CEBU, Philippines - Based on a 2008 food consumption survey of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, Filipinos on the average are eating less and less vegetables per day in the past three decades.
Nona Tad-y, Regional Nutrition Coordinator, National Nutrition Council said the survey shows that from 145 grams per day of vegetables in 1978, vegetable consumption decreased to 110 in 2008.
The report also shows that across regions, consumption varies, showing Calabarzon and the ARMM, as having the lowest consumption at 92 grams per person per day, while CAR had the highest at 169 grams.
Tad-y said the World Health Organization recommends eating a minimum of 400 grams of vegetables and fruits per person per day, or equivalent to five servings of vegetables and three of fruits.
In terms of age groups, the survey shows that infants six to 11 months consumed only an average of two grams per day, and among the one-year-old children the amount increased to only eight grams.
It was noted that adolescents aged 13-19 consumed 69 grams, adults 20-59 consumed 91, while older persons 60 years and over, consumption decreased to 87 grams only, pregnant women consumed only 91 grams while lactating women ate 101 grams per day.
The NNC commissioned the FNRI in 2005, to determine why Filipinos eat very little vegetables.
The study shows the following major reasons for the low consumption of vegetables, such as influence of family members who do not eat vegetables, dislike for the taste and preference for meat, preference for fast foods and instant foods, fear of chemicals and pesticides, vegetables require time to prepare, and lack of knowledge on nutritional and health benefits of vegetables.
In a briefing with the media, Tad-y said this prevailing decreasing consumption of vegetables prompted the NNC to focus the 2012 Nutrition Month celebration on vegetable, with the theme “Pagkain ng gulay ugaliin, araw-araw itong ihain!”
She said this is set to increase vegetable consumption as part of a healthy diet and address micronutrient deficiencies and non-communicable diseases.
Moreover, the celebration seeks to promote vegetable gardening as a source of additional food and income and increase demand for vegetables to help local vegetable farmers.
The local media group organized by the NNC-6, called the Western Visayas Nutri-Media Circle, will lead the vegetable seedlings planting in a simultaneous nationwide launching of the Nutrition Month Celebration on July 2.
The activity will be held at the Leganes Central Elementary School, after the flag ceremony and will be followed by a mass feeding of children with vegetable-rich dishes.
Earlier, the NNC-6 initiated a vegetable cooking fest, where winning recipes would be included in a recipe book, which is to be distributed to nutrition workers and the Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, the Media Information Network for Nutrition and Development-7 together with NNC-7 through the Regional Nutrition Committee and Cebu City Nutrition Council will spearhead today’s “Vegetable Hour”.
This is in line with the celebration of the Nutrition Month.
A simultaneous planting of vegetables in schools, day-care centers, homes, communities in Cebu and all over Central Visayas will be done.
Four key areas were identified for the Vegetable Hour; the Cebu City Operation Second Chance in Barangay Kalunasan, the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, Barangay Mambaling and the Mabolo Elementary School.
Sen. Loren Legarda lauded the Department of Education in its initiative to promote eating vegetables among schoolchildren through the ‘Gulayan sa Paaralan’ project.
In a press statement, Legarda stressed that this year’s Nutrition Month will put emphasis not only on eating vegetables for good health but also on how vegetables are cultivated.
“I laud the DepEd’s ‘Gulayan sa Paaralan’ project because now earning will not be confined to the classrooms; students themselves will take part in growing what they will eat. It is this kind of activity that fosters curiosity and genuine engagement, which is exactly what we need to see in the youth of today,” she said.
Legarda is the author of several nutrition bills including Senate Bill 2561, the proposed Child Nutrition Law, which aims to create a system-wide plan to implement a nutrition and health program for children in public schools and barangay day-care centers, consisting of a complementary feeding program. —Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon with a report from PIA (THE FREEMAN)