A Good Tool to Monitor Your Diet: CENTRUM NUTRI COACH

We, Filipinos, love to eat, but the question is, Are we eating the right food? Are we getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals from our food choices?

A research done by Food and Nutrition Research Instiute (FNRI) showed that an alarming 70% of Filipino households don’t get the prescribed amount of most vitamins and minerals they need.

With this, just recently, Pfizer, one of the leading pharmaceutical company launches an online nutritional tool that is custom-fit for Filipino adult diet. The Centrum Nutri Coach.

The Centrum Nutri Coach, a new online tool where you can monitor and compute the general nutritional state of your body which also takes into consideration other traditional components of health and nutrition like level of physical activity and age. This online tool also give tips on how Filipinos can improve their health status and to keep track of the nutrients they get from what they eat.

“What we see now is the “double burden of disease”; there is an upsurge in non-communicable disease risk factors like obesity and overweight, in addition to the existing issues of infectious diseases and undernutrition,” said Professor Liezl Atienza from the Institution of Human Nutrition and Food, College of Human Ecology at the University of the Philippines, Los Banos.

“Good health and nutrition is really all about eating a variety of food in the right amounts, as prescribed in the Food Pyramid. We usually count calories and fat, but we also need to consider vitamins and minerals, too. We hope that with the launch of the Centrum Nutri Coach, we can make nutrition not just easy and accessible to everyone, but also fun. Now that we, for the first time, can actually have a hand in keeping track of our food intake, we can choose to be healthy,” ’ said Joy Ong, Pfizer Brand Manager for Centrum.

Also present in the launch was actor/model Mikael Daez, the new brand ambassador for Centrum.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CENTRUM NUTRI COACH

What is the Centrum Nutri Coach?

The Centrum Nutri Coach is an on-line tool that will allow Filipinos to keep track of the nutrients they get from what they eat .

How is it the first of its kind? How is it specifically made for Filipinos?

The Centrum Nutri Coach is the first on-line nutrition tool in the Philippines that takes the Filipino diet into consideration. So in the menu of food choices, you will see halo-halo, inihaw na liempo, kare-kare and other Filipino favorites. It is the only nutrition assessment tool that is based on the Food Composition Table of the Food and Nutrition Table of FNRI (Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Philippines). The Centrum Nutrition Coach will show you how near / far you are from the daily recommended daily intake of each nutrient.

How does it work?

You will be asked to input factors like your age, weight and level of physical activity into the Nutri Coach website. These factors are important in gauging how much you need.

Then from a menu of different Filipino foods, you will choose what you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner—and of course merienda. The system will automatically compute the nutrients you are getting from your food choices and will show you your gap versus the recommended daily intake for Filipinos.

It will even propose a sample meal plan for you to follow so you can get enough of the vitamins and minerals you lack with your current diet.

What are the food servings used for the food choices in the Centrum Nutri Coach menu?

Food servings vary per food type. For instance, pizza serving is 1 slice, butter is 1 teaspoon, while coffee is 1 cup. The usual food serving as noted by the nutritionists were used as a guide. Serving details per food item are specified in the nutri coach.

How can I access the Centrum Nutri Coach?

You can access the Centrum Nutri-Coach through the Centrum Website at www.centrum.com.ph.

Can I access the Centrum Nutri Coach via a smart phone/mobile device?

Yes you can access the Centrum Nutri Coach via a mobile device/smart phone. However the current configuration is formatted for a standard web browser.

Is the Centrum Nutri Coach available for download via mobile app?

Currently, the Centrum Nutri Coach is only available online.

What is the basis of the computation of the vitamins and minerals?

Centrum worked with nutritionists to compute for the vitamins and minerals per food item. The reference used was the Food Composition Table shared by FNRI (Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Philippines).

What can I see in the results page?

Centrum Nutri Coach will show you the nutrients you get from your food choices and if you are getting the right level of nutrients base on the daily Recommended Energy and Nutrient Intake. Other information you’ll get are your BMI, calorie consumption plus your ideal weight, height and BMI. A sample diet will also be provided in the results page.

Can I print or share my results page?

Yes, your results page can be printed or shared on Facebook.

Can Centrum Nutri Coach save my profile so I can have a diary of my food intake?

At the moment, we do not have this feature in the website, but this may be considered for the future phases.

Can the Centrum Nutri Coach be used if I am pregnant?

Yes, the Centrum Nutri Coach considers your age, height, weight, gender, activity level and health condition which includes women who are pregnant.

Can the Centrum Nutri Coach be used for children?

Centrum Nutri Coach is currently design for adults ages 19 and up.

What is the level of involvement of FNRI on this project?

Centrum consulted with FNRI, which shared with us the Food Composition Table. This document served as the basis of our partner nutritionists in computing for the nutrient content of the food items in the Centrum Nutri-Coach

Is the Centrum Nutri Coach user friendly?

The Centrum Nutri Coach was designed to make it easy for users to navigate. Users have the option to choose pre-set meals that fit their usual food intake if they don’t want to use the customize option where they can choose the actual food items that they usually eat. Various types of eating habits were captured in the Pre-set meals such as High Fiber, High Calorie, Low Calorie, High Carbohydrate, Low Protein, Low Carbohydrate or High Protein.

FOR MORE INFORMATION and to access Centrum Nutri Coach visit http://www.centrum.com.ph/

If you are looking for a multivitamin tablet that can supplement the nutrients that you are lacking, you might want to try CENTRUM which gives you 30 vitamins and minerals, complete from A to Zinc for your daily protection and nutritional needs.

Also Available:

Centrum Silver for Adults 50 years old and above (50+)