About 43 percent of female students at Jashore University of Science and Technology (JUST) are anaemic, according to a study of the university's women students cited by Tanvir Ahmed, assistant professor in its Department of Nutrition and Food Technology. The clinical nutritionist has proposed cutting the duty on nutritious foods, Channel i Online reports.
Drawing up diets for patients, he has found that foods such as extra virgin olive oil, various nuts, pumpkin seeds and quinoa play an important part in treating and managing serious illness, sometimes with few alternatives. But because of their high prices many patients cannot buy them regularly, even when advised to.
He therefore proposes lowering the duty on essential nutritious foods to bring them within ordinary people's reach, and, to make up the lost revenue, raising taxes on soft drinks, fast food and processed food. He set out the proposals in a recent Facebook post addressed to the prime minister and his office.
Many students at public universities, he wrote, suffer from undernutrition or overnutrition, with 'hidden malnutrition' a particular concern. He recommends nuts and seeds, which need no cooking, for students' diets, though their price often puts them out of reach.
He has also proposed special subsidies to improve the nutritional quality of food in university dining halls, especially in women's halls. Thanking the government for steps to control the prices of local and imported fruit, he said making nutritious food affordable would bring lasting gains for public health. The report is by Channel i Online's Mahfuzul Islam.
Source: Channel i Online
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