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- Category: Region 6
The National Nutrition Council Web Team and publishers have formulated the core values, vision, mission and strategic plan that shall guide them for the next three years.
The team summed up the core values which should govern their operations into the acronym CHEER, which means Creativity,Honesty, Efficiency, Excellence and Respect.
This was done during the general assembly and capacity-building workshop held in Hotel 878, Libis, Quezon City, on February 12-14, with the assistance of Ms. Merlie Pimentel, one of the resource persons.
In that same assembly, the team also came up with the vision reflecting the core values, in collaboration with Ms. Maria-Bernardita T. Flores, Health Asst. Secretary and NNC Executive Director IV and web manager and editor as well.
The vision runs “NNC actively engages clients and partners to improve nutrition and health-seeking behavior through an efficient and effective web operations managed by competent NNC Web Team.”
In realizing this vision, the team identified five priority settings which include product development, promotion and IEC, capacity development, networking, monitoring and evaluation, coupled with specific activities to accomplish.
The plan will be set into motion once reviewed and approved.
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- Category: Region 6
10 February 2014, Iloilo City-The National Nutrition Council (NNC) Region VI conducts a briefing on SMART (Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions) Survey for all Provincial Nutrition Action Officers and District/City Nutrition Program Coordinators last February 10, 2014 at Sarabia Manor Hotel, Iloilo City.
The briefing was intended to inform key nutrition personalities such as (PNAOs and DNPCs) who can assist the survey team in informing local officials and Municipal Nutrition Action Officers (MNAOs), and tapping their support for the coming survey in the region. The Action Against Hunger (ACF) International through its Spain and Philippine Country Offices, in close coordination with the National Nutrition Council, provided technical and financial support for the conduct of the survey. ACF, an international NGO, is a member of the national nutrition cluster which coordinates humanitarian response to typhoon Yolanda victims.
During the briefing, Dr. Jocelyn Juguan, currently SMART National Coordinator, emphasized the rationale for the survey. She shared that pre-existing malnutrition rates can be worsened by the displacement (decreased food intake, illnesses, dirty water and poor sanitation) brought about by the disaster.
The SMART survey will be conducted in Yolanda-affected areas particularly the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, Capiz and Roxas City. Within these provinces, 27 randomly selected municipalities and within these municipalities, 28 randomly selected barangays will be surveyed. Data collection in Region VI will start on Feb. 18 and will end on March 9, 2014.
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- Category: Region 6
Guimaras-RNPC Nona B. Tad-y of National Nutrition Council (NNC), Region VI, met Guimaras Congressman JC Rahman A. Nava on 11 January 2014, to request support for the Barangay Nutrition Scholars(BNS).
As Senior Vice-CHAIR, Committee on Appropriations - House of Representatives, a previous Governor, Province of Guimaras, and a medical doctor by profession, Congressman Nava can lead and generate support from other legislators to address the needs and concerns of the BNSes. These concerns for the BNSes include lack of security of tenure, many do not have PhilHealth insurance, limited to only fifteen pesos (P15.00) monthly travelling allowance from NNC as national counterpart, inadequate support from the barangay to attend trainings/seminars, lack of logistics and mobility to carry-out their tasks.
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- Category: Region 6
ILOILO CITY – The National Nutrition Council has recently embarked on a heightened campaign to create greater awareness that Goiter and Iodine Deficiency Disorders are serious concerns.
The NNC recently designated January 20-26 as Goiter awareness week but Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Nona Tad-y said the awareness campaign should continue.
Tad-y said that it is not enough to say that Goiter is “an enlargement of the thyroid gland for lack of seafood in the diet.”
The enlargement of the thyroid gland indicates the lack or decrease in the production of the thyroid-secreting hormone in the blood that happens when iodine in the blood is lowered for a prolonged period of time.
NNC said goiter is just one of the various iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), not necessarily caused by dietary lack of iodine alone but by taking in large quantities of foods with goitrogens, derivatives of cyanide-liberating substances.
These foods include cassava, maize, bamboo shoots, sweet potatoes, lima beans, and vegetables like cabbage, turnips, and mustard.
Other factors that could prevent iodine absorption in the body are bacterial contamination of water that usually happens under unsanitary conditions, or in the use of corroded and damaged pipelines.
NNC also said that goiter and other iodine deficiency disorders are endemic in some landlocked and upland areas where top soil containing iodine are leached out with heavy rains.
The 2012 Revised Nutritional Guidelines for Filipinos (NGF) is urging the use of iodized salt to prevent IDD.
This is based on the 7th National Nutrition surveys of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), which showed a consistent high prevalence of IDD.
The survey revealed that based on urinary iodine excretion of greater than 50 ug/l, iodine deficiency among the elderly respondents was 2.3 percent, among the lactating respondents, 34.0 percent, and pregnant women, 25.7 percent.
The NNC said that the problem of IDD was dubbed as the “silent emergency” in the early part of 1990, when “hidden hunger” was used to refer to micronutrient malnutrition.
This led to the passage of the ASIN Law in 1996, considered a milestone in addressing iodine malnutrition, after the international community called for salt iodization.
Mrs. Tad-y said that while the law is continually trying to hurdle challenges in implementation, the need to invest in nutrition education, particularly on IDD and goiter, could go a long way in addressing this “silent emergency.”
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- Category: Region 6
ILOILO CITY– The revised 2012 Nutritional Guidelines for Filipinos (NGF) was finally launched in the region signaling the start of a massive promotion for the messages.
“This hammers the idea that we now have a set of guidelines focusing on the nutrition situation of Filipinos,” Assistant Secretary of Health Maria-Bernardita T. Flores, CESO II and the Executive Director IV of National Nutrition Council said in her keynote message during the launching, December 19.
The NGF contains 10 messages not only for good nutrition but also for health and well-being of the Filipinos who are enjoined to practice them, Flores added.
These messages include:
- Eat a variety of foods everyday to get the nutrients needed by the body.
- Breastfeed infants exclusively from birth up to six months then give complementary foods while continuing breastfeeding for two years and beyond for optimum growth and development.
- Eat more vegetables and fruits everyday to get the essential vitamins, minerals and fiber for regulation of the body.
- Consume fish, lean meat, poultry, egg, dried beans, or nuts daily for growth and repair of body tissues.
- Consume milk, milk products and other calcium-rich foods, such as small fish, and shellfish everyday for healthy bones and teeth.
- Consume safe foods and water to prevent diarrhea and other food and water-borne diseases.
- Use Iodized Salt to prevent Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD).
- Limit intake of salty, fried, fatty and sugar rich foods to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
- Attain normal body weight through proper diet and moderate physical activity to prevent obesity and maintain good health.
- Be physically active, make healthy food choices manage stress, avoid alcoholic beverage and do not smoke to help prevent lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases.
The launching was done during the Regional Awarding of Best Performing Nutrition Scholars and Municipalities and the Culminating Activity of Nutrition Month.
In the same launching, the participants joined in unison as they pledged to end hunger and malnutrition and a commitment not to waste rice, in celebration of the Year of Rice.
The pledge to end hunger and malnutrition according to Department of Health-6 Director Marlyn Convocar enjoins the Filipinos to promote and support breastfeeding, encourages families to have home and community vegetable gardens, not to waste food especially rice, to share their food with the hunger, and, spread correct information about nutrition and hunger.
