MATABELELAND North has been ranked as the top province with people consuming poor diets compared to other provinces across Zimbabwe.
According to the latest Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) 2024 Urban Nutrition Assessment Report on Food Consumption Score, Mashonaland East has the highest number of people with a better diet in the country.
The main purpose of the survey was to assess the nutrition status of the urban population in Zimbabwe and characterise the underlying factors as well as identifying its key drivers to facilitate evidence-based decision-making and programming for better nutrition outcomes.
The report stated that nationally, 71% of urban households consumed acceptable diets, which include meat, fish, eggs and oil which is complemented by other foods such as pulses, fruits and milk.
“Food Consumption Score by province: Mashonaland East (78%) and Manicaland (77%) had the highest proportion of households consuming acceptable diets.
“Mashonaland West (59%) and Matabeleland North (61%) had the least proportion of households consuming acceptable diets. Matabeleland North had the highest proportion of households (18%) consuming poor diets,” the report said.
On food consumption score by domain, the report said attention should be given to Greater Harare 3, Redcliff, Victoria Falls and Marondera, which were all above 20%, which had the highest proportion of households that consumed poor diets.
On the consumption of protein-rich foods by province, the report said 92% of urban households consumed protein-rich foods between one to seven days prior to the survey.
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“About 49% of urban households consumed protein-rich foods for the seven days prior to the survey. Matabeleland South (57%) had the highest proportion of households that consumed protein-rich foods for the seven days prior to the survey.
“Midlands (14%) had the highest proportion of households that did not consume protein-rich foods in the seven days prior to the survey,” it said.
On consumption of Vitamin A rich foods by province, the report said at least 94% of the households consumed vitamin-rich foods for one to seven days prior to the survey.
“Sixty-four percent of the households consumed Vitamin A rich foods for the seven days prior to the survey. Manicaland (81%) had the highest proportion of households that consumed Vitamin A rich foods for the seven days prior to the survey.
“Matabeleland North (15%) had the highest proportion of households that did not consume vitamin A rich foods,” the report read.
The report also stated that on consumption of iron-rich foods by province, 82% of the households consumed iron-rich foods for one to seven days prior to the survey.
“A small proportion of the households (18%) consumed iron-rich foods for the seven days prior to the survey. Matabeleland North (34%) had the highest proportion of households that did not consume iron-rich foods at all. Over half of households across all provinces consumed iron-rich foods one to six days in a week,” it said.
“Mashonaland Central (72%) and Mashonaland West (73%) had the highest proportion of households that consumed iron-rich foods for one to six days compared to the national average of 64%.”
On women minimum dietary diversity, the report noted that nationally, 18% of women consumed foods above the recommended five food groups within the 24-hour recall period of the survey.
Indications were that the majority of women of child-bearing age consumed food from less than five food groups within the 24-hour recall and that is a cause for concern.
“Mashonaland Central had the highest proportion of women who consumed food from five or more food groups,” the report said.
The report also stated that on women minimum dietary diversity by domain, across all the domains, the majority of women consumed food from less than 5 food groups and that is a cause for concern.
“Redcliff (100%) had the highest proportion of women who consumed food from less than five food groups. Luveve (43%) and Ruwa (42%) had the highest proportion of women who consumed food from five or more food groups,” it said.
The report also indicated that, nationally, 21% households had salt that had a negative result upon testing, of which 21,8% of the households had salt which was from locally-packaged brands and 0,81% from a foreign source.
