Macagba: Eats the Filipino culture

DO YOU know what is the easiest way to look for our fellow Filipinos in a foreign country? It's easy! Look for where the good food is, there you will see Filipinos with their families. Food easily magnetizes Filipinos.

One of the things that caught my attention here in Canada is how their government promotes a certain awareness for their people to eat healthy by requiring food establishments to present calorie counts of each product that consumers buy. Whether the Canadians use their caloric intake information to better their health can be another point to look at. However, what is good to note is that the availability of this information is already a first step to encourage their citizens to make healthy choices.

But surprisingly, there is this one food hall area in Canada, which do not have visible amount of calories in their product. Do you know to which food hall do this establishment cater to? This is a known area for Filipinos where almost all 'sinful' and unhealthy food choices in big servings combined with two cups of rice can be found.

What can we say about this? Most of the Filipinos love to eat a lot! We do not even mind about our calories or even our intake. All we know is that food makes us happy and that it brings us together.

While this is often times true, most of the times our unhealthy eating habits can also be inherited by the next generation because of our eating culture, from our cravings for unlimited rice to the celebrations of special occasions alongside buffet tables. Thus, I firmly believe that nutrition should start at home as it is the primary builders of eating healthy culture. No matter how science teachers teach kids healthy eating habits, if there are eating mind sets that were already established at home, then it would already be difficult to reorient students to what is right. After all, it is the parents who prepare the lunch boxes for their kids.

In similar manner, quality should be emphasized above quantity. When we were kids, parents get mad at the kids when they do not eat much. Parents, especially those who have a traditional perspective believe that wealth is best represented by the abundance of food eaten and that fat kids are healthy and most of the times wealthy. And who ends up having the difficulty of improving one's health? It's the kid.

Aside from the availability of information, our country should have systems that could support better health situations of our countrymen. This should pervade beyond homes, schools, communities and in the government. In reference to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, food is one of the basic physiological needs that we should respond to especially as we create a healthy society.

To start with, we need to break down several misconceptions about our own eating beliefs brought about by our culture. More than the profit that businesses could get, would it be possible that food establishments provide the information to their customers even if they are not required by law?

Can parents take the extra effort to educate themselves, search the net, or take courses to ensure that their kids get the right nutrition and so they would develop better competencies to prepare healthy foods for their children? Can our school's curriculum integrate the need to be healthy and make sure that beyond memorandums, there are concrete efforts to make sure that all Filipino students are eating healthy?

Can our lawmakers consider making laws that could improve our health landscape?