Nutrition lack, overweight pose health risks to Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos may not be getting the right amount of most vitamins and minerals they need every day. At the same time more Filipinos are becoming overweight and obese.

According to Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), this trend also exposes more Filipinos to health risks related to high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol. These findings are based on the 2008 FNRI National Nutrition Survey.

The FNRI survey is done every five years, and the latest one, released in 2008, shows that Filipinos are becoming increasingly at risk for so-called lifestyle diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Such diseases also increase the risk of related complications like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and others.

According to the survey data, while one out of 10 Filipino adults still have chronic energy deficiency (CED, a term referring to the state of being undernourished), there is also the other end of the extreme: three out of 10 Filipinos are overweight. The most number of overweight adults was found among those aged 30 to 59. Within this group, adults in their 40s had the most cases of overweight.

Lilibeth Dasco, senior science research specialist of the Nutrition Assessment and Monitoring Division of FNRI, said the increasing number of overweight adults is a sign that more and more Filipinos are having a problem which is the opposite of undernutrition: this is what nutritionists call “overnutrition.”

Overnutrition is a form of malnutrition in which there is an imbalance in the consumption of nutrients. In the case of overweight and obesity, this means that a person is, in general, eating too many high calorie foods.

According to the World Health Organization, overnutrition is a problem not only in developed nations but also in developing nations like the Philippines. The WHO says that “overweight is an essential risk factor for non-communicable diseases” and that being overweight or obese is associated with an “increased risk of non-communicable diseases such as ischaemic heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and hypertension.”

Dasco said that increasing overweight among Filipinos is due to an imbalance in their eating preferences. More people are eating fast food, like hamburgers, French fries, and fried chicken, which are high in calories. This increased consumption of fast food also means Filipinos are eating less fruits and vegetables, which leads to a deficiency in vitamins and minerals.

“Even someone who is on the chubby side can be lacking in nutrients. He or she may look big, or even fat, but that could be because the person is eating a lot of high-calorie foods,” said Dasco.

On the other hand, lack of nutrition reduces a person’s energy and weakens the immune system, making that person vulnerable to illness.

“Adults who are undernourished and lack energy will have low productivity at work. They could also be more prone to illness. Older adults are especially vulnerable to illness if they lack nutrition,” Dasco explained.

High blood sugar, cholesterol

The FNRI survey also found that there is now an increasing prevalence of high fasting blood sugar (FBS) for more Filipinos. High FBS increases a person’s risk of developing diabetes, a condition that also carries the risk of stroke, kidney disease, and blindness.

The prevalence of high FBS among Filipinos has gone from 3.9 percent in 1998, to 3.4 percent in 2003 and up to 4.8 percent in 2008.

Cholesterol levels of Filipinos have also been going up. Total cholesterol levels of Filipinos went up from 8.5 percent in 2003 to 10.2 percent in 2008.

There are also more Filipinos with low levels of HDL (high-density lipoproteins, also called “good cholesterol”). From only 54.2 percent in 2003, the number of Filipinos with low HDL rose to 64.1 percent in 2008. Having low levels of HDL increases one’s risk of heart disease. Conversely, people with high levels of HDL have increased protection versus heart disease.

The FNRI 2008 survey also shows that more Filipinos have higher levels of LDL (low-density lipoproteins or “bad cholesterol”). In 2003, 11.7 percent of Filipinos had high LDL levels. That figure rose to 11.8 percent in 2008. Having higher levels of LDL is linked to increased heart disease risk.

This means that more Filipinos have less good cholesterol and more bad cholesterol in their blood. This ratio of having low levels of good cholesterol plus high levels of bad cholesterol increases a person’s risk of getting heart disease.

Balanced diet — at right amounts

Dasco said young, middle-aged, and older adults can ensure that they have enough energy and greater resistance to disease by living a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating a balanced diet.

“The FNRI has formulated the Filipino Food Pyramid as a guide that Filipinos can follow so they can eat a balanced diet. At the base of the pyramid are the carbohydrate foods. We need to eat a lot of these foods because they provide us with the energy we need to function. They serve as fuel for the body. About 60 to 70 percent of our diet should be carbohydrate foods, even 80 percent if we are sick,” she said.

She clarified, however, that the healthy kind of carbohydrates are the best. She said wheat bread, brown rice, and corn, for example, are preferable to white rice and white bread. This is because white bread and white rice are too processed — they lack fiber and are too easily converted to energy.

As a result, they yield more calories faster and a person needs to eat more of them to feel full. This means a person has a greater chance of gaining weight when consuming processed carbohydrate foods.

Wheat bread, brown rice, and corn on the other hand, have more fiber and nutrients because these have not been stripped away by food processing. They tend to make a person feel full, so a person will eat them in lesser amounts.

After carbohydrates, vegetables and fruits are the types of food that people need to consume in substantial amounts. These contain the vitamins and minerals the body needs to repair itself and boost immunity.

Nutrients and cooking

Dasco pointed out that most of the time people are not able to get the full amount of nutrients in the vegetables they eat. This is because the process of washing and cooking them destroys a lot of the nutrients.

“There are nutrients that are water soluble, so if you wash the vegetables, these nutrients are also washed away. Then, after washing, we still subject the vegetables to heat when we cook them. This destroys more nutrients. So, for example, if a vegetable dish has 50 mg of nutrients when raw, it might only have 10 mg of nutrients by the time we serve it, after it was exposed to heat in cooking,” she said.

According to Dasco, this is the reason why a balanced diet is important: people need to eat a variety of foods including meat, cereals, vegetables and fruits, in order to increase our chances of getting balanced nutrition.

“No single kind of food can give us all the nutrients we need. That’s why we need to eat a variety of vegetables and fruits. We need to eat meat which provides us with protein and iron, for example. Eating too much food can be bad of course — you should not eat too much bread, to too much rice, and it’s not good to be eating meat all the time. All the food groups should be present in our diet. We always advocate eating the right types of food in the right amounts,” she said.

The role of supplements

The FNRI has also discovered that more and more Filipinos are taking multivitamins and minerals supplements. According to Dasco, this is a good practice as long as it is done to complement or supplement a healthy diet.

“Our first source of nutrients must be fresh food. But as I mentioned earlier, cooking food removes a lot of nutrients so we cannot get the full amount of nutrients in our every day meals. So you can take vitamins and minerals supplements but make sure you are also eating a healthy diet,” she said.

Choosing the right supplements

Along with a healthy diet, Filipinos can get maximum nutritional benefits and good health by choosing the right vitamins and minerals supplement. Centrum is complete and specially balanced with 30 vitamins and minerals our body needs, from vitamin A to zinc.

Taking Centrum can help complete your nutritional needs every day. Stay strong, smart and active — perform at your best at work or in school, at the gym, or during recreation time with family and friends. –(The Philippine Star)