Food for thought
Some years ago, a health official noted the popularity of instant noodles that had become a staple of poor households because of cost and convenience. The official warned that such a diet would produce...
View ArticleWhose business is malnutrition?
For a country praised for its macroeconomic stability, its ability to sustain growth, and its young, talented workforce, the Philippines has yet to translate its GDP growth rate into prosperity that...
View ArticleOur demographic time bomb
For about a year now, I have ended almost every talk and economic briefing I’ve given by sounding the alarm on the silent crisis facing our country in the next 30 years. I refer to the problem that...
View ArticleCash in overdue peace dividends
A couple of decades ago the wall that was on everybody’s mind was in Berlin. Then it came crashing down, pushed over by a wave of reform and renewal that seemed to promise the dawn of a new era for our...
View ArticleOur hungry and stunted children
Jonathan Oya has become the face of hunger and child malnutrition in the country.
View ArticleAre you malnourished? Quite possibly
The word “malnutrition” tends to invoke images of starving children in refugee camps, fleeing conflict or drought in lands far away. While that image does reflect a reality of hunger, it does not...
View ArticleMalnutrition’s menace
A recently released Unicef global report, “The State of the World’s Children 2019: Children, Food and Nutrition,” presents an up-to-date picture of the state of children’s malnutrition around the...
View ArticleThe boiling frog
Here’s a classic fable. When you put a frog in boiling water, it jumps out immediately to save its life. But put it in tepid water, slowly turn up the heat and it will cook to death. The Philippine...
View ArticleNo Filipino should go hungry
Hunger and malnutrition remain a problem especially among poor Filipino households despite the increase in food supply in the markets. A government-led study attributed this to the high cost of food...
View Article(Mal)nutrition
We often talk of people as our country’s greatest asset. But if that asset is unhealthy, uneducated, and malnourished, we won’t be seeing the benefits. One of the most critical developmental challenges...
View ArticleEating without consuming the world
Indeed, we live in a world full of competing interests and disagreements. Yet despite this, there is one underlying, unifying interest that we all share. It is in all our interests to have access to...
View ArticleThe real cost of malnutrition
Malnutrition has dogged the Philippines for decades from the malnourished children during the Negros famine in the 1980s to today’s stunted children whose future in an increasingly competitive world is...
View ArticleHow to officially promote malnutrition
A lot of media mileage is being generated promoting the consumption of kamote in place of rice, coming from government and health functionaries, with even some in the media and celebrities joining the...
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