Accra, Aug. 24, GNA - A Ghanaian scientist and industrialist, Dr Kaku Kyiamah, has hailed the positive qualities of tropical fats, saying they help in healing a number of diseases.

He said in a statement issued to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Tuesday that traditions in many tropical countries, including India, Nigeria and Panama, showed that using virgin tropical fats, especially coconut or palm kernel oil fats as food, skin and hair pomade and mouth wash had many advantages.

These include enhancing of the five senses, reduction of the risk of contracting diseases including eye and gum disorders, promotion of smooth pregnancy and delivery of a healthy baby and considerable reduction of the disease burden during childbirth and adulthood.

Dr Kyiamah noted that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had stated in a number of reports that non-communicable diseases had their roots in the diet and the major causative factor was the type of edible fat.

He said: "Scientific research has identified trans-saturated fatty acids and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, the source of proagladins, as hugely implicated in the non-communicable diseases."

Dr Kyiamah said various studies on diets had shown that replacing processed unsaturated vegetable fats with diets, which used tropical fats, especially palm kernel and coconut fats, could prevent or give relief to a lot of non-communicable diseases.

He said these included diabetes, cancers, migraine, glaucoma, cataract, preterm labour, menstrual pains, fibroids, infertility, piles and, childhood asthma and muscle pull.

Dr Kyiamah said: "A seminal research by Emeritus Professor John Kabara of Michigan State University in the US has shown that the health promoting and the disease healing properties of breast milk are mainly due to the shirt and medium chain saturated fatty acids found in the milk fat.

"These short and medium chain saturated fatty acids have antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antiprotozoal properties. Short and medium chain saturated fatty acids make up more than 60 per cent of coconut and palm kernel fats."

Dr Kyiamah said for more than 50 years, there had been a WHO supported systematic global promotion of the use of processed vegetable fats as food and medicine and the denigration of tropical fats.

"Now the whole world is grappling with the resultant expensive epidemic of non-communicable diseases, also known as degerative lifestyle diseases,” he said.