Coming from the series of nutrition seminars, aside from having a bird’s eye view of the latest results from the 7th National Nutrition Survey, I also got the chance to see and taste some healthy snacks that were formulated by the National Nutrition Council (NNC). From breakfast to morning and afternoon snacks, there are choices for very young children, adolescents, and even adults. Here are some of their nutritious formulations:

• A high calorie, high protein ready-to-cook food designed as a supplement to the usual diet of children aged four to six years old, it can also be served as snack to school children and even be prepared as “ulam” for the whole family. This item is called Nutri-Pak Plus.

One serving of this food item yields various nutrients for children: Energy (13 to 17 percent), Protein (eight to 18 percent) and Vitamin A  (33 percent). For adults, a serving of this food will give at least 24 percent of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of Vitamin A.

Nutri-Pak is primarily a rice mixture with different variations. There’s Nutri-Champorado, a variant with Textured Vegetable Protein and beef flavor, another contains monggo, and there is also another variant that has peanuts and raisins. Additionally, there is a variant that contains dried banana and camote.

• Another nutritious alternative to “junk food” developed by NNC are Nutri-Pasta and Nutri-Noodles. The nutritious pasta also provides 24 percent of adult RDA for Vitamin A. The noodles on the other hand (which comes in chicken and beef flavor) provides an even higher amount of Vitamin A as high as 40 percent for adults and children. Other than Vitamin A, a good amount of iron is also delivered by Nutri-Noodles (11 percent of adult RDA for the nutrient).

• For the typical biscuit lovers, NNC also came up with Nutri-Gro, a wafer snack that also yields Vitamin A and Iron.

• An alternative to the regular oatmeal that one takes for breakfast, NNC has Nutri-Oats (an Instant Cereal Mix), still providing Vitamin A and Iron.

Some may be wondering why there is so much emphasis on helping the public have an adequate vitamin A and iron intake. The answer to this is that, based on the latest National Nutrition Survey, anemia is considered a severe and moderate public health problem among pregnant and breast feeding mothers respectively. Rice mixtures are the most appropriate medium to help deliver important nutrients to the public because the survey also showed that rice is still the leading staple food in Filipino diets, adults and children alike.

Pregnant and lactating women need to continuously meet their energy needs to compensate for their increased needs due to the growing fetus and the demand for milk production respectively. One way of meeting this energy needs is by having three main meals and at least two snacks in a day.

The above nutritious foods can be a good option to take both for main meals and snacks. Pregnant women cannot take the risk of being deficient in both vitamin A and iron because of the nutritional risks associated to its deficiency.

When pregnant and lactating women experience vitamin A deficiency, they are at risk of having lower resistance to infection and the absence of a normal immune response. Indirectly, normal iron metabolism is also sacrificed. If we add iron deficiency over and above vitamin A deficiency, it’s definitely a bigger problem. With iron as a very important blood component we know that proper transport of oxygen inside the body can be affected by its deficiency, and thus, such deficiency state must be prevented.

Now that you know that there can be healthier alternative snacks for children and adults, you can start doing your job in helping decrease the severity of public health problems of Vitamin A and iron deficiency by trying to incorporate these nutritious foods formulated by the National Nutrition Council.

(E-mail author at wellbeing@mb.com.ph.)