TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan, (PIA) -- The National Nutrition Council (NNC) stepped up its efforts to manage the increasing trends in incidence of overweight and obesity among children in the Cagayan Valley region.
Ma. Gisela Lonzaga, nutrition program coordinator, said there was a downtrend in the number of cases of severely wasted and underweight children in the region in 2016 to 2018 but the overweight and obese cases slightly increased.
According to Lonzaga, from 2016 to 2018, Region 2 has 1.2 percent increase in overweight and obese cases among 0-59 months old children, while 3.57 percent increase among overweight schoolchildren and 1.07 percent increase in obese cases among schoolchildren.
“The slight increase of the overweight and obesity cases among children in Region 2 in the past three years is lower than the national data. However, we still need to do something to manage it,” Lonzaga said.
She said the increase might be attributed to the proliferation of fast food chains in the cities and highly urbanized towns of the region.
“These fast food chains serve high fat, high calorie, high sodium and sugary foods. These are energy dense foods that contribute to obesity and overweight,” Lonzaga said.
She added that the advent of technology today is also contributory to the nutritional problem among young children as they have more screen time than physical fitness activities.
“Children nowadays spend their free time in their gadgets; watching televisions, playing computer or mobile games and engaging with their friends over social media. These are some factors that are leading causes of weight gain among children,” Lonzaga added.
With this, the NNC reiterated to the Department of Education (DepEd) to strictly enforce the memorandum circular number 13, intensifying the monitoring of nutritious foods served to the learners and increasing the physical fitness activities in schools.
“We encourage also canteen operators and parents to serve locally available nutritious foods to children,” she added.
Lonzaga admitted that the council is facing challenge when it comes to foods chains, however, she is hopeful that continuous education and awareness campaigns are the key to eliminate prevalence of overweight and obesity in the region. (ALM/OTB/PIA-2 Cagayan)
