‘TOL VIEWS

This year marks the 50th Nutrition Month Celebration since Presidential Decree No. 491 was signed on June 25, 1974.  After 50 years, the health and nutrition status of Filipinos, particularly school children, continue to be challenged by several factors including the capacity of Filipino families to sustain proper nutrition and the prevailing human lifestyle of our present times.

Child obesity and stunting remains a major thrust of our national nutrition program. The 2021 Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) showed that 14 percent of children aged five to 10 years old suffer from obesity.  Present data may point to even higher numbers of overweight and obese Filipino children. School based feeding initiatives have indeed gone a long way in gradually addressing these health issues among young Filipinos.  However, as the numbers on stunting and child obesity continue to significantly increase, government agencies including local government units will have to work double time to curb the statistics and restore the health and well-being of Filipino children.

Yesterday, during my regular morning radio program, I came up with the idea of providing our school children with a nutritious recess meal from locally developed food products such as fruit or vegetable-based bread, cookies, chips and drinks. Snacks with fortified nutritional content and lesser glucose or sugar components provided for free to our school children not only help them understand and value proper nutrition.  Moreover, as studies have repeatedly shown, intake of more nutritious food while at school improves learning and comprehension.   Healthier nutritional interventions may also address the declining creative thinking skills of young Filipinos, evidenced by the Philippines’ poor ranking in the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Though a cliché perhaps, but also undeniably true in all respects: a healthy body begets a healthy mind.  We recognize that adequately addressing health and nutrition challenges among Filipino school children demands a whole-of-society approach.  To achieve substantive gains, stakeholders will have to unite all efforts to advance the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition and align national nutrition goals with the Global Nutrition Targets 2025 which include, among others, 40 percent reduction in the number of children under-five years old who are stunted and having no further increase in the global data on childhood overweight.   

Health and nutrition are critical elements in raising healthy, happy, hope-filled Filipino children. Let us unite to promote healthier diets and healthier lifestyles for healthier, stronger, wiser Filipinos.