Health Essentials
Sick food environment: Poor diets fuelling the rise of NCDs in Ghana
WHEN Dorcas reaches for a chilled bottle of her favourite soft drink after lunch, she rarely considers its long-term effects on her health. For the 29-year-old secretary in Accra, the sweetness is comforting. The tiny print on the label—numbers, percentages and scientific terms—feels too distant to warrant concern.
“I take these drinks because they are less expensive compared to natural fruit juice. They are easy to get. Sometimes the drinks paired with a bun, buff loaf, cookies or biscuits serve as a full meal,” she says.
Nutrition experts, however, warn that a single 300ml bottle of soda can contain as many as nine cubes of sugar, almost twice the recommended daily limit.
“Even when you dilute it, the sugar content doesn’t reduce. Your tongue may not taste it, but your body absorbs every gram,” says Harriett Nuamah Agyemang, Country Director of SEND Ghana, which is leading advocacy for Front-of-Pack Labelling (FOPL) to help consumers make healthier choices.
Rising consumption and growing risk
Professor Richmond Nii Okai Aryeetey, a Public Health Nutrition Expert at the University of Ghana, says a recent study shows that one-third of Ghanaian adolescents consume sugary drinks at least once a day.
“Before the end of 2025, Ghana has already purchased almost US$1.3 billion worth of sugar-sweetened beverages. There is not enough data, but we know enough to see that consumption is high and rising, especially among the youth,” he indicates.
According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey, households spend nearly three per cent of their income—about GH¢2,200 annually—on sugary drinks.
Prof. Aryeetey says diets dominated by sugar, salt and fat, common in Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs), are driving increases in hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.
“Ultra-processing takes food to another level. You combine ingredients that are intensely refined, and add industrial formulations, colours, flavours, sweeteners, that never appear in home cooking,” he explains. He identifies doughnuts, pizza, ketchup, burgers, and fizzy drinks as common UPFs.
The numbers behind the burden
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including stroke, heart disease, diabetes and cancers, account for 48 per cent of all deaths in Ghana.
In 2019, the age-standardised mortality rate for major NCDs stood at 750 per 100,000 males and 563 per 100,000 females. Projections indicate that by 2034, nearly 41 per cent of all deaths could be linked to complications from four major NCDs: stroke, heart attack, heart failure and chronic kidney disease, largely driven by unhealthy diets.
Ghana Health Service (GHS) data shows that in 2024 alone, more than 584,000 people were diagnosed with hypertension and nearly 200,000 with diabetes. In the first half of 2025, a further 255,000 hypertension cases and 88,000 diabetes cases were recorded.
Public health experts describe this as evidence of a “sick food environment”, where consumers are surrounded by cheap, aggressively marketed products high in salt, fat and sugar.
Convenience foods and changing lifestyles
From instant noodles and tomato paste to packaged snacks and fizzy drinks, UPFs have become staples in homes, schools, and workplaces.
Ms Agyemang links the trend to changing lifestyles.
“People spend hours in traffic and get home late. They go for the quick options canned, instant or fried. But the long-term cost to their health is enormous,” she says.
Ghana’s current labelling regulations require nutritional information to be placed on the back of packages, often in fine print that many consumers struggle to interpret.
“Even educated consumers struggle with it. For the ordinary person, it’s even more confusing,” she adds.
Front-of-Pack Labeling
Several countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Mexico and Chile, have adopted Front-of-Pack Labelling, using simple symbols or colours to indicate high levels of salt, sugar or fat.
The WHO says FOPL enables consumers to identify healthier options at a glance and encourages manufacturers to reformulate products in order to avoid warning labels.
“It doesn’t only guide shoppers. It forces companies to compete on health, not just price,” Ms Agyemang notes.
At Rawlings Park in Accra, food vendor, Asia Bintu, says she checks only expiry dates.
“I don’t understand the numbers and those tiny inscriptions. Canned foods are cheaper and easier to cook,” she says.
Advocates say such responses reflect low food literacy, underscoring the need for public education and regulation.
Health system under pressure
Maxwell Bisda Konla, Principal Dietician at the University of Ghana Hospital, says Ghana’s progress in improving national nutrition has slowed.
“Obesity, hypertension and other NCDs are rising at an alarming rate as Ghanaians shift from traditional fibre-rich foods to highly processed meals, sugary drinks and refined carbohydrates,” he says.
Heart disease, kidney failure, and liver complications now feature prominently in mortality data.
He calls for stronger policies to limit the importation and marketing of unhealthy foods while promoting local alternatives such as brown rice, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.
Schools as a focal point
Labram Musah, National Coordinator of the Ghana NCD Alliance, says schools are critical to reversing current trends.
