Leading a discussion on practical ideas intended to improve quality health in Ghana at the Ghana Shippers Authority Hall at Ridge in Accra on Tuesday, the former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, fried foods and processed foods were highly associated with non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, heart diseases and diabetes.

He said health promotion was very important.

Together with a health policy and management expert, Prof. Aaron Abuosi, the two prominent professionals were the main speakers on “Quality Health for All” at the latest edition of the Graphic National Dialogue Series.

The event, designed and being organised by the Graphic Communications Group Ltd, is a forum for discussing development issues with a focus on national consensus in a non-partisan environment.

It is also to collate ideas into a document to shape policymaking at different levels of the social strata. The latest of the Graphic National Development Series will have a plenary session where the expert speakers will deliver papers on specific topics derived from different perspective of the theme.

Stressing the need to eat Ghanaian local foods, Prof Akosa said more locally produced foods than Western and fast foods could help to reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in Ghana.

He said Ghanaians had put away local nutritious foods and were eating imported, highly processed foods with a high sugar concentration in processing them. “I will urge us all to go back to our former ways of eating kontomire or cocoyam leaves, garden eggs, okro, ‘abedru’, and all that keep us healthy and also minimise the dependence on the pizzas, noodles and fried foods,” he advised.