A United States-based Nigerian nutrition scientist, Onyedika Ani, has revealed that telling people to eat healthily is insufficient when nutritious foods remain unaffordable and incompatible with their economic circumstances.
Ani, whose groundbreaking research explores the intersection of food security, race, and sex in young adults with obesity, recently completed an NIH-funded clinical trial at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The findings from the study, first presented at the 2024 American Society for Nutrition (ASN) conference in Chicago and the Nigerian Society of Nutrition (NSN) conference in Kano, shed light on how unseen cardiometabolic risks develop during early adulthood.
According to Ani, young adulthood is frequently treated as a healthy period, masking the development of risks for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He noted that as young people transition into independence—making crucial decisions about food, education, and employment—financial pressures often dictate their health trajectories.
“I wanted to examine more than body weight alone,” Ani explained. “Food security, race, and sex represent overlapping social and biological contexts that may shape health differently. Early adulthood offers an important prevention window where interventions introduced before chronic disease becomes established may have benefits across decades.”
The cross-sectional analysis, which evaluated 102 Black and White adults aged 18 to 35 with overweight or obesity, found that 35 percent of participants were classified as food insecure despite being in a university setting.
The research revealed a stark interaction between food security and race regarding blood-glucose control and cognitive function. White participants with high food security recorded lower HbA1c levels compared to Black participants regardless of their food security status. Furthermore, among those with low food security, Black participants registered more errors on standardized attention tests.
While warning that race should not be viewed merely as a biological explanation, Ani emphasized that these disparities reflect differing social, economic, environmental, and healthcare experiences.
Drawing parallels to current realities in Nigeria, the nutrition scientist argued that his findings carry an urgent lesson for the nation’s ongoing food crisis. Nigeria currently battles intense food-price inflation, rapid urbanization, and a surge in the consumption of cheap, highly processed foods alongside persistent undernutrition.
“These conditions can produce different forms of malnutrition within the same community,” Ani said. “It is paramount to examine how income, location, sex, and food access interact with cardiometabolic health using locally collected data. Policies should support affordable access to traditional foods, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains while strengthening local food systems.”
He further clarified that “personalized dietary interventions” do not necessarily mean expensive genetic testing. Instead, they involve structured counseling and the incorporation of nutrient-dense foods into everyday eating patterns in a way that remains affordable.
Advising health policymakers, Ani recommended treating nutrition simultaneously as a healthcare priority and a food-systems issue.
He urged the government to strengthen maternal, infant, and school nutrition programs, advocating for affordable, nutrient-dense meals in educational institutions. He also called for accessible screening for blood pressure and blood glucose in young adults, alongside economic policies that make locally produced, minimally processed foods cheaper than unhealthy alternatives.
Reflecting on the challenges of coordinating a demanding NIH clinical protocol, Ani credited consistent communication and rigorous tracking systems for the trial’s success. He offered a word of advice to young Nigerian researchers aspiring to reach the global stage.
“Build depth before chasing visibility,” Ani advised. “Young Nigerian researchers should view their backgrounds as intellectual assets rather than a limitation. Familiarity with local realities can help them ask globally important questions that others may overlook.”
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