MANILA, 14 November 2007 — Filipino children’s eating habits has been changing as they eat more empty calories and no longer eat vegetables, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) says in a study.

They have been eating less than half of the required consumption of vegetables as they resort to eating hamburgers, potato fries and other easy-to-prepare food from fast food chains. Sample population of children was taken from metropolitan Manila and Cagayan de Oro City in the south, the study said.

The Department of Health and NNC also say the Philippines has 1,163 barangays or barrios that are “vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition,”

notably in the provinces of Masbate, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Apayao, Capiz, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte, Basilan, Bukidnon, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

Alarmed by the changing eating habits, the government has been campaigning for a higher consumption of vegetables that will supply the children with the nutrients’ bodily needs such as calcium, ferrous, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamins C and A.

Television and radio programs in the Philippines now advocate locally produced nutritious food, specifically vegetables.

Influence of adult members of the family has a lot to do with the children’s changing eating habits. Children eat what the adult family members eat, says the study.

According to the survey, children do not want to eat vegetables because they are not palatable.

Preferred vegetables for those who eat them are squash, potatoes and string beans. Majority do not want to eat ampalaya (bitter gourd) and okra.

Consumption of vegetables has declined by more than 50 percent from 1978 up to 2003, according to the study. Eating in fast food chains has become a status symbol that Filipino children envy others who do not eat vegetables.

They look down on children who eat vegetables and get the notion that vegetables are only for the poor sector of the society, says the study.

Because there was a low demand, supply of vegetables has decreased from 960,000 metric tons in 1994 to only 717,000 metric tons of harvested vegetables in 2000, it notes.

The liberalization policy of vegetable production also contributed to its decline, it adds.

Farmers now are being encouraged to plant more vegetables as the Department of Agriculture is paving the way for increased demand of vegetables with the call to eat more vegetables because they are nutritious and will ensure healthy Filipino citizens.