Health.
It’s something we all want the best of, but despite knowing how important it is to eat good food, we still buy fast food and we still shop for processed products.
We take our health for granted.
Why does this persist? Convenience? Tradition? Cost?
I asked my mom if she knew of any organic Filipino food items. She said no. She said that in the Philippines, any food that they grew was done so without any pesticides, but as far as Filipino store-bought products, she knew of no organic brands.
Filipinos are known for their delicious fried and salty food. Prito. Fried fish, fried rice, fried lumpia. Patis, MSG, pork.
Yes, there’s vegetable lumpia, but isn’t the more popular edible the fried version? Or the lechón?
A couple of men in my family have died from heart-related illnesses. I’ve also spoken to other friends whose fathers and mothers suffer from hypertension. According to this article, high blood pressure is a big problem for Filipinas. This Men’s Health article states that heart disease is the number one killer of both Filipino men and women – 70,000 deaths a year.
Despite all of this, the aunties and uncles continue to tsismis about the latest person with diabetes or high cholesterol.
Is anyone doing anything about this? Are we Filipinos doomed to die early deaths because of a love of traditional, unnatural, processed and fried foods?
I know that anyone can go to a Whole Foods market and buy the basics to whip up an adobo dish, but I know that costs and traveling distance are a problem. Not everyone can afford $7 organic soy sauce, so the visit to Seafood City to buy the $2 bottle makes sense.
My question to you is this: Is your life worth the difference in price between an organic brand and a brand that probably contains a bunch of preservatives that will eventually make you sick? Maybe you don’t care now, but will you care when you have to be hospitalized because of chest pain? Don’t you care about your family and how concerned they would be if you got sick? What if they got sick? Is it worth the difference?
I have a friend – a very close female friend – who once got on my case about me being so into organics. “C’mon, Apes. You’ve spent your whole life eating things that weren’t organic. You’re not going to die from it. You’re still here.” But that’s the thing. I’m 29. I see people in their 30s and 40s getting sick because they spent their whole lives eating things that weren’t organic. I don’t want my lack of early knowledge to make me sick.
I’m not the sort of person who denies food at a restaurant if it’s not natural. But I make a big effort to buy foods that contain no pesticides, no chemicals, and I try to purchase locally-grown foods. The extra money is worth it to me because it’s my health.
