Is your child eating well enough and growing just fine? Is he too fond of eating rice or meat? Are you giving him well-balanced meal or are you falling into malnutrition traps? As they say everything must be taken in moderation and a little too much of something might be bad for our children’s health. Read on for more details on how to beat these malnutrition traps and for dibs on where to get healthy, well-balanced recipes you can prepare for your family.
The Pinggang Pinoy® Campaign
Our country has been facing the rise on the number of underweight and overweight Filipinos for more than 20 years. The World Health Organization {WHO} defined this phenomenon as the “Double Burden of Malnutrition” or the “prevalence of both under-nutrition and overweight in the same community, nation, or region.”
To address this problem, our government launched the Pinggang Pinoy® campaign in 2014. Pinggang Pinoy® is an easy-to-understand food guide showing proper food group portioning on a per-meal basis. This reflects the principles of MOderation, VAriety and BAlance {MOVABA} to promote healthier eating habits.
Solving the Philippines’ Double Burden of Malnutrition should be a collaborative effort between the public and private sectors. With this, Ajinomoto Philippines Corporation partnered with government agencies to conduct education programs to raise awareness and promote the practice of Pinggang Pinoy® in malnutrition hotspots, where incidences of Double Burden Malnutrition are high. This training was given to homemakers/mothers who have malnourished {underweight, stunting, wasting, overweight and obese} school-aged children.
The pilot run resulted to improvements of the knowledge and attitudes of households related to the practice of Pinggang Pinoy® within target areas. However, behavior changes towards healthier eating habits remains to be a challenge. The program uncovered a number #MalnutritionTraps that some Pinoy households easily fall into.
The following #MalnutritionTraps provide a picture of how unhealthy eating habits may lead to Double Burden of Malnutrition
- Overconsumption of carbohydrates ~ Voracious rice eaters can easily fill half of their plates with rice. Others have pandesal and noodles as regular meal deprived of other nutrients derived from a well-balanced meal.
- Under consumption of vegetables and/fruits ~ It is common for some to be content with rice & meat to satisfy their hunger and skip/take insufficient amount of vegetables/fruits. Fact is, the variety of colors found in Glow foods are important sources of vitamins and minerals. They help us to sustain our energy and keep us from getting sick.
- Overconsumption of protein ~ Typical Filipino “SILOG” meals include double serving of proteins {e.g. Tapa+Itlog, Tocino+Itlog, Longanisa+Itlog, Bangus+Itlog}. Eating different kinds of protein is fine for as long as they are taken in moderation. We must also avoid protein dishes served high in fat, cholesterol, and sodium.
