CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The National Nutrition Council (NNC) Central Luzon recently convened nutrition advocates and health workers to kick off the month-long celebration of the 43rd Nutrition Month.
With the theme “Healthy diet, gawing habit—FOR LIFE!”, the celebration aims to increase awareness on the importance of healthy diets to protect the public against both under and overnutrition and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases and cancer.
“Due to the increasing number of overweight and obese people, and its relation to the increased cases of NCDs, we want to put an emphasis on maintaining healthy diets by helping the public distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods for better food choices,” NNC Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Ana Maria Rosaldo explained.
This year’s celebration also aims to encourage the food industry including farmers, manufacturers, distributors and food establishments to produce and make available healthier food options.
“Aside from the business sector, we also want to advocate for the enactment of national and local legislation or policies supportive of an enabling environment for healthy diets,” Rosaldo added.
Highlighting the kick off activity are technical updates on the nutrition month and the Pinggang Pinoy for different age groups.
Apart from the nutrition aspect, said updates also serve as a venue to discuss the importance of healthy diet in reducing gender inequality, helping the environment, preventing economic losses and improving agricultural productivity.