Group partners with US doctors to fight malnutrition

MANILA, Philippines - An advocacy group known for promoting vegetable farming has partnered with the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists to help fight malnutrition among Filipino children.

Josie Paule, Oh My Gulay! (OMG!) executive director, said they will provide the health component of the program.

To date, the program has reached out to 82 public schools nationwide, she added.

Paule said  26 percent of Filipino children aged 0-5 years are malnourished based on a 2008 study of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).

“We want to influence healthy lifestyle among our children to help alleviate nutritional deficiencies,” she said.

Paule said they are also working on a computer game to entice more kids to eat vegetables.

“They (children) will soon start playing with vegetables,” she said.

Diabetes and obesity have become common among public school pupils due to their preference for a diet rich in carbohydrates rather than nutritious food.

Launched in 2011 by former senator Edgardo Angara, the OMG! Campaign promotes higher consumption of vegetables as the best way to fight micronutrient deficiency.

Angara served as agriculture secretary during the Estrada administration.

OMG! establishes vegetable gardens in public schools and teaches children the value of eating vegetables through classroom lectures, and distribution of vegetable seeds.

The study attributed chronic malnutrition (a shortage of intake of vitamins and nutrients) among children to the country’s low vegetable and fruit consumption.

The Philippines’ vegetable consumption of 60 kilograms per person per year in 2007 was one of the lowest in Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

WHO recommends a daily intake of 400 grams of vegetables and fruits per person (150 kg per year) to help prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies as well as heart disease, some cancers, diabetes and obesity.