Who could resist the wonderful smells that emanate from a Pinoy kitchen?
I grew up in a household where my dad was the designated kusinero and my lola was the carinderia expert. She could whip up a mean morcon (yes, it’s more complicated than you think) and steamed lapu-lapu with mayonnaise in a flash.
Our home was (and still is) a gastronomic utopia every night and every weekend with my dad’s specialties, always served in generous portions - bistek Tagalog, kalderetang baka served with home-style french fries, sinigang na bangus paired with torta (an omelette-style dish with ground pork and potatoes), Pinoy-style spaghetti with “chicken lollipops” (chicken wings dipped in a cornstarch batter, then fried) and pan-fried burger patties (never served in a bun as usual practices require).
On family get-togethers, my relatives from both sides of the family are always profuse with praise over my dad’s cooking. They never leave the house without the mandatory bitbit or pabalot. Such is the quintessential Pinoy’s voracious appetite.
However, along with our clan’s penchant for excessive eating lies an ugly side -- a lineage of life-threatening diseases that have ravaged our lolos and lolas, our titos and titas through the years -- hypertension, high-blood pressure, diabetes and cancer to name a few.
It’s perfectly understandable for carcinogens and high cholesterol to be Greek to our elders, but food science has revolutionized the way we analyze the food that we eat.
Facts and figures
In her preface on Filipinos Take It to Heart: A How-to-Guide for Bringing Heart Health to Your Community, Barbara Alving MD, acting director for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute wrote, “Many Filipinos in the United States engage in unhealthy behaviors. This puts them at higher risk for developing heart disease, which may go undetected or untreated. Behaviors such as eating food high in salt and sodium, saturated fat and cholesterol...all impact a person’s heart health.”
“These are some of the reasons why one out of three Filipinos die from heart disease. Heart disease can lead to disability and significantly decrease a person’s quality of life. Moreover, Filipinos have the highest rates of hypertension of all Asian American Pacific Islander subgroups,” she further explained.
Findings from the 1979 California Hypertension Study revealed that heart disease is the leading cause of death among Filipinos. We also have the highest rate of high blood pressure among Asians and Pacific Islanders with only 8 percent having their high blood pressure controlled compared to 25 percent of the general population. The study also revealed that among Filipino men over the age of 50, 60 percent have high-blood pressure while among Filipino women over the age of 50, 65 percent have high blood pressure.
Let us not be mere statistic. It is imperative for us to radically change our diet and to improve the way we prepare our food. Of course, it’s not just our diet that has to change, we also need to do more physical activity as well.
Here are some heart-friendly, healthy recipes from the Nhlbi.nih.gov. and Mula sa Puso, Heart Healthy Traditional Recipes (1999) to help you prepare an alternative version of your old Pinoy favorites without sacrificing taste. Relish every morsel and enjoy your weekend family handaans without the guilt.
For more information about Filipino health, visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov or for recipes with a healthy twist, visit http://www.geocities.com/htn_cholesterol/healthy_recipes.htm. (www.asianjournal.com)
(Published July 9, 2008 p.mgzn5 LAMDWK)
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