[Applause]
so when I was a kid I would spend every
summer in the Philippines and every
morning my grandmother to wake me and my
brother up super early to go eat
breakfast at McDonald’s and now at
McDonald’s I was hooked onto the breath
of Long Aneesa they served which is sort
of like a Filipino sweet sausage before
my Mary endo our afternoon snack my
grandmother would order B two bowls of
my beloved creamy macaroni soup
obviously I had an unhealthy appetite
for McDonald’s Filipino eating habits
seem to reflect this fast-food style of
eating excessive amounts of salt sugar
and fat so it’s not really a big
surprise when three of the four leading
causes of death in the Philippines heart
disease stroke and diabetes are all
related to poor nutrition the
Philippines lost 2.8 billion pesos in
2006 just because of poor nutrition and
just after ten years this economic loss
doubled but in other parts of the
country and in the world
the problem isn’t too much the poor
quality of diets but the lack of food
hunger is at a critical stage in the
world today before I was interested in
this topic I thought that like so many
others that our first priority should
just be to feed a child until they
aren’t hungry I was wrong
if you look at the bigger picture of a
child’s life you can see that it’s
extremely important to satisfy that
child with a quality diet at the same
time we’re not dressing hunger what do I
mean by quality diets
I mean safe diverse nutritious foods all
year-round to feed and sustain brain
power because nutrition has a direct
link to brain development the way you
think act your eventual intelligence
this can all decrease due to poor
nutrition early in childhood and a
child’s long-term health
also impaired when they are an adult
their health will decline earlier so the
lack of diverse nutritious foods under
nutrition is both a cause and
consequence of poverty let me give you
an example imagine a five-year-old girl
who live in some remote farm in a
developing country she also might as
well be living in a big city her family
doesn’t have enough food much less an
adequate diet she will be cognitively
impaired she will not reach her full
potential height therefore she will not
reach her full human potential and when
she grows up her income and her harvest
are limited because of these
disadvantages she had earlier on in life
she will not be able to afford basic
health care and she will not be able to
provide education and the proper
nutritious diet for her children
so her children will also become caught
and to be impaired and stunted and they
will not reach their full human
potential the future of our world
depends on these young girls and their
children and of those future generations
but malnutrition isn’t one of those
third world problems it’s here in the
United States too and one of the most
developed countries in the world our
children are overfed and undernourished
one in three American children are
overweight or obese and over nutrition
is just as bad as under nutrition I
could have easily been one of those
overweight children they may had
devoured and craved McDonald’s as a
child fortunately I only visited the
Philippines in the summer for the rest
of the year I live in Hanoi Vietnam and
in Hanoi there were no McDonald’s I was
surrounded by working farms and the
Vietnamese culture emphasized a balance
in living including in their diet
leaving Vietnam and moving to Vermont
I was further surrounded by this culture
of healthy living there are so many
farms in Vermont and in school I was
able to see I was able to go to those
farms see how my food was grown and
learned how to prepare balanced meals my
teachers emphasized fresh organic local
food in my diet and just last October I
went to a conference in Iowa
and there I was able to meet amazing
people who travel to these developing
countries and work with their local
communities to the local with the local
communities in developing countries to
help push this nutrition agenda so I
learn how to care about my food at this
conference right but most of the people
in the world don’t know or don’t care
about what is needed by the body and
most don’t even know where their next
meal is coming from
what is the future of our world hold
when a third of the world population
does not reach their full human
potential the Philippines alone lost
about five billion pesos just because of
poor nutrition that’s a lot of money so
I say our generations mission statement
is to solve hunger better a nutrition
focused approach builds a generation
capable of rising out of the cycle of
poverty it builds a smarter stronger and
more stable workforce so if there’s one
thing I want you guys to take away from
my talk it’s this a child needs food to
survive but requires a diverse
nutritious diet to thrive hunger and
obesity both have one solution quality
meals should be both available and
consumed so you might ask what can I do
to ensure this well first be conscious
of what you eat you may have heard this
a million times but healthier healthy
choices can only bring you benefits
second look at what others in your
community eat influence your family
friends the person behind you in line at
the cafeteria to choose more nutritious
items and third do something about the
rest of the world doesn’t have enough
food you can easily join multiple
organizations and learn to care about
the millions of children that go to bed
hungry every single night and finally
when you solve hunger you solve it
better when you donate rice beans or
some canned food you are giving
sustenance but when you give them a
quality meal you’re giving them
opportunities and ultimately investing
in the future of our world our
generation can ensure that we leave our
that we leave our world in capable hands
through better diets our mission
is nutrition thank you [Applause]