Filipinos Encouraged to Eat Healthy and Be More Active This Nutrition Month

The National Nutrition Council (NNC) called on Filipinos to eat healthy and be more active to prevent obesity and non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The call was made during the national activation event for Nutrition Month held on 01 July in Santa Rosa City, Laguna. Nutrition Month is held every July to create awareness on nutrition among Filipinos. This year’s campaign is guided by the theme, “Kumain nang wasto at maging aktibo … push natin ‘to!” (Eat healthy and do physical activity … let’s push this!)

The campaign aims to contribute to reduce stunting and overweight and obesity among Filipinos and the incidence of non-communicable diseases in the country. Recent results of the Expanded National Nutrition Survey showed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults has significantly increased to 37.1% in 2018, up from 31.1% in 2015. The same trend can be seen among adolescents with a prevalence of 11.6% up from 9.2% in 2015 and among children 6-10 years old, 11.7% up from 8.4%. The increasing problem of overweight and obesity can be attributed to poor diets and inadequate physical activity. More Filipinos are consuming diets that are energy-dense, high in fat and simple sugars and less of fruits and vegetables. This is exacerbated when 40.6% of Filipino adults are insufficiently physical activity.

The NNC encourages the food industry including farmers, manufactures, distributors and food establishments to produce and make available healthier food options including food products that have lower sugar, salt and fat content and instead make whole foods such as fruits and vegetables more accessible. Local government units, schools, workplaces and public establishments are encouraged also to provide opportunities for physical activity such as providing safe spaces for exercise, breaks for physical movement such as walking to make people move more and spend less time sitting or lying down.

The campaign encourages everyone to adhere to the 1-2-3 challenge: Have ONE hour or more of physical activity every day; reduce screen time to TWO hours or less each day; and eat the THREE food groups every day for variety. Healthy diet combined with regular physical activity helps achieve and maintain normal body mass index. These two are important in the management of certain diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Having a healthy meal plan and being active helps keep one’s blood glucose level, blood pressure and cholesterol in a healthy range. (NNC PR)