AS WE celebrate the Nutrition Month this year, the theme “Kumain nang wasto at maging aktibo... push natin ‘to!” encourages everyone to advocate and realize the importance of healthy diets, increased physical activity and reduced sedentary behavior. Pushing the advocacy means that each and every one can contribute to better nutrition and physical activity for better health.
The campaign aims to catalyze actions to promote the consumption of healthy diets, increased physical activity, and reduced sedentary behavior through activities of daily living among individuals and families; encourage the food industry including farmers, manufacturers, distributors and food establishments to produce and make available healthier food options; and advocate for the enactment of national and local legislation/policies and policies at the workplace, school and other venues that are supportive of an enabling environment for healthy diets and physical activity. While Nutrition Month is observed during July, actions to achieve the objectives are expected to be sustained.
Specifically, this year’s theme aims to promote nutrition and physical activity since physical activity and diet are two modifiable risk factors to non-communicable diseases. Furthermore, regular physical activity protects against coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, hypertension, obesity, clinical depression, and other chronic disorders. It is also a way to raise awareness that sedentary behavior (prolonged sitting), which is highly common among office employees, may be a distinct risk factor, independent of physical activity, for multiple adverse health outcomes in adults. Lastly, there is some evidence that suggests that nutrition and physical activity have complementary and interactive effects on many physiological parameters including energy balance, lipid balance, and glucose balance. Improving both nutrition and physical activity can result to better health outcomes.
According to the latest data from FNRI-DOST (2018), less than half (40.6 percent) of the adult population are insufficiently physically active. Significantly more females (46.6 percent) are observed to be physically inactive compared to males (32.9 percent). Older adults are the least physically active. In 2015, majority (94.8 percent) of adults spent less time on leisure-related activities such as basketball, swimming, jogging, ballroom dancing, and other recreational activities. Regarding transportation-related activities, seven in 10 adults spent less than 30 minutes per day for biking or walking to and from places. For work-related physical activity, about seven in 10 adults were not engaged in work with moderate or vigorous intensity such as farming, carpentry, nursing, caregiving, and the like.
Hence, people across all ages are encouraged to do more physical activities which include walking, sports, active forms of recreation (zumba, yoga, etc.) and tasks in the house (cleaning, carrying, etc.). At the same time, for those who have the time and energy, to do exercises to improve or maintain physical fitness, physical performance, or health.
Regular physical activity has numerous health benefits, and the most significant of these is to prevent, delay or manage non-communicable diseases. In the same manner, physical activity can also help in weight management, muscle and bone strength, mental health, better sleep, over-all well-being.