Cebu City - The National Nutrition Council Region VII continues its Salt Iodization Program advocacy using social media platform. The social media activity aims to raise awareness to the netizen on the importance of using quality iodized salt to battle iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) that has become a major nutrition problem in the Philippines. According to the 2013 National Nutrition Survey, 5.8 million Filipinos were afflicted with thyroid disorders. If untreated, these disorders could lead to detrimental reduction of intellectual and physical capacity. These are manifested as goiter, thyroid malignancy, mental deficiency, physical deformities, congenital hypothyroidism, stunting, reproductive failure, and even death among susceptible individuals.
NNC 7’s NPC Dr. Parolita A. Mission encourages every household in Central Visayas and the entire country to use iodized salt exclusively as it is a simple and practical way of getting sufficient iodine from their daily diets to prevent goiter and other thyroid disorders.
Iodized salt is table salt fortified with iodine. Iodized salt is now recognized by authorities as the most convenient and most effective vehicle for the administration of supplemental iodine. The use of quality iodized salt has been identified as the most convenient and most effective way of reducing this risk of IDD.
NNC 7 believes that extensive information dissemination and educational efforts with its partner agencies are required to capacitate the public and social media comes handy. Social media can be a useful tool for to achieve this objective. This interactive digital channel allows the agency to facilitate the creation and sharing of nutrition information, latest updates on salt iodization and related programs to its network and virtual communities.
NNC 7 utilizes its official Facebook page or nncrvii where social media cards are posted every week. Facebook remains the dominant social media platform in the country. Report from DataReportal, an independent data aggregator on digital trends worldwide, found that facebook has 84 million users in the Philippines.
The NNC 7 is looking forward that this effort could contribute to the reduction of IDD in the region. Hence, NNC 7 is inviting everyone to like and share its social media posts and other nutrition related uploads in their official Facebook page to reach more people especially the most vulnerable ones. // PNFP Mary Bliss Joy P. Iguana, RND
