KORONADAL CITY - Childhood overweight and obesity have already been primarily considered as one of the eliciting factors that can lead to myriad risks of acquiring obesity-related health conditions such as the non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Though, it may only account the smallest part of the malnutrition’s prevalence rate, this condition should not be ignored.

According to Food Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), results revealed that in Region XII, the prevalence of overweight among less than five years old children decreased from 3.3 percent in 2013 to 2.8 percent in 2015. On the other hand, it showed a significant increase among 10-19 years old children from 5.7percent to 7.4percent in the same period.
Moreover, data from Department of Education (DepEd) XII revealed that among school-aged children, aging 6-11 years old, it showed that it also increased from 0.39 percent in 2015 to 0.45 percent in 2016. Whereas, among secondary students (11-19 years old) increased significantly from 0.19percent  to 0.24 percent for the same school year.
Such concerns of increasing prevalence rate of overweight and obesity will might as well affect the obesity rate of the adults in the future if it continues to rise. As a consequence, it will also be a countrywide or even global concern of increasing the risks for non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and risks for certain cancers. And if it persists into adulthood, it will not only affect the quality of life but will also be a public health’s problem.
Present reviews have pointed out that major factors identified that causes overweight and obesity aside from race, gender and socioeconomic status are the unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical activity.
Today, where high-caloric foods and sugar-sweetened drinks or beverages are almost available everywhere, there is no doubt that it can have an impact on the way the children eat and precipitate them in overweight and obesity. Further, with this internet and information era, they are more engaged in sedentary activities such as television viewing, playing video or computer games and being latently on social media at most time of the day.

Hence, preventive strategies must be imposed to children involving the parents, school and community as a whole, to curtail the prevalence of such conditions. Moreover, parents and educators have a critical role in adopting healthy habits and ensuring awareness in its maximum level. The National Nutrition Council (NNC) is moving forward on implementing awareness campaign to facilitate and monitor priority areas to address the rising of childhood obesity rates. Hence, recommends the following interventions to prevent overweight and obesity:
a. promoting an active lifestyle
b. promoting intake of vegetables and fruit and restrict intake of energy-dense
micronutrient poor foods
c. introducing mass media campaign targeting parents/care providers, caregivers,
schoolchildren and adolescents
d. introducing and implementing legislation to support healthier composition of foods
e. developing policies to encourage consumption of healthier food products and increase access to recreational physical activity and
f. providing an enabling environment to support active commuting and space for recreational activity

With the increasing obesity stigma, this also requires multidisciplinary actions comprising various stakeholders in urging the community to have a healthy lifestyle. More importantly, we should make our countermeasures and interventions more effective to safeguard the health of our future generation. Overall, the NNC campaigns to increase awareness on the importance of healthy diet as the foundation of good health and make it a habit FOR LIFE! (DPA/GMSF-NNCXII)