You Are What You Eat
Food can kill.
Unhealthy food, particularly in excess, can lead to overweight and obesity, as well as diseases like hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.
Among the ten leading causes of death in the Philippines are heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Three out of ten Filipino adults are overweight or obese. About 13% of adult Filipinos have prediabetes, while approximately 6% have diabetes diagnosed by a fasting blood sugar. One out of every five adults in our country also has high blood pressure.
Gorging on food rich in saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, sugar, red and processed meats is just a recipe for disaster.
So, go easy on the bacon, fried chicken, doughnuts and ice cream. These can bump up your blood pressure, cholesterol and/or blood sugar levels.
Food can also heal.
Healthy balanced diets packed with fiber, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish, lean cuts of poultry, monounsaturated fat (e.g., olive oil, avocado, almonds) and polyunsaturated fat (e.g., salmon, tuna, walnuts) can cut risk for premature death, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and/or cancer.
The healthy eating plate endorsed by the Harvard School of Public Health and similar to the Pinggang Pinoy of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute emphasizes filling half your plate with “GLOW foods” -- a variety of fresh fruit (like bananas, berries and papaya) and vegetables (like malunggay, sitaw and kalabasa), ¼ of the plate with “GO foods” -- whole grains (like brown rice, wheat bread and oatmeal) and the remaining ¼ with “GROW foods” -- healthy proteins (like fish, poultry and shellfish).
Healthy eating patterns like a Mediterranean-style or DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension)-type diet may offer multiple benefits such as weight loss, blood pressure reduction and heart protection.
The PREDIMED Study which enrolled almost 7,500 people showed that a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or mixed nuts significantly reduced risk for heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death.
Proper nutrition partnered with regular moderate physical activity of at least 30 minutes a day plus a good night’s sleep of seven to eight hours can really add life to your years and years to your life. You also need to avoid cigarette smoke and excess alcohol intake (more than 2 drinks a day for men, more than 1 drink a day for women).
In celebration of Nutrition Month each July, the National Nutrition Council comes up with a theme to promote wellness through health eating. This year’s theme is “Healthy Diet, Gawing Habit – For Life!”
In line with this, the St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City Center for Weight Intervention Nutrition Services (WINS) and Food and Nutrition Department will celebrate Nutrition Month with an interactive informative lobby display featuring the healthy plate, a lay forum on the truth about fad diets, diet stress management and easy nutritious food preparation.
Interact with our expert dietitians and doctors during the lay forum from 8 am to 12 noon, followed by a Healthy Food Fair from 12 noon to 5 pm on Saturday, July 22, 2017 at the Henry Sy, Sr. Auditorium on the 5th floor of St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City.
Surprises, freebies and raffle prizes await the participants. To pre-register, call the Center for WINS at 789-7700 ext. 6022 or 0998-5822010.
The St. Luke’s Center for WINS also offers many services including customized weight management, diet counseling, medically supervised exercise sessions, and more. You can win the battle of the bulge with the experts’ help at the St. Luke’s Center for WINS.
If you want to feel and look good, then reach for the good stuff. Eat healthy for life.
Dr. Joy Arabelle C. Fontanilla heads the Center for Weight Intervention Nutrition Services (WINS) at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City. She graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine’s prestigious INTARMED program and finished her Internal Medicine residency at the Cleveland Clinic, and Fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She served as past president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Philippine Chapter. She is the Editor-in-Chief of DiabetEASE magazine and Associate Professor at the San Beda College of Medicine, as well as the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health.