WE EAT TO LIVE!

"Many are getting sick" and "many are dying", I was told, not just once but many times, by some friends during the last few days. Indeed, it is true. News would come to me about an acquaintance who is sick and who had died. I would like to think that it is a regular grind of life; sickness and death comes to everyone specially to the elderly. But deep inside, something is telling me it is more than just the regular grind. There is a twist somewhere....I wonder what? This thought plummeted my reflective mind to investigate and analyze, not a ala Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes but a la Fr. Benny!

"Health is wealth." Very true. An actress was asked to choose between health and fame. She wisely chose health. She opined that with health, she can easily acquire fame. But the reverse is hard to achieve if not untrue. There are many factors to be healthy. I know that I am not a doctor and it is not my expertise. But I believe the following are important factors;

Environment! Today's generation faces the challenge of coping with pollution caused primarily by the burning of fuel. Add to this the pollution emitted by garbage, residues, by-products etc. All of these had grown too much for the atmosphere to process. In the end, all creatures great and small will inhale them! The prevalence of respiratory diseases attest to this. A parent said that if one wants to be a doctor, he should specialize in respiratory diseases. He will be a millionaire in due time! ( And I thought it was to help the cause of respiratory patients!). I will not be far-fetched if I say that common diseases had become harder to treat and new ones had developed because of pollution. Or there will be a time when we will have to carry oxygen tanks on our back because the available oxygen in the atmosphere had become too thin or had disappeared!

Exercise! Oh yes, we do have a lot of gyms now. Going to the gym had in fact become a fad. They are not only full after office hours but throughout the day. People had suddenly become conscious of glandic hydro emission. (sweating or perspiring lang yan!). It is good for health. Then, it was a normal body activity. But the advent of air conditioned cars, malls, rooms, offices, supermarkets, and even bowling lanes etc. had made this regular body activity a rarity and a luxury! Now, one has to shell out thousand of pesos in order to avail of the services of a gym. That is not including the paraphernalia and proper gears even. Badminton had become popular if only due to its capacity to generate profuse sweating! Then, we walk to church, market, parks, school, and maybe even to the office! "Exercise" was part of the daily activities. Sweating was acceptable! People then were more active and has more "galaw galaw".

Rest! By virtue of the demands of daily activities, rest now is optional if not unnecessary. While offices close at five, activities continue not anymore through the wee hours but twenty four hours! Now, we have twenty-four hour stores, restaurants, gasoline stations, offices, markets, etc. Then, only hospitals, police stations, fire stations and other utility establishments operate non-stop. The availability of whole day cable television and Internet made it worst! Sleep had become relative. Rest had become again not a necessity but a luxury. Work! Work! Work! Play! Play! Play!....Rest? Rest? Rest? Today, either we are eating, watching, playing, or shopping! If you notice, malls had dominated the city. Almost all places, even the least strategic ones had already been invaded by the malls. Before, mall owners would first consider if the place has so many clients who frequent them. Now, all you have to do is basically find a location and build the mall. People will come to the malls. Malls create the need of people. The consumerist attitude of people is a weakness that mall developers seize to establish their business. I wonder how many malls we have in Metro Manila alone???

Genes! This, the next generation could not do so much about. That is why the generating generation should strive to have a good one for the the benefit of the receiving generation. Medical findings had proven in a lot of ways that many of our sickness were congenital or hereditary. We inherit them form our parents or ancestors. While advances in medical capabilities had improved so much, there are still diseases that are beyond human control. That makes us always vulnerable. And that should be enough reason for us to be serious and generous in finding cures and preventive measures to respond to them.

Given all of the factors given above, I believe, the one really crucial factor then, now and in the future is food! There is so much truth in the saying, "You are what you eat!"The food we intake becomes part of our body. If our body could (and it has the unique and amazing capacity to do so) process them well, then good for us. But if our body systems could not cope with the demands of the food we eat, the problem begins. The field of medicine had been very busy coping with the arrival and developments of sickness in our generation. Younger people are now afflicted with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, organ failures, and other diseases which were normally mostly found in elders. With due respect to the existing gastronomic centers, the food that are being served nowadays are sickness generators more than health developers. A great percentage of food offered now are cooked in oil which contains a lot of fats (of all kinds!). Others are just too sweet or too salty. I empathize with young children now who grow up eating fast food products. Fast food restos had become popular because they are easily available aside from the fact that they had become cheaper. Other restos also follow by relying on taste, looks, presentations, and uniqueness and sacrificing quality and healthy offerings in order to lure patrons. Eating now has become a fad, status quo, and a "show" rather than nutrition! Unfortunately for us, the food that we eat would hit back through its effect in our bodies.

I could go on and on, but it will boil down to the same point; our food now is unhealthy. This maybe the reason why there is a "movement" to the production and patronizing of organic food. Organics are produced from ingredients that are "natural" and are free of chemicals. They are supposed to be healthy. But then again, we are not sure. Even fish and vegetables are now with unwanted chemical elements due to the absorption of the same from the soil and water which were recipients of previous interactions. In other words, it is now very hard to find an ingredient that is chemical-free! At most, we hope what we eat or produce has the least amount of these destructive chemicals.

So, where do we go from here? Participants to all of these must stop for a while and think about the effect of what they are doing to the present and succeeding generation. Rather than think of getting much profit, they should reconsider lessening it and strive to provide everyone with the best healthy food they could give without sacrificing their investment. Government, by virtue of its controlling power should assert it by providing laws and guidelines that will insure the availability and production of only healthy food. People, on the other hand, should patronize these cooperative restos and food establishments. Let us join hands for our sake and the sake of the next generation. remember, "we eat to live and not live to eat!"