The President of the Ghana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Rev Prince Baidoo, has raised concern over the increasing number of women suffering strokes, attributing the trend to long-standing unhealthy lifestyle habits, particularly late-night eating.
His comments come amid growing national concern over non-communicable diseases, with President John Mahama also cautioning against late-night eating, citing it as a key contributor to the growing health burden in Ghana.
Speaking on JoyNews on Thursday, April 16, Rev Baidoo said observations from health facilities indicate a worrying rise in stroke cases, especially among women.
“From our point of view, there are some behaviours we have carried across time that have made the number of strokes, when you go to the stroke unit, the number of strokes keeps increasing,” he said.
“When you come to the ward, the number of women getting strokes is rising, so if we decide that we will not stick to what we have been doing before that has given us these consequences, then we will not be seeing these.”
He stressed the need for a shift in eating habits, urging Ghanaians to reconsider the timing of their meals. According to him, the human body can be trained to adapt to healthier routines.
“It is important we retrain our bodies. It is not cast in stone that you must close and come home at night before you eat,” he explained.
Rev Baidoo warned that consistently eating late at night, often between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., is linked to a rise in strokes, diabetes, and hypertension.
He further explained that irregular eating patterns, such as skipping breakfast and delaying meals, can disrupt the body’s natural rhythm and lead to late-night hunger.
“What happens is that some people do not eat in the morning; their first meal will be somewhere around 11 am, their second meal around 5 pm, so around 11 o’clock or 12 midnight, the body is saying you have not taken your third meal,” he noted.
To address this, he recommended a structured eating schedule: “What we are saying is that if you can eat your first meal by 8 am, your second meal by 2 pm, and your last meal by 7 pm, your body will not demand any other food.”
Rev Baidoo also called for a collective effort within households to change entrenched habits.
“We must sit as families, wives, husbands, mothers, and children; let’s discuss it together so that we can shift this practice,” he urged.
He suggested that meals traditionally eaten at night could be rescheduled earlier in the day.
He added that while occasional late meals may be unavoidable, making it a daily routine poses serious health risks.
“If our practice is that every night you will eat heavily, then you are preparing yourself for a dangerous disease in the future,” he cautioned.
Rev Baidoo, therefore, encouraged Ghanaians to consume their meals earlier in the day. “We are encouraging people to eat all their food when the sun is on from the morning till 6:30 or 7 pm; you should be done. When you do that, and you train your body, you’ll be fine.” Myjoyonline
