Vegetables: Main Theme for Nutrition's Month Celebration (2012)

                July 2 marked the official start of this year’s Nutrition Month celebration guided by the theme, “Pagkain ng gulay ugaliin, araw-araw itong ihain” which kicks off the nationwide celebration with the importance of vegetables.

                The theme call the nation’s attention and action on a particular issue and aims to encourage every Filipino to eat more vegetables, 3 servings or more per day, to add more vitamins and minerals in the diet as well as to prevent non-communicable diseases. Its objectives are to increase vegetable consumption as part of a healthy diet, to promote vegetable gardening as a source of additional food and income; and to increase demand for these. Today’s Nutrition Month focuses on vegetables based for several reasons, including the Filipinos that are eating less and less vegetables.

                As vegetables have less calories, adding them to the diet can help people to reduce weight or maintain normal body weight. A serving of vegetable is equal to a cup of raw leafy vegetables or one half cup of raw leafy or cooked non-leafy vegetables. We can prepare these by boiling, steaming, stir-frying, broiling ang even micro-waving. Through this, we can get the special benefits taken from eating vegetables.

                Increasing the consumption of vegetables of Filipinos can be done by increasing the supply of vegetables and by promoting its advantages. Also, by making vegetable dishes accessible to consumers.

                Since we are celebrating Nutrition Month, there are also some activities to be held by the different schools like conducting vegetable cooking contests; parades; poster making contests or even lectures and seminars.