Phl food pyramid being revised

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines will soon have its own version of US First Lady Michelle Obama’s “My Plate” that will help Filipinos improve their eating habits.

The Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) are conceptualizing a local healthy food pyramid that will provide Filipinos with basic nutrition advice.

DOH Assistant Secretary Maria Bernardita Flores said the food plate, tentatively titled “Pinggang Pinoy” (Filipino Plate), contains the amount and kinds of food that Filipinos should eat every day to meet their nutritional needs.

“This food plate will guide us on our food choices. The basic requirement is that the recommended food should be produced locally, affordable and normally eaten by Filipinos for easy compliance,” said Flores, who is also the executive director of the National Nutrition Council.

At present, she said the DOH and the FNRI are making a “graphic representation” of the amount and variety of nutritional food that a Filipino’s plate must contain.

Launched last February, Obama’s My Plate is silent on calories, sugar and oil but high in protein rich vegetables, fruits and whole grains.

Anthony Leachon, a consultant of the DOH for non-communicable diseases, said they are revising the food pyramid “since it is confusing and not easily captured by the patients and the public.”

“It’s important to know the proportions of food that we eat and to have a balanced diet – 30 percent carbohydrates, more brown rice and wheat bread; 20 percent more fish and vegetables rather than red meat and processed foods; lots of vegetables; and 20 percent of all types of fruits of different colors,” he said.

Leachon added the food plate is expected to help ease the rising cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) due to smoking, unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle.

He said NCDs kill some 800 Filipinos every day or around 300,000 yearly.

The formulation of the food plate was an offshoot of the United Nation high-level meeting on NCD Prevention and Control in September 2011.

The world’s health authorities have warned that two of three deaths in the world are caused by NCDs such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases.

The UN has warned that if no immediate action would be taken, NCDs will kill some 52 million people worldwide every year by 2030.