I found this article informative. By 2030 the Philippines is projected to rank number 9 in the world for diabetes. Not surprising giving the poor diets of many filipino, fast food booming and sugar used in most every recipe. Given the poor medical facilities and the expense of buying drugs needed here for treatment it will likely be much more deadly than in the western world. Diabetes Rising in the Philippines Certainly something Filipinos should take into consideration.
Perhaps that's why India and China are number 1 and 2 in the world for diabetes. I'm not all that familiar with real Chinese food (that crap in the US is not Chinese food) but I'm sure it comes with a lot of rice.
Diabetes is genetics and runs in the blood, its hard for a filipino to cut down eating rice despite of its sugar content. We are brought up eating rice and itll be very hard for one to operate or work without it. For poor people they are already satisfied to buy ginamos (salted fish) for 5 pesos with rice and share it to the whole family and that'll keep them going for the day others just even make a rice soup if theres not much rice left to feed for the whole family. sometimes eventhough they know its forbidden they just have to eat it because theres nothing else to eat.
Yes it can run in the family but it can also be caused by a poor diet. The people who can barely afford to eat run a small chance of getting diabetes. They are likely to have bigger problems than diabetes. This excuse can't be made for many filipino though. Try buying bread here without sugar as an ingredient. A simple fix is to simply NOT put sugar in the bread. This has nothing to do with finances. If anything it would save them money to not add an extra ingredient (sugar) to bread, spaghetti, adobo, meat or any sauces. Since there are donut shops and pastry shops on every corner in the Philippines I would say this is a cultural thing and not a poverty issue. Diet changes are not easy, but with a growing obesity problem in the country its something the government could promote in the school system. Start when they are young.
True but ask a filipino to try eat a bread without sugar in it i bet you any money even you wouldnt like it and if bakeries will stop putting sugar in their bread the market will crash! Filipinos have sweet tooth, its not just filipinos other countries like america even have bigger problems diabetis, obesity and etc and yes your right about diet but diabetes is only a small thing compared to the growing number of obese people in the world, can you stop them from going to mckers or stop eating pizza because their junk foods? talking about start when theyre young, easy said than done especially that nowadays theres alot of ready to cook meals in all department stores with high sugar content and not to mention the preservatives and due to the very busy lifestly, most families think its convinient to just buy take away food or pre-packed meals so how can a child understand that mckers or jolibee or pizzas are no good for him\her if his/her own parents seem to love the food and the people around him? its like you are asking them to stop eating then theyll be no problem with sugar because no matter what sort of food you are buying in department stores now every one of them has sugar.
Obesity is linked to diabetes. The government can easily make a law saying companies are not allowed to add all the sugar. Whats the difference from the smoking law? Force good health on the populace. If the majority of products aren't allowed to use sugar then Filipinos will have no choice but to buy it or go hungry. They will buy it. And honestly, whenever I have introduced foreign food (minus sugar) to a filipino they loved it.
Can you please give me examples of foreign food that doesnt contain sugar? Ill explain to you each of the food you mentioned above... ampalaya- a vegetable that filipinos normally cook with egg and match it with rice for lunch or dinner kangkong- still a vegetable which they cook either mixing it with some meat then eat it with rice malunggay- often cook for tinola/ seafood soup then again eaten with rice brown rice- way too expenssive for an average filipino family and they taste aweful plus there hard to find berries- the poor wouldnt know what this one is and not much around fish- u can never find a filipino that will eat fish alone regardless if its mixed with veggies without rice cashew nuts- hard to find. Expenssive.
Type-2 Diabetes Most health expert agreed that the best control Type -2 Diabetes are; diet and exercise coupled with meal modifications not to overworked the body digestive system!
Brown rice does not taste awful. I prefer it over white rice. Chili, most beef/pork/chicken meals, pasta (some of the sauces contain a minimal amount of sugar, not the main ingredient like here though), bread......so on and so on. There are endless amounts of foreign foods that do not contain sugar in the recipe (or at least artificial sugar), natural sugar is not nearly as bad for you as processed sugar. Yeah, fast food is a problem in the US, but this thread is not about the US. You can make all the excuses you like. Sugar is part of filipino culture. This is not a pissing contest about the Philippines. Comparing to the US does not do any good. Yeah the US has a health/diet problem, that is a different thread though. If you wish to emulate the US health problems then so be it, just know that the US has better medical facilities to deal with the problems its citizens have. A minor medical issue in the US (or any other western country) can be deadly here, which is why you should take preventative measures in this country. That's all this thread was about. Not meant to talk bad about the Philippines.
