Nutrition council: Eat healthy food

CEBU, Philippines — The National Nutrition Council (NNC)-7 of the Department of Health continues to encourage everyone to eat healthy and exercise at home, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All of us are vulnerable to COVID-19 and this vulnerability is affected by our nutritional status,” said NNC-7 Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Parolita Mission in a recently concluded virtual forum on overweight and obesity awareness.

Mission said that more families are consuming junk foods or foods that are high in calories but low in nutrients, and coupled with sedentary lifestyle.

She added that overweight and obesity should not be taken lightly as these often lead to a lot of health complications, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and a host of other lifestyle diseases that could lead to an untimely death.

Based on the latest national nutrition survey, 37.2 percent of adults in the country is overweight and obese, a trend that has been continually increasing in the past decade. In Central Visayas, 29.4 percent of adults are overweight, most of them live in urban areas.

She added that even with the quarantine restrictions, NNC will not be hindered by the situation as they continue their advocacy, promotion and provision of correct, relevant, and up-to-date health and nutrition information to the general public adapting to the new normal to improve the health and nutritional well-being of every Filipino.

“This is our response to the growing recognition of nutrition as one of the key actions towards building resiliency for ourselves, our families and communities during this time of the pandemic and post pandemic period,” she said.

Mission said the challenge is how to do physical activity and other healthy lifestyle routines while staying at home.

“We know that this is important especially in this time but difficult to do. Ladies and gentlemen, it can be done. We just need the desire, the will and discipline to do it,” Mission added.

This said online forum aims to increase awareness of the netizens about overweight and obesity, its causes, the health consequences if remain unmanaged and offer ways to flatten the protruding belly curves even while working at home in this time of COVID-19 pandemic.

This virtual forum also hopes to encourage companies, agencies, and organizations both public and private to initiate or sustain a healthy lifestyle program for their employees and the families of employees. — GAN (FREEMAN)