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Poor nutritional knowledge among Indonesian girls has become a national concern, with Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek recently disclosing several health issues that pose a threat to the country’s teens.

In her keynote address read out by the Health Ministry’s acting director general of public health, Dr. Pattiselano Robert Johan, MARS, Minister Moeloek underscored the importance of nutrition for health in every life cycle and noted that nutrition was an investment.

The minister made the statements in Jakarta at a seminar jointly organized by the government and Nutrition International, a global organization dedicated to delivering proven nutrition intervention to those who need it most.

According to the minister, there are four issues related to nutrition and malnutrition among teens that everyone should be aware of:

Stunting

Many Indonesian teens don’t realize they have low body height or are suffering from stunting. The average height of Indonesian youths is lower than the standard set by the WHO, namely 12.5 centimeters lower for boys and 9.8 cm lower for girls.

Stunting can result in short-term effects, like a drop in cognitive function and immunity as well as a metabolic disorder that increases the risk of degenerative diseases, including diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease and obesity.

 

Anemia

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One of the nutrition problems faced by Indonesian teens is a lack of micronutrients. Around 12 percent of teenage boys and 23 percent of teenage girls suffer from anemia, most commonly an iron deficiency.

Teens with anemia face a risk of decreased immunity and a lack of concentration, which negatively impacts their academic achievement, fitness and productivity. Moreover, teenage girls face an even more serious threat, as they are future mothers, who will carry and give birth to babies. Anemia may heighten the risk of maternal death, the risk of premature labor and the risk of underweight in newborns.

We can avoid anemia by consuming foods high in iron, folic acid, vitamin A, vitamin C and zinc, or taking iron tablets. The government has a routine program to distribute iron tablets to women of child-bearing age, including teens and pregnant women.

 

Overweight or obesity

AFP

Teenagers’ eating patterns are described in data from the Global School Health Survey in 2015. The survey reveals that 65.2 percent of teens don’t always have breakfast, 93.6 percent don’t consume enough fiber from fruits and vegetables and 75.7 percent like to consume foods with artificial flavoring.

Moreover, teens tend to practice a sedentary lifestyle, so that they lack physical activity (42.5 percent). This can increase the risk of teens becoming overweight or even obese.

Obesity increases the risk of non-contagious diseases, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, cancer, osteoporosis and others. The implication of this is a decrease in productivity and life expectancy.
 

Underweight or chronic lack of energy

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Underweight teens or those suffering from a chronic lack of energy usually don’t get enough nutrition. The reasons for this range from economic hardship to psychosocial factors, e.g. maintaining one’s appearance or worrying about becoming overweight. Teens with this condition are prone to suffering from various infectious diseases and a hormonal imbalance, which negatively affects health.

 

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has announced the distribution of iron tablets for teenage girls at schools in 2018. This measure is aimed at reducing anemia among young girls.

Teenage girls with anemia run a risk of giving birth to stunted or underweight babies.

Currently, around 30 percent of teenage girls suffer from anemia, according to Directorate General of Public Health secretary Kuwat Sri Hudoyo.

Many of them don’t realize that their body may be unable to improve blood formation, because they lack sufficient minerals and vitamins.

When young anemic women are pregnant, the fetus may suffer from a lack of oxygen and food. The result is often that the baby will be stunted or have low birth weight.

“This is how stunting can start. That’s why, in 2018, we plan to distribute iron tablets to girls at schools to combat anemia,” he said, as quoted by republika.co.id.

‘Fill My Plate’

The directorate has also launched a campaign dubbed Isi Piringku or Fill My Plate to raise awareness of the importance of consuming meals of good proportion. So, the directorate is shifting the campaign slogan from Empat Sehat Lima Sempurna (Four is healthy, five is perfect) to Isi Piringku.

“The portion referred to in the campaign is balanced nutrition. So, people should add a portion of food with little nutrition and lessen the portion of food with too much of any one type of nutrition,” he explained.

He said the campaign was important, because the issue of stunting could only be handled successful at a very early stage. Therefore, women should invest in this early stage, namely during pregnancy, and even prior to that. He added that the ministry had also been hard at work to include this in the Healthy Living Movement (Germas) campaign.

“So, to avoid stunting, we can help by providing iron tablets. But before suffering from anemia, we are talking about intake, about consuming fruits and vegetables. Protein intake may be sufficient, but the ministry is not the one that provides vegetables, fruits and other proteins,” he said.

He also explained that the Vice President office had mapped out the ways for handling the stunting problem. “So, we should see the effect in 2018. We can see it in the 100 regencies and towns mapped by the VP office,” he said.

Fill My Plate details the portion of a meal, which consists of 50 percent vegetables and fruits and 50 percent carbohydrates and proteins. One third of the latter 50 percent is for side dishes and the other two thirds for the source of carbohydrates.

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