WITH THE theme “Healthy Diet Gawing Habit for Life,” the celebration for the Nutrition Month this July gets underway as it reminds everyone you are what you eat.
Bella Basalong, nutrition officer of the National Nutrition Council of the Cordillera, said this year’s nutrition month focuses on creating awareness of a healthy diet to avoid non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and hypertension, which, she said are increasing, and to prevent malnutrition.
According to Basalong, the region has low cases of underweight children age zero to five but has the highest number of overweight individuals because of diet and the lack of physical activity.
The nutrition officer urged Cordillerans to start the road to fitness by eating variety of foods from the different food groups listed under the go, grow, and glow food pyramid.
According to the Food Nutrition Research Institute National Nutrition Survey, Cordillera has the highest consumption of vegetables, but does not cut it to 400 grams required by the World Health Organization.
For those who are planning to go on a diet, Basalong suggests to proportion carbohydrates intake to the gravity of physical activity to be undertaken adding if the activity is strenuous, only a little rice will be shed off.
For adults, the suggested rice intake is three–eight servings in one day, where one serving is equal to half a cup, said Basalong. However, she said that all diet depends on the individual requirement of the person.
Basalong added the promotion of exclusive breast feeding with complementary feeding is also part of healthy diet for infants.
The officer also warned the public against quality of the complementary food given to the children, noting the lack of nutrients is one of the reasons of the stunted growth prevalence in the region.
Based on the 2015 data, Basalong said three or four out of 10 children in the region have stunted growths. (Arianne Jo Julaton/UP Baguio intern)