BIG MOve
by Melrein John DR Viado
Among the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDP), putting a halt to the apparent spread of malnutrition, which has been plaguing a considerable chunk of the country’s thriving population, seemed to be one of the most challenging.
Malnutrition, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), is the cellular imbalance between supply of nutrients and energy and the body’s demand for them to ensure growth, maintenance, and specific functions. Contrary to popular belief, malnutrition does not only equate to being under nourished but it could also mean being over nourished as well.
The implausible assortment of homeless young and old people embellishing Cagayan de Oro’s local scene offer enough proof that poverty – like a bad virus infecting the whole city – still thrives after several government officials promising and attempting to eliminate it.
This poverty forces these people to live under conditions necessary for their well-being. It deprives them their most fundamental needs to survive. Food, which is one of the most basic of them, comes in hard for these people. With only a meal a day, the people who inhabit the city’s sidewalks turn out to be malnourished. If not them, their children suffer the consequences.
4 million children die every year because of malnutrition; one child in every eight seconds. By the time you have finished reading this article, 38 children have died of it.
In the past 3 years, the local community has taken the necessary measures to secure a more sufficiently nourished population in the future.
Thrusting towards a healthier city
Through the efforts of Cong. Rufus Rodriguez, months after the devastation of Sendong, Xavier University’s Food Technology Center (FTC) in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology and Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) started negotiations on program thrust in 2012. XU is the only private institution who has adapted this program in the city. Thrust aims to reduce the prevalence of undernutrition among 6 months to 24 months old children.
The said project aims to benefit 7 barangays for a period of 120 days (4 months). Namely, the barangays are: Consolacion, Parola and Landbank both in Macabalan), Escobido and Tabako of barangay Puntod, and purok 4 and 5 of barangay Tablon.
There are two schemes to be adopted in this program. An agency may participate by purchasing BIGMO from the FTC and conducting their own feeding program in any of the areas mentioned or they could also have the FTC facilitate the feeding program in their behalf.
Thrust is to be implemented late January this year. It would be launched in barangay Carmen’s health center on January 21, 2015. The program serves XU’s FTC function of fulfilling one of its missions of reaching out to the community in order to combat malnutrition with FNRI-formulated miracle complementary food BIGMO as their weapon.
BIGMO: Super food for babies
Nutrition should start from the very day we are born. Infants should be given the right amount of nutrition as they mature in order for them to be developed in the right way. Newborn babies who are fed with breast milk or infant formulas alone are required to be given other supplements to make sure they cope up with the drastic changes in their nutritional requirements should they reach their 6th month.
Failure to do so would go as far as stunting their growth physically and, sometimes, even mentally. In the words of FNRI’s executive director, DR. Marion Capanzana, “It is important that malnutrition be addressed because apart from mortality, the most serious consequence of nutritional deficiencies while growing is interference with brain development at critical times”.Aside from that, infants might also be facing the possibility of weighing below their standards, as stated in their weight for-height index, and by then, would become what nutritionists refer to as “wasted”.
According to the latest survey conducted by the FNRI in 2013, 1 out of 10 or 7% of children aged 0-5 years old are wasted in Northern Mindanao. 2 out of 10 of these children are underweight while 2 out of 10 of them are stunted in growth.
These figures have inspired food technologists to formulate BIGMO - an all-around food supplement which would cater to a growing infant's nutritional needs.
The anatomy of BIGMO
BIGMO is made up of 3 major ingredients, namely: Rice, Mongo, and Sesame seeds.
Infants six to twelve months old have a Recommended Energy and Nutrient Intake (RENI) of 720 kcals of energy and 28 grams of protein.
Each of BIGMO’s ingredients is designed to suit these needs. The rice component, which is also a good source of a variety of minerals, would cater to the infant’s need for carbohydrates. Mongo seeds offer protein and high fiber for development while the sesame seeds contain essential minerals which would help the infant’s body regulation and development.
BIGMO is prepared by mixing the blend into boiling water until it achieves what Selina Hilario, project head of XU’s FTC, describes as a porridge-like consistency which could be compared to that of popular baby supplement food, Cerelac.
Small beginnings
Malnutrition is one of the most common and popular causes of child mortality not only in the Philippines but also worldwide. Since the MDP on malnutrition was put on paper, poor Filipino families have been to a handful of feeding programs already yet the issue still needs a lot of resolving and attention.
What makes thrust distinct from all the other feeding programs since then is its objective of crippling malnutrition before it even starts to develop.
BIGMO is initially formulated to suit the nutritional needs of the youngest members of the family. Ensured these children are provided with the right nutrition as they develop, a new generation would walk a less-troubled Earth. If, however, these troubles are not gone by then, the new batch of what Dr. Jose Rizal calls “the hope of the motherland”, would create a future much better than today, generations before them would find it hard to just imagine it.
