File photo of the Ministry of Science and Technology facade.
MANILA, Philippines — Researchers and scientists from the Department of Science and Technology Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) are embarking on a groundbreaking study to determine whether a person’s height and build are determined by genes, the result of proper nutritional intake, or nutritional deficiencies.
Gerard Bryan Gonzalez, a Filipino scholar in residence and senior research fellow at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Ghent University in Belgium, said the study, led by Wageningen doctoral student Jaks Nassis, was pioneering and ambitious, integrating research in genomics and nutrition.
“We are investigating whether stunting in the Philippines is genetic. Do we have a genetic predisposition to metabolize food differently?” Gonzales said during his 50th DOST-FNRI Seminar Series lecture, “Food and Nutrition Research on the Global Stage: Opportunities for the Philippines,” at the Sheraton Manila Hotel in Pasay City yesterday.
Gonzalez, who supervises Nasis and two others who are separately conducting research on food and nutrition under the DOST Balik Scientist Program, said the study was made possible through research and development expertise collaboration with European universities.
“It is because of our international connections that we are able to carry out this research, so building international collaborations is very important. That is the key to enriching scientific knowledge here in the Philippines,” he said.
Gonzalez noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) in its 2025 Nutrition Action Plan has called on countries to undertake more effective nutrition interventions, especially given the double burden of malnutrition, particularly in children, who face the dual challenge of undernutrition leading to stunting, and overnutrition contributing to obesity among a significant number of adolescents.
“We need to be more efficient when it comes to nutrition interventions. The WHO is calling for what it calls a ‘two-pronged approach to nutrition,'” Gonzalez said.
“These are actions that will address all forms of malnutrition with one intervention,” he added.
According to WHO, dual role actions include interventions, programmes and policies that have the potential to simultaneously reduce the risk and burden of undernutrition and obesity or diet-related NCDs (non-communicable diseases).
“That’s the big challenge that the WHO has given us,” Gonzalez said.
DOST-FNRI Nutrition and Food Research and Development Division chief scientific research specialist Rosemary Dumag said the study being conducted by Nasis is a nutritional genomics study under the Eastern Visayas birth cohort, which aims to track a child’s development from the womb up to 1,000 days of growth.
“It will last for up to five years,” Dumag told The Star.
“We will be investigating genetic correlations to see if genes influence nutritional status,” Dumag added.
“This starts from conception and continues until the child develops from the mother (for up to five years),” she explained. “We study the genetic makeup of the subjects and then check their nutritional status.”
She said this isn’t just about height and weight, but “this is serious science that goes into the genetics of the children, their DNA and RNA.”
