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The country had been implementing quarantines as a precaution in spreading the COVID-19 virus, changing our normal routines, and limiting our physical activities. Maintaining our individual health is very challenging nowadays. Quarantine made us isolated in the comforts of our home. But since industries, businesses, and employers must continue their operation, most of us took the work at home while trying to make sense of these uncertain times. Most of us had been struggling to maintain good health and proper nutrition with limited food access and availability. Our mental health had been challenged as well in the absence of our support systems, routines, and things that usually bring us joy and happiness. More than six (6) months in isolation and quarantines may have affected our daily lives, but, it is still not an excuse to stay fit and healthy. Here are some tips that you can follow to stay fit and healthy, physically and hopefully, mentally.
- Come up with your new daily routine.
Maintaining normal activities can help you stay sane and okay. Waking up, sleeping, eating, working out and doing exercise at the same time everyday will benefit your mental health as well as your physical health by maintaining normalcy.
- Plan your meals.
Planning your meals, daily or weekly, may help you choose healthier and more nutritious food instead of just ordering from a nearby restaurant or fastfood. Your may also take this time to hone your cooking skills, or just discover it during the quarantine. A lot of easy and healthy food recipes are available online. You may check out the official Facebook Page of National Nutrition Council and DOST-FNRI for some recipes. Choose ingredients that will boost your immune system such as fresh fruits and vegetables which are rich in vitamins and minerals. Eat a variety of healthy, safe, and nutritious food as stated in “Kumainment No. 1” of the National Nutrition Council.
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- Category: Region 2
Breastmilk can provide all the nutrients that the baby needs during the first six months of life of a child. However, beyond 6 months, breastmilk alone cannot suffice the nutritional demands of the baby for his/her growth and development. There is a gap between the baby’s total energy needs and the energy and nutrients coming from the breast milk, from 6 months onwards. As the child grows, this gap will also increase. Thus, in this period, it is the best to give your baby additional foods to fill in these gaps and make him/her grow well and healthy.
Complementary feeding is when the child is given other foods in addition to breastmilk. These additional foods are called complementary foods. Complementary foods are characterized as nutritious and adequate to ensure that the baby will receive all the nutrients, he/she needs to grow healthy and strong.
Mothers should remember that it is important that babies 6 months and beyond should still be frequently breastfed as the child wants. For babies 6 months to 12 months old, breastmilk still gives more than half of the child’s nutritional needs and for babies 12 months to 2 years old, breastmilk gives at least one-third of his/her nutritional demands. Also, babies who are continuously breastfed after 6 months are still protected from many forms of diseases. Also, the closeness and contact of the baby to his/her mother during breastfeeding helps in the psychological development.
So, why is it important to start introducing complementary foods on the right time?
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- Category: Region 2
Mothers, especially those who need to return to work, choose to express and store their breastmilk for their babies. Expressing breastmilk allows other members of the family or caregivers to feed the baby with breastmilk. Thus, it is important that mothers know how to properly store their breastmilk to ensure that they are still giving the best for their babies. Here are the tips in storing the breastmilk properly!
Before expressing breastmilk, mothers need to make sure their hands should be cleaned thoroughly. Also, equipment to be used such as pumping kits must be sterilized and free from dirt to avoid contamination. After milk expression, store the expressed breastmilk in a storage bag or clean food-grade containers with tight fitting lids made of glass or plastic. Avoid filling the storage bag fully since the breastmilk expands as it freezes. Plastic bags or containers that are not for breastmilk storage must not be used since it may contain contaminants that may harm the baby.
Each stored breastmilk must be properly labeled with time and date when it was expressed. Never put the breastmilk at the door compartment of the refrigerator since temperature fluctuates in the area and it may affect the breast milk quality. It is best to store it at the back of the freezer where the lowest temperature or coldest part is located. Also, it is recommended that breastmilk must be stored in batches (2 to 4 ounces or the usual amount of every feed) to prevent discarding excess breastmilk from unfinished feeds. When transporting expressed breastmilk or traveling, breastmilk can be stored in insulated cooler bag with frozen iced packs for up to 24 hours.
