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A DEADLY
combination of obesity and an increasingly sedentary
lifestyle, owing to technology, is plaguing Filipino
children and youth, according to two government surveys.
First,
obesity. Believe it or not, while most Filipinos suffer
from hunger and poverty, there is an increasing
overweight prevalence among schoolchildren in the
Philippines.
The
national nutrition surveys conducted by the Food and
Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of
Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST) revealed a steady
increase from 5.7 percent in 1989 to 8 percent in 1993
and to 8.8 percent in 1998.
The
FNRI nutrition team headed by Celeste C. Tanchoco, in
collaboration witht the Philippine Association for the
Study of Overweight and Obesity (PASOO), has thus
initiated a program that caters to schoolchildren to
promote a healthy lifestyle with emphasis on regular
physical activity and proper diet.
The
“Whiz Kids for Fitness” program aims to reduce the
number of overweight children through nutrition
education and physical activity, taking note of the
major finding of the study: the proportion of overweight
children was barely reduced over two years, despite
massive efforts to do so.
The
small reduction in the proportion of overweights could
partly be the consequence of greater physical inactivity
among the children, the FNRI said.
Such
sedentary lifestyle, according to the FNRI, has been
shown to be a major factor in the obesity problem.
Results
of the study also showed that children in private
schools are prone to obesity because they are exposed to
calorie-rich foods and sedentary behavior at home and in
the school environment.
The FNRI
said parents can help prevent childhood obesity, as they
can influence children and promote certain values and
attitudes, by rewarding or reinforcing specific
behaviors, and by serving as role models.
According to the FNRI, parents make daily decisions on
recreational opportunities, food available at home, and
children’s allowances. Parents also determine the food
choices and food pattern in the home, and can implement
rules and policies that influence how much each member
of the family engages in healthful eating and physical
activity.
“As
children grow, they begin to make their own choices in
school and in other places away from home settings. It
is for this reason that parents and caregivers should
teach children to eat reasonable amounts by controlling
portion sizes and encouraging children to stop eating
when they feel full,” FNRI said.
According to the FNRI, parents can promote healthful
food selections by making nutritious foods available at
home and by encouraging family members to eat together,
taking note of the study that the more families eat
together, the more likely children and adolescents will
consume fruits, vegetables, grains and calcium-rich
foods that are healthy.
The FNRI
said parents should also support their children’s
athletic and other physical activity interests.
“They
should enhance opportunities for children to play
outside and engage in both recreational activites, as
well as incorporating an active lifestyle into daily
routines like walking or biking to the grocery or
sari-sari store,” the FNRI recommended.
On the
sedentary lilfestyle, a separate study said children are
becoming less physically active because of modern
technology that tends to keep them at home in front of
the television, watching movies in the VCD or DVD or
playing video games.
An FNRI
study revealed that children between 9 and 12 years old
are “less active”. Boys are more physically active than
girls.
The
study, entitled “Assessment of Physical Activity of
Filipino School Children, Aged 9-12 years in selected
Public and Private Schools in Metro Manila,” covered 840
elementary students in both public and private schools.
It
revealed that during PE days, dancing was the most
preferred physical activity by both boys and girls,
while during non-PE days, basketball for boys and
dancing for girls were the most common activities, the
study revealed.
On
weekends, basketball and walking for exercise were the
most common for boys and girls, respectively.
However,
a greater proportion of children performed sedentary
activities. During weekdays, watching TV, VCD, VHS and
DVD was the usual activity after school. On weekends,
playing video games and watching TV three to four times
were noted.
The
FNRI recommended making exercise a family activity to
increase physical activity among children with parents
leading the way to make healthy lifestyle a family
commitment.
Physical
activities, the FNRI said, can be simple strolling in
the park, bicycle riding or hiking every weekend.
Indoors, doing chores together such as gardening or
cleaning the house, are also alternative ways to
increase such physical activity. |
