We want to remind the public about the importance of consumption of nutritious food for the bodyJakarta (ANTARA) - The Health Ministry will push joint action for stunting and obesity prevention to mark National Nutrition and Food Day this year.
"Stunting and obesity are still a problem in the world. It is important for us to seek, understand, and implement a regular diet with balanced nutrition," Director of Community Nutrition at the Health Ministry Dhian Probhoyekti said at a press conference on National Nutrition and Food Day on Tuesday.
According to the 2021 global nutrition report, one in every nine people in the world suffer from hunger and one in three are overweight or obese, she noted. Additionally, nearly a quarter of children under five are stunted, while overnutrition and obesity are increasing rapidly in almost all countries of the world, she said.
Most of the world's population today cannot access or purchase healthy food, Probhoyekti added.
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The stunting rate in Indonesia has continued to decline, she noted. A 2021 survey pegged stunting prevalence in Indonesia at 24.4 percent, but this figure was still far from the National Mid-term Development Plan (RPJMN) target of 14 percent for 2024, she said.
Meanwhile, the prevalence of overweight toddlers in 2021 was 3.8 percent, and the incidence of obesity in people aged 18 years and above was 21.8 percent in 2018, she added.
The Health Ministry has prepared six intervention programs focused on teenagers and the first thousand days of children's lives to suppress nutritional problems in children, she said.
The interventions cover counseling activities, breastfeeding promotion and counseling, growth and development monitoring, provision of supplements to pregnant women and teenagers, provision of additional food for managing nutritional problems, and managing malnutrition, she added.
"We want to remind the public about the importance of consumption of nutritious food for the body," Probhoyekti said.
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National Nutrition and Food Day, which is celebrated every January 25, is expected to continue to build community togetherness in efforts to maintain health through a balanced nutritional diet, she said. The theme for this year is "Joint Action to Prevent Stunting & Obesity," she informed.
According to director of public health and nutrition at the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency (PPN/Bappenas), Pungkas B. Ali, the 2021 survey showed that stunting affected 5.33 million toddlers in Indonesia, with the number of underweight toddlers reaching 1.55 million.
Meanwhile, adult obesity reached 28.8 percent, he noted.
Stunting is a condition wherein children fail to grow due to chronic malnutrition in the first thousand days of life, Ali explained. This condition can impact the quality of human resources (HR) in Indonesia, he added.
"Stunting can affect children's intellectual and physical abilities. In the long term, it also has an impact on metabolic disorders; there is an individual risk as adults to have a stroke, diabetes, and heart disease," he informed.
Ali noted that stunting has been recorded in almost all regions and among all socio-economic groups so it has become a double burden in terms of the nutrition problem in Indonesia.
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In addition, the prevalence of obesity in adults aged 18 years and over is increasing, he pointed out. The government is targeting to bring the obesity rate to 21.8 percent by 2024, he informed.
"The risk factors for obesity are lack of physical activity and consumption of fruit and vegetables, as well as high consumption of sugar, salt, and fat," Ali said.
Obesity can be prevented through promotive and preventive efforts by promoting healthy living as a community, he added.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Resinta S
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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