Saturday, October 8, 2022, the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Universitas Indonesia (UI) conducted a webinar with the theme “Role of Planetary Health Diet in Preventing and Treating Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease”. This seminar is a series of Nutrition Expo 12 organized by the Nutrition Family Association (AKG) FPH UI.
The Opening Ceremony of Nutrition Expo 12 was attended by Dr. Ir. Asih Setiarini, M.Sc., Vice Dean for Education, Research, and Student Affairs of FPH UI to give a speech. “I think the theme is extraordinary because the environment is supposed to be our concern. Because we are from nutrition, we protect the environment from the nutrition side,” said Dr. Asih. Nutrition 101, the name of the webinar held in conjunction with the opening ceremony, is one of the many series of Nutrition Expo 12 related activities. The other activities include competitions and international seminars.
The webinar was opened by Angel Jovi, S.Gz., who discussed how obesity and hypertension are diseases that must be actively watched out for. Obesity is a metabolic disorder that has increased up to 2 (two) times during the pandemic, while hypertension is a disease known as the silent killer because it often has no symptoms. One way to prevent these two diseases is by implementing a planetary health diet. “The Planetary Health Diet is different from the contents of “Isi Piringku”. We can see that vegetables make up the majority of this diet,” said Angel while explaining the comparison between the two diets.
In her presentation, Angel also talked about food selection, including taking notes when shopping; reading nutrition facts; choosing vegetables and fruits that are in season; avoiding stocks of canned food; and avoiding stocks of too much food. There are also small things related to food that we can do, such as reducing the use of single-use plastics; reducing food waste; and reducing Styrofoam containers.
In addition to the presentation of the material, there was also a recipe-making workshop. In this workshop, participants were divided into 5 (five) groups where each group had its own section. As a final result, there were 5 (five) menus made that could later be consumed in a day, including breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. After making the recipes, participants presented them in front of the resource person to be given feedback and suggestions.
This webinar is a manifestation of AKG FPH UI’s concern for nutrition in Indonesia as well as the sustainability of the earth. The Hope is that in the future it can trigger the enthusiasm, awareness, and concern of the participants for their own health and the health of the earth. (BK)
