{"id":36062,"date":"2024-10-15T13:10:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T13:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/?p=36062"},"modified":"2024-10-15T13:10:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T13:10:04","slug":"governments-role-in-ensuring-access-to-healthy-food-urgent-call-to-action-on-world-food-day-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/governments-role-in-ensuring-access-to-healthy-food-urgent-call-to-action-on-world-food-day-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Government&#8217;s Role in Ensuring Access to Healthy Food \u2013 Urgent Call to Action on World Food Day 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36064\" src=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-15-at-18-07-10-world-food-day-Google-Search-e1728997674645.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"321\" \/>Islamabad, October 16, 2024 \u2013 On the occasion of World Food Day, Major General Masud Ur<br \/>\nRehman Kiani underscored the critical role of government in making healthy food accessible to<br \/>\nall. He highlighted alarming health statistics, stating,<\/h5>\n<h5>\u201cPakistan is facing a health crisis, with 33 million diabetics and another 10 million on the brink of the disease, as reported by the International Diabetes Federation.\u00a0 Obesity is surging, hypertension is rampant, and these preventable conditions are becoming part of everyday life.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>Maj Gen Kiani called for urgent collective action to change harmful eating habits, starting at the<br \/>\nindividual level. He stressed the need to embrace healthier choices: \u201cWe must focus on home-<br \/>\ncooked meals, reduce our intake of salt, sugar, and oil, opt for water over sugary drinks, and<br \/>\nprioritize fresh, unprocessed foods.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>Mr. Munawar Hussain, Country Coordinator for GHAI, warned that Pakistan\u2019s food and health<br \/>\nlandscape is dire. He cited the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)<br \/>\nlinked to the widespread consumption of ultra-processed products (UPPs).<\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Over 41% of adults in Pakistan are overweight or obese, with more than 33 million living with diabetes. If immediate policy action is not taken, this number will escalate to 62 million by 2045.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"j1HCWMbXw3\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/canned-flavored-milk-is-injurious-for-the-health-of-school-aged-children-letter-to-cm-punjab-from-president-panah-dr-maj-gen-r-masud-ur-rehman-kiani\/\">&#8221; Canned Flavored Milk is Injurious for the Health of School aged Children&#8221; &#8211; Letter to CM Punjab from President PANAH, Dr. Maj Gen (R) Masud Ur Rehman Kiani<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;&#8221; Canned Flavored Milk is Injurious for the Health of School aged Children&#8221; &#8211; Letter to CM Punjab from President PANAH, Dr. Maj Gen (R) Masud Ur Rehman Kiani&#8221; &#8212; Pakistan In the World\" src=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/canned-flavored-milk-is-injurious-for-the-health-of-school-aged-children-letter-to-cm-punjab-from-president-panah-dr-maj-gen-r-masud-ur-rehman-kiani\/embed\/#?secret=zeNyp6hMXk#?secret=j1HCWMbXw3\" data-secret=\"j1HCWMbXw3\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h5>Hussain emphasized that UPPs, loaded with excessive sugar, salt, and trans-fats, are a major<br \/>\ndriver of NCDs. He urged the government to take decisive action, including raising taxes on<br \/>\nthese harmful products and introducing mandatory front-of-pack warning labels. \u201cThese<br \/>\nmeasures have proven effective globally and are essential to reduce consumption of unhealthy<br \/>\nfoods in Pakistan.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h5>Sana Ullah Ghumman, echoing the theme of World Food Day 2024, \u201cRight to Food for a Better<br \/>\nLife and a Better Future,\u201d called for stronger government regulations. \u201cThe government must<br \/>\nlead the charge in addressing the food crisis with stronger policies, including clear front-of-pack<br \/>\nwarning labels on unhealthy foods and public health campaigns to raise awareness,\u201d he stated.<\/h5>\n<h5>Ghumman further called for an increase in taxes on ultra-processed products, stressing that these non-essential items not only deteriorate public health but also strain the healthcare system.<\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>\u201cTaxing UPPs will yield triple benefits: enhanced government revenue, reduced healthcare costs, and a healthier population.\u201d<\/strong><\/h5>\n<h5>In light of the current fiscal challenges, where the government is exploring options to address tax shortfalls, Ghumman suggested that taxing unhealthy products in the upcoming supplementary finance bill could both increase revenue and relieve the national health burden.<\/h5>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"LxDlT7YxmR\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/pakistan-in-the-world-july-aug-2024\/\">Pakistan in the World &#8211; July \/ Aug 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Pakistan in the World &#8211; July \/ Aug 2024&#8221; &#8212; Pakistan In the World\" src=\"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/pakistan-in-the-world-july-aug-2024\/embed\/#?secret=YskNbZtQkY#?secret=LxDlT7YxmR\" data-secret=\"LxDlT7YxmR\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad, October 16, 2024 \u2013 On the occasion of World Food Day, Major General Masud Ur Rehman Kiani underscored the critical role of government in making healthy food accessible to all. He highlighted alarming health statistics, stating, \u201cPakistan is facing a health crisis, with 33 million diabetics and another 10 million on the brink of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1039,355,524,13,1904,6070,48,43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36062"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36066,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36062\/revisions\/36066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}