It is important that people must have healthy dietary practices. Healthy diet is defined as the right choice of food that has enough nutrition in order to be health. Healthy diet is characterized as balance, variety and moderation. Balance refers to consuming of foods from different food groups in proportion to each other. Whereas variety refers to eating different kinds of food from the different food groups daily and moderation is the consumption of food in right proportion.
According to Dietary guidelines for Americans, healthy diet emphasizes consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat milk and milk products, includes a variety of protein source foods such as meat, eggs and poultry, is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, sodium and added sugars and meets the daily calorie requirement of the body.
Diets that are high in sugars, saturated and trans-fats, and low in fruits and vegetables increases the risk of having non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and other health problems. According to World Health Organization, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity are the leading global risks to health. These would increase the risk of becoming overweight or obese and developing NCDs later in life.
Nowadays, consumption of foods that are high in energy, fats, free sugar and salt are increasing. Fruits and vegetable consumption has continued to decline. In the Philippines, people have shifted their dietary patterns in terms of quality and quantity over the years. Studies shows that the changing dietary pattern may be associated to increasing urbanization with association to “increasing urbanization with association to increasing Westernized food habits such high fat diets, processed foods and consumption of refined carbohydrates; globalization which increased trade liberalization, making available a wide variety of processed and fast foods; increased frequency of eating away from home; use of computers and computer games; and influence of mass media” (Pedro et al., 2006).
10 Kumainments and Pinggang Pinoy were made to guide Filipinos to a healthy diet. 10 Kumainments consists of short and simple 10 nutrition messages for better recall and understanding. Pinggang Pinoy is a food plate model – consisting of Go, Grow and Glow foods, that helps Filipinos in determining the right amount of food in one meal and helps them acquire healthy eating habits to attain nutrition and healthy body. This visual tool is separately designed for children, adolescents, adults, elderly, as well as for pregnant and lactating women.
Healthy Diet is very essential in preventing all forms of malnutrition. It would also protect people from having NCDs such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Having a proper dietary eating habits in combination with an active lifestyle would help people reach their optimum nutrition and health. – Frances Vea T. Valdez
