THE National Nutrition Council in Central Visayas (NNC-7) revealed in a forum on Tuesday that even though the region has enough food supply, it has been beset by problem of poor nutrition because people prefer to eat meat rather than vegetables or root crops.
“Makita nato nga ang mga tawo dili kaayo mangaon og root crops. Hilig tag rice, meat ug salty foods (We observe that the people rarely eat root crops.
They like rice, meat and salty foods),” Nutrition officer Nasudi Soluta said. She explained that this might be because of the way of living in the city, where a behavior change occurs.
“Naa man ta’y kinaiya nga dili ta mokaon ug utan kay ingnon nya ta nga pobre. Mahadlok ta sawayon (We avoid eating vegetables for fear of being called poor. We are afraid of being criticized),” Soluta said. “We have to relearn the healthy eating habits and hope that people will take this for life,” she added.
Soluta said they are also visiting eateries in Metro Cebu to encourage them to prepare vegetable meals. Stickers were also posted in different areas to serve as guide on “Pinggang Pinoy,” a food nutrition program of the Department of Health and the National Nutrition Council that serves as a food guide developed by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute to promote healthy eating habits.
The NNC-7 has already established an Early Warning System for Food and Nutrition Security (EWS- FNS) in selected areas in region 7 since 2014.
The EWS-FNS is a component of the Philippine Food and Nutrition Surveillance System intended to enable LGUs to take timely nutrition action through early detection of a worsening nutrition situation based on the monitoring of nutrition and nutrition-related indicators.
Part of their monitoring as well are other health problems like cases of diarrhea, dengue, presence of potable water and comfort rooms.
The NNC-7 will also conduct a three-day training on Food and Nutrition Security for barangay health workers (BHWs) and barangay nutrition scholars (BNS) in the four municipalities in the region with high prevalence of malnutrition.
These include Buenavista in Bohol, and and Dalaguete, Alcantara and Carmen in Cebu.