Female heads of households have been advised to adopt healthy cooking habits and to serve foods with less oil and salt.

They should also serve more fruits and vegetables to prevent heart diseases among their family members.

The advice was given by a panel of health experts at the launch of a Cardiovascular Disease Prevention campaign organised by FHI 360, an international NGO, at the weekend in Accra with the support of Ghana Police Hospital and Atua Government Hospital.

The health experts underscored the need for people to eat healthily, exercise regularly and to avoid excessive alcoholic beverages.

The campaign, dubbed: “From your heart to theirs,” was to promote the consumption of heart-healthy foods with the goal of influencing the food purchasing and preparation patterns of female heads of households and their families.

Dr Peter Lamptey, President of FHI 360, said heart diseases accounted for 60 per cent of the global burden of chronic diseases, adding that it killed at an earlier age in people in developing countries like Ghana than in Europe or the United States.

He said poor or unhealthy diet, insufficient physical activity or exercise, use of tobacco and exposure to indoor smoke from solid fuels and excessive or harmful use of alcohol were causes of heart disease.

Other factors are biological or physiological changes that eventually lead to heart disease.

Dr Lamptey said, these included overweight and obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and high blood sugar.

He added that biological changes lead to diseases such as stroke, heart attack, heart failure and diabetes that caused chronic and costly ill health and sometimes death.

Dr Lamptey said inadequate resources and education about the disease, conflicting beliefs about its cause, inadequate health infrastructure and access to affordable diagnostic were challenges to heart disease control in Ghana.

He called for individual, family, community, national and international action to reverse the rising trend of heart disease in the country.

Dr Lamptey said “There is an urgent need to allocate resources from government and the donor community to improve services for chronic diseases to meet the growing disease burden to improve services for chronic diseases.”

He added that there was the need for the mobilisation of stakeholders to control the chronic disease.

Dr Alex Osei-Bonsu, Medical Superintendent at the Atua Government Hospital, said the erroneous notion that fatty deposits on the surface of stew and soup made them attractive and tasty was unhealthy.

He called for a change in that mental attitude and urged Ghanaians to engage regularly in exercise.

Dr Henry Nagai, Country Director of FHI 360, said lack of parks and recreational facilities and sidewalks, increased sedentary lifestyle and perception that “to be big is beautiful”.

He expressed the hope that the campaign would inform and change the behaviour and attitude of the targeted group.

Dr Nagai said a branded mobile van would move to designated communities where cooking demonstrations, taste testing and free heart disease risk-factor screening exercise would be conducted.

Dr Alex Korshie Nazzar, Public Health Specialist at the Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Ghana Health Service, expressed the hope that the campaign would effect the positive change in feeding and living habits among Ghanaians.

The event, which was used to conduct free health screening for those in attendance, saw many of the participants danced to azonto, a popular Ghanaian dance-craze moves, which according to a representative at the Ghana Police Hospital was a form of exercise.

Madam Akorfa Edzeani-Asiedu, a popular actress, performed a cooking demonstration and taste testing exercise on how to use less oil and salt but more vegetables to cook healthy meal.**