Nestlé Health Science encourages older Filipino individuals to opt to be active
FILIPINOS can achieve a full and active life by making proactive choices such as maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly and keeping the mind active. This was shared by Doctors Jimmy Bautista, Medical and Scientific Affairs lead at Nestlé Health Science; and Marianna Sioson, Section of Nutrition head at The Medical City.
During the “Opt to Be Active” media roundtable discussion held at Manila Diamond Hotel, Nestlé Health Science shared its new discoveries and secrets in nutrition and healthy aging. This is its commitment to helping Filipinos live young longer. Three nutritionists and a fitness coach helped the attendees assess their nutrition and health status.
The aging process begins at birth. Through the decades, science has made tremendous progress in extending human life but there is still a pressing need to prolong our active and healthy years.
In his lecture, Bautista stressed that the human body has two different ages—a chronological age and a biological age.
He said: “People who optimize their health may have a biological age that is 10 years younger than their chronological age. At the same time, the presence of chronic conditions may accelerate the body's decline, making us biologically older than our chronological age.”
Sioson, on the other hand, emphasized that it is never too early to assess if we are meeting our energy and nutrient requirements. Since the prevalence of developing malnutrition significantly increases as we grow older, there is a pressing need to start taking nutritionally complete oral supplements to continue to live a young and active lifestyle.
“We want Filipinos to ask themselves if there is a need for them to optimize their health and nutrient intake so that they can achieve a full life,” Sioson said.
Filipinos often find themselves caught in a battle between indulging and being healthy and, more often than not, the earlier prevails. This gives rise to lifestyle-related, noncommunicable diseases (NCD). In a report by the World Health Organization, NCDs account for 61 percent of total deaths in the country. The organization defines noncommunicable diseases as chronic diseases that are not passed from person to person. NCDs are grouped into four main types— cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.