By Gabriellea B. Pariño
The Department of Health (DOH) held an online forum highlighting healthy and affordable nutrition in celebration of “Nutrition Month” this July.
Veron Catrisse Delos Reyes, vice president of the Nutritionist-Dietitians’ Association of the Philippines gave a lecture on the importance of a balanced and nutritious meal in the Philippine agricultural setting.
“Food is the foundation of health. That is why we are urging people to switch to a healthy diet,” she said.
Delos Reyes also spoke on the importance of eating a variety of foods with lots of plant-based sources to meet the daily needs for energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals. She also urged Filipinos to balance their energy intake with their energy expenditure.
She also spoke about how people are often lured into taking unsustainable fad diets.
“A diet should be sustained. It should be continuous. Many people enter fad diets because they want to be healthy for a short range of time. They restrict their food intake. That should not be the case. Make it a habit, make it sustainable,” she said.
Madee Conjares of the DOH Health Promotion Bureau also gave tips on how to sustain a healthier lifestyle, emphasizing that people should engage in exercise for at least 150 minutes per week.
Nutrition Month is celebrated every July under Presidential Decree No. 491 (June 25, 1974), or the “Nutrition Act of the Philippines” which was created by the National Nutrition Council (NNC) under the Office of the President.
Newly-appointed poverty alleviation adviser Larry Gadon earlier bared plans to launch the Batang Busog Malusog (BBM) feeding program to address poverty, nutrition, and education. He also suggested asking the private sector for help.
“I will ask companies and businesses to adopt the BBM program as a corporate social responsibility and to partner with a public school in
their respective areas,” He commented in Filipino in an interview with the Philippine Information Agency.
He also explained that the program will prioritize school children with impeded learning abilities as caused by malnutrition.
In March, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosaro Vergeire reported that 12.3 percent of children aged below 23 months are underweight, while
7.2 percent of them are wasted.
Meanwhile, Milagros Elisa Federizo, Metro Manila Nutrition Program Coordinator at NNC said that about 35 percent of Filipino families in
the Philippines are unable to eat healthy and nutritious food.
Around 27 million Filipinos are still overweight and obese, according to studies by the World Health Organization. For the past decade,
obesity among adults has also doubled – with a rate of 20.2 percent in 1998 and 36.6 in 2019.