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- Category: Region 2
By Benjie S. De Yro
Dear Gardener,
Thank you for reconsidering me as part of your government’s efforts to minimize COVID-19 through your body resistance I help built since time immemorial. In fact, without this pandemic, I doubt if I can be of service to you again. To be frank about it, you have neglected and virtually abandoned me because you thought those multinational food chains will do you the best for your health.
Of course, you now realized, you were wrong.
I now think that because you have nothing to do during the lock outs, you turned to me, instead. I’m sorry but I think the main reason is that you realized that what I nurture are food elements very essential to your well-being. The high cost of vegetables these days may come in as secondary reason why to romance me again.
Time and again, your National Nutrition Council has been harping on you to maximized me to the fullest as I can be your best instrument to produce your own food and to contain malnutrition in Cagayan Valley.
How lucky you are that despite all these years of ignoring me, I am still full of elements needed to grow your food. I hate you everytime you mixed chemicals on me. Consider that I am small but I can answer to some of your needs. Don’t kill me.
I would like to thank your government and even the private sector who came not only into my rescue but likewise yours. Am I glad that your NNC Region 2 religiously reminds you of my importance as early as half a century ago? I was.
By this time that nearly all of you are into planting me with all sorts of vegetables, maybe you realized that in fact, gardening adds years to your life and life to your years. In me, there are no mistakes, only experiments.
I admit I got some weeds but all gardens do and is akin to life without dificulties. You could have spend your free time doing social media, killing time with your friends by talking or do other unproductive activities. Today, I sit at the center of a challenge posted by NNC Region 2. To grow vegetables from me, cooked it and post them on social media is really your ultimate challenge to sustain food production.
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- Category: Region 2
A Multi-commodity organic farm located in Naidi Hills in Basco, Batanes was established in 2018. Governor Marilou H. Cayco initiated the project with the Provincial Agriculture Office of Batanes. The project is part of the Sustainable Food Sufficiency Program of the Province. According to the Facebook Page of the Provincial Government of Batanes, the project aims to strengthen the food sufficiency of Batanes through organic farming and based on the farming system of the Ivatan people. The Multi-commodity Organic Farm has produced more than 20 tons of organic agriculture products including sweet potato, corn, watermelon and a variety of vegetables.
The organic farm also serves as a demonstration farm that will showcase the traditional farming systems of the Ivatan People. It also showcased different agricultural technologies applicable in Batanes Province. The Provincial Government of Batanes will use the organic farm as an agro-tourism site soon.
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- Category: Region 2
By Benjie S. De Yro
When it comes to challenge, trust the members of the Balay Ni IFAN Media Group of the National Nutrition Council in region 2, the pioneer group in the country today.
For the National Nutrition Council in Cagayan Valley, the Farm-to-Table Challenge can be the ultimate challenge to residents of the region during this pandemic times.
“Home quarantine brings out the best in us,” Meggie Lonzaga, Regional Nutrition Coordinator said.
The challenge, concocted by NNC Region 2 and the media task force, was simple at first glance. One only has to post a photo of their home garden and cooked meals using the garden’s produce to show one is food secured.
“It’s food production amid the pandemic to address the challenge of food security and prevent worsening of malnutrition in the region,” Lonzaga added.
For the Balay Ni IFAN media group on nutrition, growing your own food, is in fact, like printing your own money.
Floridel Trilles, station manager of FBN-DZCV has always been into home gardening and amid COVID-19 pandemic, started sharing his produce to his staff and immediate neighbors. “We could hardly consume our own produce so we have to share the people,” Trilles said as he repeatedly urged listeners to plant their own food.
A small residential area at 200 square meters did not dampen the spirit of Rodel Ordillos’ family to go into vegetable production. As production manager of RBC Cable System in Tuguegarao, he likewise been harping on backyard gardening.
