by: Claro A. Lanipa
Pagadian City 20, July (PIA) – The Regional Development Council (RDC-IX)
issued Resolution No. IX-030-12 urging all local government units (LGUs) and
regional line agencies to support the 38th Nutrition Month Celebration (NMC).
This year’s celebration promotes
vegetable consumption with the theme “Pagkain ng gulay ugaliin, araw-araw itong
ihain.”
Nutrition Program Coordinator Maria del
Pilar Pamela Tarroza said, this theme is in recognition of the health benefits
that could be derived in making vegetables as part of the regular diet in
addressing micronutrient deficiency problems and non-communicable diseases such
as cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, cancers and obesity.
The celebration of Nutrition Month is an
annual nutrition awareness campaign held every July in accordance with
Presidential Decree No. 491 known as the Nutrition Act of the Philippines, an
act which created the National Nutrition Council (NNC) as the highest policy-
making and coordinating body on nutrition program.
This year’s nutrition month celebration
aims to increase vegetable consumption as part of a healthy diet to address
micronutrient deficiencies and non-communicable diseases; promote vegetable
gardening as a source of additional food and income; and increase demand for
vegetables to help local vegetable farmers.
As stated in the RDC resolution, the
trend in the mean one-day per capita vegetable consumption in the Philippines
from 1978-2008, based on series of surveys made by the Department of Science
and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) has steadily
declined from 145 grams to 110 grams and that per World Health Organization
(WHO report, low fruit and vegetable intake is among the top selected risk
factors for global mortality. (NNC/CAL/PIA9)