FOUR out of 10 adult Filipinos, or 27 million, are considered obese, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) said yesterday.
To make matters worse, no program has been crafted so far to arrest this disturbing development.
Jovita Raval, chief of the NNC Nutrition Information and Education Division, said this was the data gathered by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.
Raval said the FNRI data showed 400,000 or 3.5 percent of Filipino children up to five years old are obese while 1.2 million or 10.4 percent aged five to 10 are also in the same boat.
“In the adolescent group ranging in age from 10 to 19 years old, two million or 10.7 percent are also obese. However, the largest number of obese Filipinos belonged to the adult group — 20.8 million or 37 percent — equivalent to four out of every 10 adults are obese,” Raval said.
Raval added there are also 2.6 million or 29 percent in the elderly age group considered as obese.
“So, overall, there are 27 million obese Filipinos,” she said.
Raval said the number is not surprising since the same trend is also being observed in most countries in the world today.
“The entire world is seeing an increase in obese cases. While countries are increasingly becoming urbanized, the figure is increasing and no country has been able so far to address the number,” she said.
Raval explained among the factors behind this development is the food being eaten, mostly processed food products compounded by sugary drinks such as highly carbonated drinks and fruit juices, and the lack of physical activity.
To address the problem, Raval said the NNC is intensifying its awareness campaign, promotion of healthy eating habits and physical activity and exercises among kids and adults.
“We also need to work on population-based approaches such as imposing tax on unhealthy food products as well as addressing harmful marketing geared toward kids since it is a major influence on them in choosing what food to eat,” she said.
She also called on local government units to pass ordinances to prevent obesity.
“We really need to pass a law or while we have yet to have one, ordinances should be enacted prohibiting the selling and advertisement of unhealthy food products,” she said.
