THE National Nutrition Council (NNC) 10 headed by Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Gladys Mae S. Fernandez and the Province of Misamis Oriental led the joint regional and provincial launch of Nutrition Month last Friday, July 7 by gracing the weekly farmers market at the provincial capitol grounds.
In her message, Fernandez underscored that based on a study, Filipinos can hardly afford a healthy diet.
“About 69 percent of the population in the country cannot afford nutritious diet,” Fernandez said. She added further to have sustainable healthy diets, we must include plant-based foods and less on animal meats. “And we must decrease foods high in sugar, red meat and fine grains.”
During the activity, the stakeholders present pledged to support the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition 2023-2028, advocate and support actions to enable individuals and families adopt positive nutrition, health and caring behaviors and ramp up resources and investments for nutrition interventions to address gaps in capacities and number of service providers especially among local governments and to enable interventions to reach target populations.
Guided by the theme Healthy Diet Gawing Affordable for All, NNC has rallied the public for shared actions from various stakeholders both in the government and private sectors to empower Filipinos to have greater access to affordable, safe and nutritious food.
NNC is encouraging every individual, families and communities to start children on a healthy diet by exclusively breastfeeding infants under six months of age and continue breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond with appropriate complementary feeding, consume fresh foods and limit those processed foods in one’s diet, having family and community food gardens for an additional source of food and supporting local farmers by buying produce from them.
