ILOILO City – With Filipinos consuming nearly double the World Health Organization’s recommended sodium intake, health advocates are pressing for urgent government action to curb the country’s worsening diet-related diseases.
Jeline Marie Corpuz, head of the Food Policy Development and Advocacy at Imagine Law, said during a recent Department of Health media forum in this city that creating a healthier food environment must start with concrete policies on reformulation and regulation.
“Eating healthy is a challenge because the environment is not conducive to healthy eating,” Corpuz stressed.
At the core of their campaign is sodium reduction, with Corpuz noting that Filipino consumption far exceeds the WHO limit of 2,000 milligrams daily.
“This policy that we advocate for is something that will really make it easier for us to choose a healthy food environment,” she said.
The group is also pushing for healthy public food procurement to ensure that government funds are spent on nutritious food.
“There has to be a standard on the sodium content of the food that will be acquired,” Corpuz emphasized.
Other measures include front-of-package warning labels and tighter marketing restrictions on unhealthy products.
Corpuz warned that the existing food environment has a direct link to the rise of non-communicable diseases.
She cited hypertension as a “silent disease” fueled by high sodium intake, which in turn triggers other serious illnesses such as heart disease and chronic kidney disease (CKD).
From January to August 2024 alone, 60,253 Filipinos died of heart disease, while in 2021, seven million were diagnosed with CKD, she revealed./PN
