Putting Food at the Centre of Nigeria’s Health Reform
…What Nigerians Eat Is Now a National Health Question
By Chinedu Moghalu
Recently, the United States released its 2025 to 2030 Dietary Guidelines, with senior officials describing the update as a historic reset of federal nutrition guidance. The recommendations emphasise real food, sufficient high-quality protein, lower consumption of added sugars, and reduced reliance on ultra-processed products. This shift reflects a broader global realignment of nutritional priorities toward disease prevention and healthier food environments.
The updated U.S. guidance is anchored in a simple principle: better health begins with food quality rather than medical intervention. Framed under the banner “Real Food Starts Here,” the guidelines reposition whole, minimally processed foods at the centre of dietary advice, emphasising vegetables, adequate protein intake, hydration, and reduced exposure to added sugars. Importantly, the guidance is not presented as a restrictive diet, but as an effort to reshape food environments to support healthier everyday choices.
For Nigeria, the significance of this moment lies not in adopting another nation’s dietary specifics, but in recognising a growing international consensus that food systems, consumption patterns, and the regulatory frameworks that govern them are fundamental to population health. Across income levels, countries increasingly acknowledge that diets shaped by sugar-heavy products, excessive salt, and highly processed foods are accelerating obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. This recognition reinforces the direction Nigeria has already begun to take.
Nigeria faces a complex nutrition landscape shaped by both persistent undernutrition and a rapid rise in diet-related non-communicable diseases. Nearly one in three Nigerian children under five is stunted, according to UNICEF, while urban diets are increasingly dominated by sugar-sweetened beverages and processed foods that are inexpensive, widely marketed, and often high in added sugars and salt. These trends impose real costs on households, health services, and economic productivity.
Nutrition is no longer a peripheral concern. It sits at the centre of public health, human capital development, and long-term economic resilience. This reality is reflected in the National Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, which places prevention, population health, and systemic reform alongside service delivery and health financing as pillars of health-sector renewal.
Against this backdrop, global shifts in nutrition guidance strengthen the case for Nigeria to consolidate and deepen reforms already underway. They underscore the importance of coherent food policies that support healthier choices through regulation, fiscal tools, education, and enforcement, rather than relying solely on individual behaviour change.
Notably, the U.S. guidelines acknowledge that decades of dietary guidance heavily reliant on processed products have coincided with unprecedented rates of chronic disease. This has prompted renewed emphasis on minimally processed foods, clearer guidance on protein adequacy and hydration, and reduced exposure to added sugars as foundational public-health measures.
One clear example of how these principles are being considered in Nigeria is the ongoing legislative review of an excise duty on sugar-sweetened beverages, recently subjected to public hearing at the National Assembly. While still under consideration, the proposal represents an important policy signal. International evidence suggests that pricing measures can reduce excessive sugar consumption, particularly among children and adolescents, when combined with public education and complementary regulation. Such tools are best understood not as punitive, but as protective, helping to rebalance food environments skewed toward unhealthy options. A comparable approach has already been adopted in South Africa through the 2018 Health Promotion Levy on sugar-sweetened beverages, which has recently been adjusted. The levy taxes drinks based on sugar content and has been associated with reduced purchases of high-sugar beverages, underscoring the role of fiscal measures in shaping healthier consumption patterns.
Beyond fiscal measures, Nigeria has strengthened alignment with global commitments on trans-fat elimination, food safety, and nutrition governance. These efforts mirror initiatives led by the World Health Organization to reduce avoidable dietary risks, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where the burden of non-communicable disease is rising fastest.
Central to this effort is the role of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. Under the NAFDAC Act, the agency regulates the manufacture, importation, distribution, sale, and advertisement of food products, ensuring that foods available to consumers are safe, accurately labelled, and of appropriate quality. Updated pre-packaged food-labelling requirements mandate clearer disclosure of energy content, sugars, fats, and sodium, aligning Nigeria with international best practice.
These regulations provide a strong foundation, but their public-health impact depends on consistent enforcement. Market assessments point to uneven compliance with nutrient labelling, ingredient transparency, and hygienic standards. Where enforcement is weak, consumers are denied information needed to make informed choices, and responsible producers are placed at a disadvantage.
Recent public concern over reports that a major multinational baby-food manufacturer allegedly adds sugar to baby-food sold in poorer countries highlights why vigilance matters most for children’s nutrition. This aligns with World Health Organization guidance that children under two years of age should not be fed foods or drinks with added sugars or sweeteners. For Nigeria, it reinforces the importance of promoting locally available, minimally processed complementary foods such as sweet potato, millet, and sorghum.
Strengthening enforcement of existing regulations is therefore essential. This includes post-market surveillance, improved laboratory testing capacity, routine inspections across formal and informal markets, and predictable sanctions for non-compliance. These steps require sustained investment and coordination across levels of government, rather than new legislation.
For consumers, the practical implication is straightforward: use available labels, choose water more often, and moderate routine sugar and salt intake. This emphasis mirrors global guidance that places water, rather than sweetened beverages, at the centre of healthy dietary patterns.
A nutrition reset must also reach the places where Nigerians eat most frequently. For many households, meals are sourced not from packaged foods but from bukaterias and roadside vendors, school canteens, workplaces, and neighbourhood restaurants. These food environments play a decisive role in shaping daily diets and long-term health outcomes. For public food vendors and restaurants, several practical shifts are feasible. Meals dominated by refined carbohydrates can be modestly rebalanced by increasing vegetables, legumes, and affordable protein sources such as beans, eggs, or fish. Sugar use in beverages also deserves attention, while cooking practices matter, as repeated reuse of cooking oil degrades quality and increases health risks.
Salt use should be moderated, particularly in sauces, bullions, and other seasonings. Gradual reductions are rarely detected by consumers, yet they deliver meaningful cardiovascular benefits at population level. Hygiene and food-safety standards remain foundational, with clean preparation surfaces, safe water, and proper storage reducing food-borne illness and reinforcing public trust.
Nigeria’s food heritage offers a strong foundation for healthier diets. Local staples such as yam, cassava, potatoes, millet, sorghum, beans, vegetables, fruits, and fish provide balanced nutrition, support rural livelihoods, and strengthen food-system resilience. Ensuring adequate protein intake, particularly for children, adolescents, and women of reproductive age, remains a priority.
Nutrition education remains indispensable. Public campaigns under the NHSRII emphasise balanced diets, reduced sugar and salt intake, and the risks associated with excessive consumption of ultra-processed foods as well as alcohol. These efforts are most effective when they celebrate Nigerian food culture and offer practical guidance.
Nutrition policy cannot succeed in isolation. School feeding programmes, agricultural incentives, food-labelling regulations, urban planning, and trade policy all shape what Nigerians eat. Aligning these levers helps ensure that health-promoting choices are supported rather than undermined.
Global conversations about food and health will continue to evolve. Nigeria’s task is not to follow them uncritically, but to draw strength from a growing international consensus that prevention, food quality, and strong regulatory systems matter.
A Nigerian nutrition reset, rooted in science, anchored in local food systems, and reinforced by effective enforcement of existing regulations, offers an opportunity not only to reduce the burden of disease, but to build a healthier and more productive society for generations to come.
Chinedu Moghalu is a lawyer, strategic communications expert, and public policy adviser with over two decades of leadership across government, international organisations, and development institutions. Currently, senior special adviser to Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare.