The country’s nutrition crisis is no longer defined by hunger alone. While childhood undernutrition continues to affect millions of Filipinos, rising obesity and diet-related diseases are creating what nutrition experts describe as the Philippines’ enduring “triple burden of malnutrition.”
Data from the 2023 National Nutrition Survey (NNS) reflect both progress and persistent challenges. Childhood stunting fell from 33.4% in 2015 to 23.6% in 2023, while anemia among children younger than 5 declined from 16% in 2013 to 11% in 2023.
Ma. Evette Misagal, a research specialist at the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI), said the latest survey underscores the persistence of multiple forms of malnutrition across different population groups.
“Undernutrition, such as childhood undernutrition like stunting, wasting, and micronutrient deficiencies, and overnutrition, like overweight and obesity, coexist across various age groups,” she told the Varsitarian.
Asst. Prof. Kathleen Cruzada, chair of the UST Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, said improving nutrition is essential to preventing disease and raising Filipinos’ quality of life.
“We are in triple-burden malnutrition. Nutrition is essential to maintaining good health. If we are able to improve our eating habits, our lifestyle, definitely we’ll be able to improve the quality of our lives kasi we will be able to prevent diseases,” Cruzada said.
Changing food environments
Experts attributed the country’s nutrition challenges to changing food environments, food insecurity, poor dietary diversity, and increasingly sedentary lifestyles.
Rapid urbanization has exposed more Filipinos to environments that encourage unhealthy eating habits, Misagal said.
Food insecurity remains prevalent in geographically isolated and disadvantaged communities, where limited access to nutritious food and nutrition awareness continues to hinder healthy diets, she said.
“As for dietary diversity, there is still continued micronutrient inadequacy, poor consumption of fruits, vegetables, and nutrient-dense foods, and our complementary feeding practices remain low,” Misagal said.
Cruzada said unhealthy food environments surrounding schools undermine policies regulating food sold inside campuses.
“The Department of Education may have programs and policies that ban unhealthy food within the school campus, but we cannot control those outside the campus,” she said.
Physical inactivity has also become a growing contributor to poor nutrition outcomes, she said.
Persistent burden
According to the latest NNS, one in 10 school-age children is overweight or obese, while four in 10 adults fall into the same category.
At the same time, chronic undernutrition remains a longstanding public health concern.
Misagal said stunting remains the country’s most prevalent form of malnutrition among children younger than 5 despite the steady decline recorded in recent years.
Cruzada also pointed to the findings of the Edcom 2 report, saying poor nutrition contributes to weaker academic performance and overall student well-being.
“If you’re practicing poor nutrition, definitely, it will lead to fatigue. Sa students, [it affects] your mood, leads to poor concentration, low energy, and there are digestive problems,” she said.
Cruzada said nutrition remains underprioritized within the public health sector despite its role in preventing disease before it develops.
“Government can allot [a] higher budget, and not just a higher budget. We have to use the budget for nutrition, because at the backside of nutrition is public health,” she said.
Misagal said LGUs should ensure that nutrition-related positions are filled by registered nutritionist-dietitians, whose expertise is essential to developing and implementing effective nutrition programs.
She said certain LGUs’ nutrition program coordinators and nutrition action officers are not registered nutritionist-dietitians.
Cruzada said disasters also continue to hamper efforts to improve the country’s nutrition status.
“Sa Pilipinas, another big factor is the natural disasters, diba? There is always flooding, affecting farmlands. There are typhoons. Crops are destroyed. So, that actually is a big factor that hinders the progress in improving nutrition,” she said.
Cruzada said strengthening nutrition education is equally important, arguing that it should become a more prominent part of the curriculum to help Filipinos develop healthier eating habits early in life.
She emphasized the importance of science-based nutrition education to help the public avoid misinformation widely circulated online.
“If we have nutrition education, you can discuss there how to prevent nutrition-related disease, how to improve child-feeding practices, how to reduce intake of processed food. So, it starts from there, the way the LGU prioritizes nutrition education.”
Sustaining progress
Both experts said improving the country’s nutritional status would require sustained collaboration among national agencies, local governments, schools, health professionals and communities.
“Kailangan ng collaborative effort kasi hindi naman kaya ng isang tao ang napakalaking problema ng kalusugan at nutrisyon ng Pilipinas,” Misagal said.
Cruzada stressed that nutrition programs should extend beyond short-term campaigns and become long-term investments in public health.
“Nutrition is not just a one-day project or just a one-month project. It should be sustainable para mag-build talaga ng proper nutrition education in the community. If there is proper education, there are things that we can do,” she said.
Conducted every two to three years, the National Nutrition Survey serves as the country’s primary benchmark for assessing the nutritional status of Filipinos and evaluating the impact of government nutrition interventions.
DOST-FNRI released the 2025 update of the National Nutrition Survey on June 17 through a live broadcast on its official Facebook page.
