Manila: Filipinos were urged to eat more vegetables, and government agencies to continue supporting programmes to improve the eating habits of Filipinos, a senator said.
“Filipinos are eating less and less grams of vegetables per day, based on studies that began in the late 70s,” said Sen. Cynthia Villar, adding Filipinos consumed 145 grams of vegetables a day in 1978; 110 grams a day in 2008, and much lower up to 2015.
“The government must push for more programmes with various government agencies to support the “creation of vegetable-eating culture among children and adults,” said Villar, chair of the senate committee on agriculture and food.
Various government agencies have programmes to promote eating vegetables, Villar said during a lecture at the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graducate Study and Research in Agriculture in southern Luzon’s Laguna.
She referred to the health department’s campaign for the planting of vegetables in the backyard.
The education department has also designed a food and nutrition programme to help parents, teachers, and children build a culture of vegetable eating among students, said Villar, adding the agriculture department has launched its “Mass-based (food development Programme,” aimed to reduced hunger.
Jenny Juan, a food activist, told Gulf News, it is understandable that Sen. Villar did not call for a campaign to make restaurants promote vegetable dishes which are cheaper than fried foods which are often sold at popular restaurants and fast food chains.
“The data on eating habits of Filipinos will never change and will turn worse if the campaign is not directed at fast food chains, where the reforms in eating habits of Filipinos must begin”, said Juan.
The programmes launched by the health and education departments are “inspirational, not cultural, and therefore ineffective,” said Juan, adding, “The programme of the agriculture department is indirect because it is on a macro-level, about green technologies and targets farmers more than would be vegetable eaters.”
Many poor people resort to consuming vegetable dishes because they are cheaper. The campaign should centre more on members of the middle and upper classes who eat more volume of meat and less vegetables, said Juan.
At the same time, Susan Balingit said she has been actively campaigning for a vegetable diet among her patients who suffer elevated blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, and other debilitating diseases.
“Meat companies have lobbied against a campaign for vegetable diet. The government cannot campaign against this, as expected,” said Balingit during a lecture on health food before members of the Diliman Book Club at the University of the Philippines.
