IT’S what our grandparents call “real food." With all the processing and add-on chemicals our food nowadays go through, can they really be still called “food”?
According to oxforddictionaries.com, the term “food” is defined as “Any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth.”
Are we really eating so we can maintain life and growth? Or are we just gobbling up what’s the most convenient and what can satiate basic hunger?
Last August 31, JCI (Junior Chamber International) Bacolod, in partnership with May’s Organic Garden, spearheaded by our project chairperson Aljon Candelasa, held a whole day of learning session on health and wellness.
With Dr. Albert Jo as the speaker, participants of the seminar on “Food is Your Medicine” were taught how illnesses and diseases can be alleviated simply by being more mindful of what we eat.
Dr. Jo is a medical practitioner who has decided to focus on natural remedies and advocating organic farming. He is the president of the Negros Island Certification Board for Organic Farms, and an active member of the Board of the Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture on Rural Development (NISARD) and of the Negros del Norte Sugar Planters Association.
He has been invited to speak in various events regarding health and wellness both around the country and abroad. He has also guested a number of times on ABS-CBN’s "Salamat Dok." As the owner of Rapha Valley in Don Salvador Benedicto, a mountain resort that displays a lush and bountiful plantation of organic and healthy fruits and vegetables, Dr. Jo takes pride in being able to teach people the practical and cost-effective ways of living healthy.
During his intensive talk, Dr. Jo shared important information on the human body’s natural system and how it actually is more inclined towards a vegetarian diet than being carnivorous. He revealed that most of the meat we buy in the market today are actually injected and laden with a lot of chemicals because commercialism seems to take precedence over the concern for the health of the consumers.
He asked that we be choosy even with the vegetables we think are okay as some farmers soak and spray their produce with chemicals like formalin to keep them from rotting fast. He shared some scary facts about what we are really ingesting when we consume processed foods.
The consolation however, is that the food and the cures we are seeking may be found or are planted in our own backyards. A lot of organic products are now also available in grocery stores and such places as the Negros Organic Market that opens every weekend. We just have to be more scrutinizing and prioritize nutrition over convenience.
Attended by more than 130 guests from Negros and Panay, the JCI talk was held in the wide and spacious function hall of May’s Organic Garden where, in the midst of nature, participants were treated with a perfect setting for the Health and Wellness Day.
A healthy, sumptuous lunch composed of fresh organic vegetables and grains capped by the sour-sweet lemongrass juice were served after the seminar. The rest of the day was spent getting to know the different projects of May’s Organic Garden and a tour of the 6-hectare nature-themed landscape.