The Executive announced a few days ago to extend the price control on some products of the Basic Food Basket, announcing 10 new foods, however, this announcement caused the Panamanian Association of Nutritionists – Dieticians (APND) and other groups of nutritionists to express their concern, since some of these products would not be able to meet international recommendations on good nutrition.
According to the nutritionist and president of the Healthy Panama Foundation, José Ramiro López, some of these foods have a high content of critical nutrients such as sodium, sugar and saturated fats, which negatively impact our health because they are inflammatory and carcinogenic foods.
He recalled that national statistics show that 49.7% of annual deaths in Panama are related to poor nutrition. At the same time, he pointed out that the country is 36 years behind in public health promotion policies.
According to López, this calculation on the basic basket is outdated and dates from 2007 and the current situation of the country in terms of nutrition is unknown.
Canned prickly pear and sardines, sausage or mortadella, would be some of the most harmful products in terms of processed foods presented by the official response to the crisis.
The basic basket has 59 products for the district of Panama and San Miguelito, in the rest of the country there are 50. In both, only 18 foods are under price control, when adding the 10 recently included by Cortizo.
