On Philippine Food and Kababayan L.A.

With an advanced education in sociology and anthropology, I commend Channel 18’s Kababayan LA, the only live Filipino TV program in California, for talking about the issues on ethnicity, particularly on the identity as perceived by three young Filipino-American guests, who are offspring of interracial couples. Unfortunately, I also have to spurn the statement of the host that the Filipino food is not healthy.

Excuse me? That’s an ostensible label of negative stereotype and outright over-generalization; henceforth, prejudicial. To hear such comment from a host of a TV program that’s supposed to promote the Filipino culture & identity to the young ones and to the world is tantamount to discouraging the public to experience the Filipino culture.
How the public would think of the Filipino food when they hear such comment? Certainly, they would turn their back away from Filipino dishes. To use US journalist Walter Lippman statement on Public Opinion (1965), the public have now been told about the food (world) before they see it. They now imagine more things before they experience them. And those preconceptions, unless education has made them acutely aware, govern deeply the whole process of perception.

Food is part of every society’s culture. Since no culture is perfect (that’s why it is dynamic, adaptive, and integrative); ergo food in every society is not perfectly healthy. Chinese dishes aren’t; Italian dishes aren’t; French dishes aren’t; and so as the Filipino food. Every society has healthy friendly food, as well as scary ones.

Definitely, some Filipino food is not beneficial to the heart or even to the women’s body figure. However, what about salabat (gingered tea) for a beverage? It has 0 calorie. What about a quarter cup of atsara (papaya pickles) or a piece of lumpyang sariwa (fresh egg roll) with 2 tbs. of brown sauce as appetizers? They only have 45 and 180 calories, respectively. What about half a cup of bulanglang (sautéed vegetables)? It only has 75 calories. What about a 2 oz. beef cubes (not goat) with half a cup vegetables calderetta? It only has 17 calories, and a 3 oz. of lean pork and a cup of vegetables in sinigang na baboy (stewed pork in acid medium) only has 190 calories. And for dessert! Well, a piece of puto or palitaw only has 85 and 80 calories, respectively.

Filipinos have lots of healthy friendly food, which they can be proud of. Nevertheless, we have to be reminded, so as those members of other societies, to abstain from gluttony and eat moderately.

I am a regular viewer of Kababayan LA. I hope that this would be my last time to hear negative comment from the program. If ever the host could say something not palatable about the Filipino culture, she should, at least, explain it why and offset it by mentioning the better side of it. I am proud to be a Filipino. I hope Kababayan LA is, too.


(Note: The nutritional analysis of all dishes were taken from the Filipino-American Cookbook for Calorie-Controlled Diets, published in 1993 by the Filipino-American Dietetics Association.)