comments