Imparting health values to kids

Elite performance nutrition coach Jeaneth Aro has taken her advocacy of spreading the good news of living a healthy lifestyle to kids and she’s reaching out to parents to influence their children to grow up the right way. Last Saturday, Aro launched a children’s book entitled “Ang Natatagong Lakas Ni Bulas Gatas” at Novotel in conjunction with event partner Real California Milk and program partner MVP Sports Foundation to jump-start the initiative.

In the audience were families with kids, Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz and husband/coach Julius Naranjo, Olympic bronze medalist Eumir Marcial and wife Princess, TNT assistant coach Josh Reyes, TNT players Ryan Reyes, Kib Montalbo and Carl Bryan Cruz, TNT team doctor Miguel Valera, UST chair of the Department of Psychology Dr. Karen Trinidad, California Milk Advisory Board country rep Reji Retugal-Onal, MVP Sports Foundation executive director/PLDT first vice president Jude Turcuato, MVP Sports Foundation program director of Community Sports and Youth Development Atty. Oscar Moreno, Jr. and National Academy of Sports executive director Josephine Reyes.

The book was written by Aro and her son Alex with inspiration from Aro’s husband Art, a sports marketing executive who calls himself her driver and personal assistant. Illustrations were made by Juno Abreu. There are plans to launch a second book in December. “As a sports nutrition practitioner for nearly two decades and having handled hundreds of elite and professional athletes, it has always been Jeaneth’s desire to give back to the sports community,” noted the epilogue in the book. “A way to do this is to address the challenge of poor nutrition among young aspiring athletes at the grassroots level that hinders them from reaching their full potential as future achievers in sports.”

There’s no more credible advocate than Aro. She holds a Community Nutrition degree from UP and earned a diploma in Sports Nutrition as an Olympic Solidarity scholar from the International Olympic Committee. Aro was a taekwondo coach at 16 and worked her way through school. In 2017, she was invited by Diaz to join her team in preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. Aro helped out five of 21 Philippine medalists at the 2018 Asian Games and seven of the country’s 19 athletes at the Tokyo Games. She was the unsung hero behind the performance of four Tokyo Olympic medalists – Diaz, Marcial, Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam.

Throughout her career, Aro has nurtured athletes in a wide assortment of sports, including jiu jitsu, swimming, cycling, golf, archery and figure skating. She has customized nutrition programs for clients from nine to 58. In boxing, Aro has fueled world champions Jerwin Ancajas and Mark Magsayo with nutrition plans to enhance strength, power and endurance.

In my intro at the book launch, I mentioned four Cs that appropriately describe Aro – caring, compassionate, considerate and competent. She has the innate ability to develop a personalized nutrition program that makes you enjoy what you consume, is sensitive to cravings, won’t starve you and puts you in a position where you can excel as an athlete in competition or just stay healthy and fit.