Poll says Pinoys focus on nutrition in choosing food

FILIPINOS are one of the world’s most health-conscious in terms of food choice, a survey conducted by an international anti-poverty group showed.

In a 17-country research by British-based organization Oxfam International released last month, the Philippines was found to be only one of two countries most concerned about nutrition, the other being India.

Nutrition was the top consideration of 63% of Filipino respondents in choosing food. Other countries ranked cost as their main consideration. The other choices were availability, social/environmental impact and safety.

The result for the Philippines, however, contrasts with the country’s current health and nutrition situation. The United Nations’ Food Agricultural Organization (FAO) last year said protein/energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies remained the top problems in the Philippines, leading to obesity and cardiovascular conditions.

The FAO also said four million children or 31.8% of the preschool population are underweight for their ages.

The Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute, meanwhile, has cited a doubling of overweight adolescents since 1993, with the number of overweight six to 10-year-old children increasing from to 1.6% in 2008 from 1.3% in 2003.

Meanwhile, the Oxfam research revealed pasta to be the world’s favorite food, with chicken being the Filipino’s top choice.

Chicken, which cost P129.02 per kilogram last March, has seen increased production over the decade despite occasional avian flu outbreaks since 2003, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.

The Oxfam survey also indicated changes and disparities in the global food market.

“The world’s attitudes to food are shifting, in the face of rising prices,” the organization’s campaigns director, Phil Bloomer, said in a press statement.

“The global system which is supposed to feed us all is broken, leaving one in seven people to go hungry every day and many more worried by rising prices,” he added.

The popularity of Western food in most global diets was noted in the survey, with a majority placing such among their favorites.

Of the 15 food responses in the Philippines, only three involved Filipino food, all meat-based: adobo (a stew usually made of pork or chicken), kare-kare (a peanut sauce-based stew with meat and vegetables) and lechon (roast pig), placing 6th, 11th, and 13th, respectively. The rest were all Western food.

The survey also said that people in developed nations were more likely to report having enough to eat daily compared to those in developing nations. A majority of countries said oil and transportation prices, followed by weather and catastrophic events, made the most impact on the global food supply.

The survey, conducted online last April by international research consultancy firm GlobeScan, polled 500 Filipinos and had a 2.2-4.4% margin of error. — F. J. G. de la Fuente, Businessworld