Health Heroes: Beware of the snacks! Easy way to a healthy and balanced diet

A quarter of Indonesian adolescents aged 13-18 are stunted and 9% suffer from wasting or have a low body mass index. On the other hand, 1 in 7 adolescents are overweight and obese.

Of the total 273.5 million Indonesian population, 23% or 62.9 million are children and adolescents.

Nutritional problems are also related to gender, where about a quarter of adolescent girls are anemic (higher than adolescent boys), and a higher prevalence of wasting and underweight were found amongst the boys.

Anemic adolescent girls are likely to give birth to malnourished children and are at risk of severe blood loss at delivery, considering that the number of child marriages in Indonesia is the 2nd highest in ASEAN and has been increasing during the pandemic.

The data above shows that adolescent nutrition is still a fundamental problem in Indonesia. To this date, Indonesia has the triple burden of malnutrition, namely, undernutrition (stunting), micronutrient deficiencies that cause anemia, and overweight (obesity). Nutritional problems, both undernutrition and overnutrition, will increase susceptibility to diseases.

Causes of adolescent nutrition problems in Indonesia

Nutritionist at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (FKUI) Rina Agustina said there are many factors causing nutritional problems in adolescents in Indonesia, one of which is an unhealthy lifestyle.

Another factor is bad eating habits. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) reported that there is a change in eating habits where adolescents consume inadequate amounts of protein, fruits and vegetables, but excessive amounts of Western fast food and salt.

Another study indicated that Indonesian teenagers like to consume snacks, especially packaged products, on a regular basis, which are purchased at street vendors, school canteens and kiosks.

The high consumption rate of packaged products is not balanced with the habit of reading the nutritional information listed on the label of packaged products.

This is a major risk factor for poor health, as there are studies that show a link between the habit of reading food labels and increasing nutritional knowledge.

Poor understanding about nutrients listed in packaging labels plays an important role in fulfilling the nutrition of children and adolescents.

Agate GAIN Health Heroes nutrition stunting obesity overweight teenager Indonesia

AGATE's solution to prevent nutritional problems

The illustration above motivated Indonesian digital game developer AGATE to create an application designed to provide understanding and broaden insight about nutritional content of packaged products and healthy food references for teenagers.

This application is expected to have a positive influence on adolescents in choosing healthier choices for consumption as well as to improve nutrition quality among adolescents.

April 2022 marked a milestone for AGATE, supported by GAIN and Fondation Botnar, to launch “Health Heroes”, an application to build a culture of reading packaged product labels in teenagers so that they can choose healthier food.

This is because the information on the front of package labels (FOPL) is a good communication medium for consumers as it is a determining factor in product purchases.

“Health Heroes” is designed as an interactive game application for teenagers, where they will map information about the nutritional content of food and beverages around them. Here, teenagers will participate by scanning the nutritional information on the labels of the packaged products they consume to find healthier choices through information about FOPL.

This application was launched on 20 April 2022 at the "SCANVenger Hunt" event held at SMA Negeri 70 Jakarta which was attended by 200 participants. The students were enthusiastic about the presence of this application and were rushing to scan various packaged food products to find out about and understand the nutritional information in them.

Rakaputra Paputungan, representative of AGATE who attended the event, explained, "This application was developed by accommodating input from teenagers as the target user, then we perfected it."

He hopes that this application can encourage teenagers to care more about the nutritional content of their food, as well as creating healthier eating habits.

The “Health Heroes” application can be downloaded via this link for the Android version, while the iOS version will be launched at the end of 2022.