13 low-cost nutritious recipes for canned goods and instant noodles

With a number of Filipinos relying on relief goods for food amid the enhanced community quarantine, the National Nutrition Council - Calabarzon (NNC) took it upon themselves to help Filipinos make their meals a whole lot nutritious.

On Facebook, the NNC released a compilation of nutritious recipes with relief good items like canned goods and instant noodles as the main ingredients, with nutritious add-ons like vegetables, eggs, and other types of noodles.

In an interview with GMA News Online, NNC's Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator Carina Santiago said they decided to do this to "increase the nutritive value of meals being prepared by families unlike if the canned goods were consumed as is."

According to the NNC, the recipes were created by a group of nutritionists from DOST-NFRI. Some were sourced from the 2017 and 2019 DOST-FNRI Menu Guide Calendar.

The NNC is also encouraging local government units (LGUs) in Calabarzon to reproduce these recipes and include them in the succeeding distribution of food packs for reference to Filipino families in preparing their meals.

In a recent Facebook post, Cardiologist Dr. Don Robespierre Casibang Reyes said canned goods are high in sodium content which might cause people's blood pressure to shoot up if they eat too much of it.

Much like the NNC and DOST-FNRI, Reyes suggested transforming the canned goods and instant noodles into much healthier meals.

President Rodrigo Duterte placed the whole Luzon on enhanced community quarantine on March 17 to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It has been extended to April 30.

Due to the quarantine, most Filipinos have temporarily lost their jobs which has forced some to depend on their daily food on relief goods.

As of April 8, the number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose to  3,870, with 182 deaths and 96 recoveries. — LA, GMA News