“Children are increasingly exposed to unhealthy diets, especially in urban areas. What they eat in schools shapes their lifelong habits,” he says.
He advocates regulation of foods sold in and around schools, and the introduction of practical nutrition education, including school gardens and healthy meal plans.
“It’s not enough to tell children what to eat. We must make healthy options available and affordable. Imagine if every school had a small garden, it would change how children think about food.”
Mr Musah also urges the integration of FOPL into Ghana’s broader NCD prevention strategy, alongside salt reduction, sugar taxes and restrictions on marketing UPFs to children.
Evidence from Africa
A randomised controlled trial in Kenya involving 2,198 shoppers found that FOPL significantly improved participants’ ability to identify sugar, salt and saturated fat in packaged foods and reduced intentions to buy unhealthy products, particularly when black warning labels were used.
A South African study similarly found that simplified Front-Of-Pack Labels were more effective than detailed back-of-pack tables in helping consumers identify unhealthy foods.
Prevention as priority
The WHO says clear labelling can drive product reformulation and reduce diet-related diseases over time.
“Reading a label could be the difference between good health and a lifetime of medication. If we don’t act now, we will keep spending millions treating preventable diseases,” Ms Agyemang warns.
For Ghana, a stronger focus on prevention could reduce pressure on health facilities already managing growing NCD caseloads.
Nutrition advocates say introducing Front-of-Pack Labelling would strengthen Ghana’s response to NCDs by making nutritional quality visible at the point of purchase and supporting healthier decision-making.
Advancing SDG Three
The rising burden of diet-related NCDs poses a significant challenge to achieving Sustainable Development Goal Three, which aims to reduce premature deaths from NCDs through prevention and treatment.
Improving Ghana’s food environment through clearer labelling, salt and sugar reduction policies and better access to affordable healthy foods is considered essential to meeting these targets.
By prioritising preventive nutrition policies and healthier diets, Ghana could reduce avoidable illness, ease pressure on the health system and advance efforts to ensure healthy lives and well-being for all.
-GNA
This week I bumped into Deborah, one of my avid readers and I promised her I will be writing this weekend. So Deborah, this is for your reading pleasure and to pick some golden nuggets for the future.
The quest to find the best way to make one’s golden years, happy, exciting, healthy and a time most people look forward to continues unabated. One factor that keeps popping up is the need to grow friendships with people more than 20 years younger than yourself.
Do not take this for granted. It is a form of “social security” since these close friends who are much younger than you will step in to support you in more ways than you can ever imagine.
Some conditions may make life challenging for older adults but knowing these Geriatric Giants helps us to take the necessary steps to reduce our risk.
“Geriatric Giants” refers to a group of chronic health conditions that are common in the elderly, typically 65-year-olds and older.
These conditions quite often co-occur and can impact on the independence, dignity and overall wellbeing and quality of life of an elderly person.
These Geriatric Giants include:
- Impaired Intellect/ Memory (e.g. Dementia)
- one of the major battles we need to deal with is challenges with memory
- Exercise, adopt the Mind Diet, build a great social network and enjoy time outdoors
- Keep reading and solving puzzles for as long as possible
- Instability – leading to much feared falls
- A good reason to indulge in Balance Training and Core Strengthening exercises from today
- Ensure your home is safe; avoid clutter such as cables crisscrossing floors, toys etc. These are all trip hazards and should be avoided
- Many healthy, happy and fun-loving older adults have died soon after a fall with its attendant complications.
- Do whatever it takes to avoid falling
- Immobility (opening the doors to pressure sores, joint stiffness)
- Even when you are unable to move about on your own it is important to get support to change positions as often as possible or get an appropriate mattress or bed that prevents prolonged pressure over any single point.
- Make sure you passively or actively move joints daily.
- Incontinence (urine, faeces or both)
- This is one of the reasons older adults prefer to stay at home and avoid going out to meet friends etc.
- Iatrogenic Disorders – adverse effect of medication
- Quite often most older adults are on several medications and some side effects such as drowsiness may seem to cause more unhappiness and may even lead to falls.
- Inappetite – this may result in poor nutrition
- This may also be linked to loss of teeth thus making chewing very difficult or limited.
- The loss of smell and taste may also reduce the amount of food one may willingly eat.
The power to reduce the impact of the Geriatric Giants starts now and should be a lifetime commitment. It is never too early to start making the appropriate lifestyle modifications, nor is it too late to reduce the impact of the giants on one’s life.
Other conditions that significantly impact on the lives especially of the elderly are:
- Sleep Disorders
- Good sleep has the power to give us energy, improve our thought pattern and even helps us to make good choices.
