Cordillera: Youth Malnutrition Successfully Tackled
By placing a general ban on unhealthy processed foods and requiring nutritious and well- balanced healthy meals to be served at school canteens, the Cordillera Autonomous Region has succeeded in combating its long-term problem of malnutrition among adolescents and underweight children.
Below is an article by SunStar
The Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR) has conquered malnutrition among its school children by serving them the proper food, a health official said.
Juliet Pontino from the Department of Education, Health and Nutrition Program said the region has for almost a decade recorded the lowest number of underweight children. "This is the impact of good programs in the schools," Pontino said.
School canteens are banned from selling junk food and ordered to serve a nutritiously balanced menu.
The department also weighs students at the start of the school year and again at the end of the year to detect any change.
Last school year there were only 441 severely underweight children and 2,173 underweight kids in kindergarten from the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Baguio City, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province and Tabuk City.
Of the 28,585 children who were weighed, 28,031 or 98.06 percent had a normal weight.
Of the 21,1972 high school children who were weighed, 19,7270 had normal weight representing 93.06 percent.
