Manila, Philippines 26 September 2012 – Pfizer launched today the Centrum Nutri Coach,
an easily accessible on-line tool that will allow Filipinos to keep track of
the nutrients they get from what they eat on a daily basis.
The Centrum Nutri Coach is the first
on-line nutrition tracker of its kind tailor-fit to the Filipino lifestyle and
diet.
“Good
health and nutrition is really
all about eating a variety of food in the right amounts, as prescribed in the
Food Pyramid. We usually count calories and fat, but we also need to consider
vitamins and minerals, too,’’ said Joy Ong, Pfizer Brand Manager for
Centrum.
An
innovative on-line tool, the Centrum Nutri Coach allows you to input exactly
what you ate from a variety of food choices that include Filipino favorites
like inihaw na pork chop and halo halo into a “virtual” plate. It
also takes into consideration other traditional components of health and
nutrition like level of physical activity and age. All this information will then be used to
compute for your general state of nutrition and give you tips on how to improve
your nutritional habits.
The launch of the Centrum Nutri
Coach comes on the heels of the research study done by the Food and Nutrition
Research Instiute (FNRI) which showed that an alarming 70% of Filipino
households don’t get the prescribed amount of most vitamins and minerals they
need.
“What we see now is the “double
burden of disease”; there is an upsurge in non-communicable disease risk
factors like obesity and overweight, in addition to the existing issues of
infectious diseases and undernutrition,” said Professor Liezl Atienza from the Institution of Human Nutrition and
Food, College of Human Ecology at the University of the Philippines, Los Banos.
According to Atienza, the “double burden of
disease” is common among
many low and middle-income countries, and particularly in urban settings.
Another rising form of malnutrition is “hidden hunger”, which is a deficiency
or total lack of specific nutrients needed by the body.
Unhealthy
eating habits such a low consumption of fruits and vegetables and high increase in consumption of meat and meat
products, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle all contribute to this.
“We
hope that with the launch of the Centrum Nutri Coach, we can make nutrition not
just easy and accessible to everyone, but also fun. Now that we, for the first
time, can actually have a hand in keeping track of our food intake, we can choose
to be healthy,” said Ong.
CENTRUM
A product of Pfizer, Centrum is the world’s number one
multivitamin-mineral brand. It is
specially formulated and balanced with 30
vitamins and minerals. It’s formula is complete with Vitamins A to Zinc
to help fill in the nutritional gaps on those days when one eats too little,
thus helping an individual reach his recommended intake of certain nutrients
that are difficult to get from food
alone.
Simply put, daily intake of a multivitamin-mineral supplement like
Centrum helps ensure that one is at his best every day.
Centrum offers several types of multivitamin supplements that are
suitable to an adult’s age group. Centrum for adults below 50 years old while
Centrum Silver is apt for those who are 50 years old and above.
By keeping up with the latest
research on health & nutrition, living a healthy lifestyle, eating a proper
diet, plus a daily dose of a
multivitamin supplement like Centrum, we can perform at our peak whether at work or at play. A complete multivitamin
is a great addition to an already healthy diet.
Take one today.
NUTRITION FACTS AND TRENDS
The latest
nutritional study, Philippine Nutrition Facts and Figures 2008 done by the Food
and Nutrition Research Institute -- DOST
showed that 70% of Filipino households don’t get the right amount of
most vitamins and minerals.
However,
alongside this is the finding that there is an increase in incidence of obesity
and being overweight.
Poor eating
habits and a sedentary lifestyle contribute to Filipinos not getting the
vitamins and minerals they need and have led to what is known as the “double
burden of disease”: there is an upsurge in non-communicable disease risk
factors like obesity and overweight, in addition to the existing issues of
infectious diseases and undernutrition.
Filipinos are eating less and less vegetables. Based on food consumption surveys, Filipinos
on average are eating less and less vegetables per day in the last three
decades. From 145 grams per day of
vegetables in 1978, consumption has decreased to 110 grams per day in 2008.
Low fruits and vegetable consumption leads to deficiencies
in intakes of calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and vitamins folic acid, Vitamins A , C and E.
[Source: Presentation
of Professor Liezl Atienza, University of the Philippines Los Banos]
The World Health Organization recommends eating a minimum of
400 grams of vegetables and fruits per day which is equivalent to 5 servings
per day with 3 servings of vegetables per day.
The WHO recommends this amount for the prevention of non-communicable
diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity, as well as for
the prevention and alleviation of several micronutrient deficiencies,
especially in less developed countries.
[Source: World Health
Organization: Measuring Intake of Fruits and Vegetables
OBESITY
STATISTICS:
• More than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and
older, were overweight.
• Of these overweight adults, over 200
million men and nearly 300 million women were obese. Overall, more than one in ten of the
world’s adult population was obese.
•
Overweight and obesity are the fifth
leading risk for global deaths. At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a
result of being overweight or obese.
•
In addition, 44% of the diabetes
burden, 23% of the ischaemic heart disease burden and between 7% and 41% of
certain cancer burdens are attributable to overweight and obesity.
•
Causes of obesity
• An increased intake of energy-dense
foods that are high in fat, salt and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and
other micronutrients; and
• A decrease in physical activity due
to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of
transportation, and increasing urbanization
World Health Organization: Obesity
and Overweight Face Sheet
•
Checking
for obesity: There are two ways to check
for obesity:
•
Body Mass
Index or (BMI) is a measure for obesity:
•
BMI greater than or equal to:
25 is overweight
30 is obesity
World Health Organization: Obesity and Overweight Face Sheet
·
Waistline measurement is an
indicator of abdominal obesity
More than 90 cm (35 inches) for men
More than 80 cm (31 inches) for women
Source: The
Asia Pacific Perspective: Redefining obesity and its treatment. World Health
Organization. International associaton for the study of obesity and
International obesity task force. International Diabetes Institute, Melbourne:
World Health Organization, Western Pacific Region; 2000.
MICRONUTRIENT
DEFICIENCY
- Also known as “hidden hunger”
- Deficiency or absolute lack of a
specific nutrient caused by inadequate intake of food or illness
[Source:
Presentation of Professor Liezl Atienza, UP Los Banos]
MIKAEL DAEZ FOR CENTRUM
Mikael Daez the new brand ambassador for Centrum. He was chosen because he embodies what the brand stands
for: an active, dynamic, healthy lifestyle. A self-described health buff,
Mikael is very much into sports, he loves basketball - “more than any girl, its
basketball that I love,” he once said. Mikael, values being healthy and
believes in the right balance of sports and good nutrition from the food he
eats. The true blue Atenean had just graduated with a Management degree when he
started modeling and acting in commercials. He was first seen in the Jollibee
Champ commercial and went on to do other commercials for Dole and SM. In 2011,
he auditioned for a role on the highly anticipated epic serye, AMAYA and was
cast as one of Marian Rivera’s leading men. Currently, Mikael is one of the
lead stars of GMA’s afternoon primetime TV series, Sana ay Ikaw na Nga.