- Good sleep sets the tone for a healthy life
- Constipation
- This is a challenge that confronts quite a number of older adults.
- Movement, fibre and lots of water go a long way to reduce the stress that frequent constipation generates.
- Fraility
- Muscle loss is real and as we age, we lose a significant percentage of our muscle plus our bones also become brittle.
- Make sure strength training is part of your exercise schedule
- Polypharmacy
- Another headache that needs to be confronted head-on
- Everyone especially older adults need a good primary care physician or a general practitioner who can coordinate all medicines from the different Specialists who may be attending to an elderly person. This ensures that unnecessary medicines are dropped
The goal of care at all times is to optimise the quality of life. As family, professional caregivers and friends we should always show respect so that the dignity of the elderly is preserved at all times. For those of us who are not yet in the age group with such challenges, we need to start the conversation about the type of care we will prefer and take steps to stay healthy and independent for as long as possible. The goal should be a long Healthspan and not just a long Lifespan.
AS ALWAYS LAUGH OFTEN, ENSURE HYGIENE, WALK AND PRAY EVERYDAY AND REMEMBER IT’S A PRICELESS GIFT TO KNOW YOUR NUMBERS (blood sugar, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, BMI)
Dr. Kojo Cobba Essel
Health Essentials Ltd (HE&W Group)
(dressel@healthessentialsgh.com)
*Dr. Essel is a Medical Doctor with a keen interest in Lifestyle Medicine, He holds an MBA and is an ISSA Specialist in Exercise Therapy, Fitness Nutrition and Corrective Exercise. He is the author of the award-winning book, ‘Unravelling The Essentials of Health & Wealth.’
Thought for the week – “There is no magic formula to being happy but making a conscious effort to be happy goes a long way.” – Dr. Kojo Cobba Essel
By Dr. Kojo Cobba Esse
The call to action
We must move beyond the cycle of temporary outrage. I propose a four-point blueprint for the Ministry of Health and the government:
1. A Digital Bed-Tracking Command Centre: Legally mandate all public and major private hospitals to update a live, digital bed-registry every hour. The NAS must be able to see a vacancy before they move. This must be matched with the available resources and services so that the right patient will be sent to the right facility.
2. Strategic Capacity Expansion: We must stop building “prestige projects” and start building high-volume stabilisation centres. We need a targeted investment to triple the ER bed count in Accra and Kumasi within 24 months. This should then be extended to other regional capitals.
3. Specialised Emergency Hubs: Designate specific hospitals as “Centres of Excellence” for Cardiac and Stroke care (and for other health emergencies), ensuring they have 24/7 imaging and intervention capabilities as well as the requisite expertise to manage these conditions. Policy makers must incentivise public-private partnerships to ensure that a heart attack in Accra or Kumasi can be treated with the same urgency as one in New York.
4. Develop a nationwide trauma system: This is extremely important because trauma is a major cause of deaths in Ghana. In the US, each state has a statewide trauma system with three levels. Level 1 trauma centres are usually University Teaching hospitals that provide comprehensive trauma care and also play an important role in local trauma system development, regional disaster planning, increasing capacity and advancing trauma care through research. Level II trauma centres are expected to provide initial definitive trauma care for a wide range of injuries and injury severity.
Level III centres provide definitive care to patients with mild trauma. Having such systems is imperative to ensure proper treatment of trauma patients.
Even for those who survive trauma, disability is a major assault on economic potential and viability. Importantly all this cannot happen with a cash and carry system. Emergencies should be managed under a different model to save life and limb first. Obviously, there is a need to ensure that healthcare facilities will be able to recover their investments in emergency care, and that balancing act needs careful consideration.
Frontline clinicians are often forced to bear the public’s anger for infrastructure deficits they did not create and cannot fix. This is a failure of governance, not a lack of clinical care. Responsibility lies with the policy makers who manage the nation’s resources.
The “No Bed Syndrome” is a systemic disease. It cannot be cured with a directive from the Ministry of Health, parliament or a lecture on ethics. It requires a blueprint, a budget, and the political will to treat this like the menacing threat it is.
It is safe to say that non-emergent healthcare is excellent in Ghana for the most part if you can afford it. However, emergency care is suboptimal. We had a sitting president die from an emergency health issue and a former vice president also die from an emergency. If that is not enough warning, it is clear that anyone can be a victim of an emergency.
If we do not act, the next ambulance driving aimlessly through the streets of Accra could be carrying anyone, including the very people who have the power to fix this issue.
Prof. Jonathan Laryea is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. Arkansas. He is board certified in General Surgery, Colorectal Surgery and Clinic Informatics.
He is a graduate of the University of Ghana Medical School (Class of 1997)
