Schools urged to promote healthy diet

The Department of Education (DepEd) reminded school heads to highlight the policy and guidelines on healthy food and beverage choices among learners particularly during the celebration of the Nutrition Month this July.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in March, issued a directive which enumerated policy and guidelines on healthy food and beverage choices in schools and in DepEd offices for the “promotion and development of healthy eating habits among the youth and DepEd employees by making available healthy, nutritious, and affordable menu choices, and for setting food standards.”

To promote the consumption of healthier foods and to discourage the eating of unhealthy foods among learners, DepEd has enjoined all schools to participate in this year’s Nutrition Month celebration by “undertaking meaningful activities which will highlight the importance of good nutrition, healthy diet and healthy lifestyle.”

All schools nationwide, Briones said, should take part in this year’s observation of the Nutrition Month led by the National Nutrition Council (NNC).

With theme, “Healthy Diet, Gawing Habit – For Life!,” DepEd and NNC hope to “disseminate nutrition-related message to all Filipinos” through the celebration. Aside from promoting healthy among learners, Briones said that the celebration also aims to “encourage families and individuals to eat a balanced diet with a variety of food in the right quantity and maintaining an ideal body weight to reduce obesity and non-communicable diseases.”

Schools, through the Nutrition Month celebration, should also “create awareness among them [students] on making the right choices of food.”
(Merlina Hernando-Malipot)