OMG veggies

Among the many advocacies that Senator Edgardo Angara devotes himself to, the simplest that we can all immediately apply to ourselves is Oh My Gulay!

Oh My Gulay! is one of Angara’s solutions to one of the problems of our educational system. Involved in education all his life, Angara realized that a major reason that children drop out of school is hunger, not the kind of hunger reported by survey firms (so many Filipinos eat only once a day, if at all), but “hidden hunger.”

Hidden hunger, also known as vitamin and mineral deficiency, says Angara, is the leading cause of malnutrition in the world today.

We are not talking only of countries like ours. In Britain, according to BBC, people eat only two or three portions of fruits and vegetables a day, when the minimum amount to maintain physical health is five. “Population studies,” reports BBC, “have shown that people who eat a lot of fruit and vegetables may have a lower risk of chronic disease, such as heart disease and some cancers.”

American media also report that Americans show alarming rates of vitamin deficiency, particularly Vitamin B6, which comes from avocado, spinach, potatoes, peas, asparagus, red bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. Although Americans eat a lot of these, they still do not eat as much as they should.

In the Philippines, as Oh My Gulay! points out, 26 percent of all preschool children are undernourished; that does not even take into account out-of-school children. Oh My Gulay! has identified our most common malnutrition problems: protein energy malnutrition, iron deficiency anemia, Vitamin A deficiency, and iodine deficiency disorders.

What makes Angara’s advocacy especially urgent is that the consumption of fruits and vegetables among Filipinos has been decreasing steadily since 1978. It is not only children that are at risk from vitamin deficiency, but adults.

Oh My Gulay! has a simple solution to malnutrition in children and adults: eat more vegetables and fruits. That, of course, is easier said than done, as anyone that goes to a fastfood outlet knows. Although there are fastfood places that serve fruits and vegetables, it is the burger or the hotdog that we enjoy and not the few vegetables that come with it.

BBC suggests a simple daily diet for UK citizens: a glass of fresh orange juice for breakfast, a small pack of dried apricots for mid-morning snack, a side salad with lunch, sugar snap peas and broccoli served with supper, and strawberries as dessert. Those not so intolerable fruits and vegetables, believe it or not, supply enough vitamins and minerals to keep away a heart attack.

We can adapt the BBC diet to our own conditions and taste: a glass of fresh fruit juice for breakfast, a fruit for merienda, a Filipino dish for lunch or dinner (most Filipinos dishes have vegetables anyway), and banana or pineapple for dessert. (This is not from Oh My Gulay! This is from me, and remember that I am not a medical doctor!)

Oh My Gulay! involves a number of government agencies, private organizations, and individuals, all working towards making Filipinos like and want fruits and vegetables.

If you want to help make your neighbors (or yourself) more aware of the need to eat and even plant vegetables, you could volunteer to serve Oh My Gulay! Contact DepEd, DOST, DOH, DA, DSWD, ABS-CBN, UP Department of Food Science and Nutrition, PUP College of Nutrition, and various other agencies and organizations working in a consortium for health. Or you can go directly to the Senate and sign up in Senator Angara’s office.

It is truly ironic that our country, which is so rich in fruits and vegetables, has so many citizens suffering from malnutrition. Do your bit. Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables today and every day.

WELL DONE, DFA! I had my passport renewed at DFA last month. Despite there being a crowd of people (there must have been at least two or three hundred), it took me less than 30 minutes from the exact time of my appointment (set through the Web) to the time I left the building. The system was very efficient. The DFA staff were courteous and helpful. The security guards not only kept the queues orderly, but served as guides as well. When government works, it works very, very well. Good job, DFA!

FACEBOOK FRIENDS: When my Facebook profile accumulated 5,000 friends, I opened a second profile. That turned out to be a bad idea. Facebook has been removing duplicate profiles, in an attempt to prevent identity theft. One of my friends lost both his two profiles because Facebook did not want to decide which one to keep.

Fortunately, I was warned by a (non-virtual) friend early enough, and I am in the process of deleting the second profile. In order for me to accommodate friends and readers that want to keep up with my activities, my friend advised me to open a fan page.

When I tried to do that, I discovered that I already had two fan pages, created by persons unknown! I am grateful to these persons and flattered by their efforts at updating the fan pages, but I asked Facebook to delete their pages and to allow me to manage my own fan page. If you want to “like” my page, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Isagani-R-Cruz/162490137141411.