The body cannot be healthier than the food man eats. Nutrition is to health what drug is to the body too. This paper seeks to highlight the relationship between diet and longevity most importantly in prevention of morbidity and recovery from ill-health. Nutrition is coming to the fore as a major modifiable determinant of chronic disease, with scientific evidence increasingly supporting the view that alterations in diet have strong effects, both positive and negative, on health throughout life. Diet has been known for many years to play a key role as a risk factor for chronic disease. Hunger, malnutrition and poor lifestyle remain among the most devastating problems facing the majority of the world’s poor and needy people; our communities inclusive. The Objective is to clarify the role of diet in preventing and controlling morbidity and premature mortality resulting from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Using Health Belief Model (HBM), questionnaire was designed for data collection, 100 questionnaires were administered, interviews and existing literature were used too. Data generated were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, simple percentages and illustrative graphs. The findings show that poverty, ignorance, poor lifestyle and inequality were discovered to be the major limiting factors to proper nutrition which would have boosted health and longevity. The study demonstrated 65% increase in morbidity cases among the low income earners and the ignorant as to the average income earners and the ignorant. The result shows that there is a strong relationship between nutrition and health. Ignorance, as one of the limiting factors to proper dieting, is at the fore front. Base on this study/ findings, it is recommended that local food be patronized too in our locality and stakeholders should organize food/agricultural programmes at least annually to ensure knowledge is increased on proper nutrition with the aim of promoting healthy living
Keywords: Lifestyle, Local Food, Longevity, Panacea
