Eat Like A Pro advocacy in the Philippines by Beko

August 24, 2018 - Beko, the Official Partner of the Everyday, launches its Eat Like A Pro advocacy in the Philippines in promoting healthy eating habits. This effort is in support of the company’s current global initiative of inspiring and educating families, especially the young ones, on the importance of a healthy, balanced lifestyle. The campaign aims to help parents feed their children healthier food.

Eat Like A Pro doesn't mean expensive, we have plenty of resources that are available here in the Philippines that are rich in nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. We just have to look for it and add to our daily meal and cooking ingredients. With this campaign from Beko, more parents and child will encourage to have a healthy living lifestyle by providing the right meal for their children and for the whole family.

To help eliminate poor eating habits, Beko listed some of the benefits of encouraging your child to #EatLikeAPro. 

Fruits and vegetables provide a myriad of health benefits that can help protect your kids against all kinds of diseases. By starting a healthy lifestyle during their formative years, your kids can have long-term advantages that they can hold onto later in their life.

Boosts immune system. The first step to having a strong immune system is nutrition, and a well-balanced diet will do the trick at providing your kids with the proper nutrients they need. Fruits and vegetables offer different vitamins and minerals, so it is important that you round up your kids’ plates with a variety of it. In particular, tomatoes, carrots, citrus fruits, berries, and dark green leafy vegetables, are abundant in immunity-boosting phytonutrients, which help the body create more white blood cells responsible in warding off infection and illness.

Fewer calories compared to processed or fast foods. Replacing unhealthy sugary snacks and fat-laden foods with fruits and vegetables can help reduce the risk of obesity among children. That is why it is important to encourage your kids to develop good eating habits by finding ways to make their favorite dishes healthier. It is especially crucial since the number of obese children and adolescents rose to 124 million in 2016—10 times higher than the 11 million considered as obese 40 years ago, in 1975, as revealed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Helps improve academic performance. Children with bad eating habits or imbalanced diet are more likely to perform poorly in school. Failing to get the required amount of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients for health could lead to focus loss, fatigue, and a loss of concentration. On the other hand, a study conducted by the Journal of School Health suggests that good nutrition impacts children’s academic performance by identifying specific dietary factors. Particularly, students with an increased fruit and vegetable intake and lower caloric intake of fat were significantly less likely to fail a literacy assessment. 

Fruits and vegetables are the important part of a well-balanced diet. However, a report recently released by Food Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) revealed that Filipinos’ intake of fruits and vegetable is declining while their consumption of meat and eggs is increasing. Kids are among those who are most affected by these habits, especially that they are passed on to them.

To jumpstart its advocacy, Beko is set to conduct Eat Like A Pro: The Cook-Off, a contest for a parent-child tandem, which will show how they can work together in preparing delicious, budget-friendly, and healthy meals for the whole family.

Participants should bring their preferred healthy dish, which will be tried by designated judges who will select the final 8 tandems. They will be required to bring the dish recipe together with the cooking procedure. 

• Eat Like A Pro (ELAP) advocacy is an information dissemination campaign, which aims to help parents in ensuring that they give their child healthier food choices.
• The advocacy is in support of Beko’s current global initiative of eliminating unhealthy eating habits, which affects Filipino families, especially the young ones. 
• The ELAP campaign seeks to raise awareness about the rapidly growing rates of childhood malnutrition due to unhealthy eating habits. 
• A report recently released by Food Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) revealed that Filipinos’ intake of fruits and vegetable is declining while their consumption of meat and eggs is increasing. An FNRI data from 1978 to 2013 revealed that we are eating more rice and meat while cutting down on fish, fruits, and vegetables.
• FNRI-NNC’s report released in 2017 also showed that 7 out of 10 households do not meet their dietary energy requirement and that a small portion of households met the estimated average requirement for nutrients (Vitamin A and C, riboflavin, and Thiamine).
• Kids are among those who are most affected by these habits, especially that they are passed on to them. Beko aims to tackle the issue by empowering and helping parents on the importance of healthy eating through its advocacy.

The Eat Like A Pro champion will be determined via cook-off, which will happen on August 31, 2018, from 10 am to 7:30 pm at SM Southmall, Activity Center.

To know more about Beko’s #EatLikeAPro advocacy and Beko Philippines, like the Beko Philippines fan page (@BekoPH) or visit the website at www.beko.ph.