Poor Man’s Diet:

Of Noodles, Chicken Skin and Isaw

“Kumakalam ang tiyan,” “mahapdi ang sikmura,” and “namumuti ang mata sa gutom” are all expressions pertaining to hunger. That there are so many of them in Filipino indicates how prevalent hunger is among Filipinos. Meanwhile, the most commonly eaten food today – noodles and streetfoods such as isaw (grilled chicken intestine) – are not enough to answer the people's nutritional needs.

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA

Bulatlat

Fried chicken skin (above) and cow lungs (right) are common food fares for the poor Photos by Ronalyn Olea and Dabet Castañeda

Grade three pupil Benjie Alvarez, 10, was sitting at the front row of his class when I first saw him.  He looked pale and sleepy, his frail body carelessly slouched on the chair. When his teacher called him to be excused from class to accommodate this interview, he stood up and walked slowly to the end of the room. He was extremely shy and every word he uttered was in whisper. 

His height – slightly below four feet – might be mistaken for an eight-year old’s. He lives in a place called Chorillo, an urban poor community a kilometer away from his school, the Barangka Elementary School (BES) in the city of Marikina. He walks everyday to school, rain or shine, because his father, a taxi driver, could not afford to give him the P4 needed for a tricycle ride.  His mother is unemployed.

He would not answer when asked why he seemed so lethargic. Later, he admitted not having eaten anything for breakfast but said he did eat some rice and fish for lunch. For snack, he buys a small serving of porridge for P3 and two packs of chips that cost P1 each (The packs have more air in them than chips while the watery porridge has nothing to give it any sort of nutrition or taste).

Benjie’s teacher, Mrs. Dig, said the highest grade Benjie received in the first quarter of the school year was 74, a point short of passing grade. She believes that Benjie’s poor performance in school is primarily because of his poor diet.

Bulatlat research shows Benjie is not alone in his predicament. 

Ladita Chavez, 61, has been teaching elementary students for 40 years. She presently handles the lowest section in grade six in the same school where Benjie studies.

Her long experience as a public school teacher has taught her that most of the students in the lower sections who perform very poorly in class normally come from low-income families. She narrated how 70 percent of her students come to in school with empty stomachs. She said the students would vomit and experience dizziness just before the first subject.  When asked, the reply is consistent: they are hungry.

“The nutritional status of the students to a large extent determines their performance in school,” Chavez said.

Researches by other agencies show Chavez’s words contain painful truths.

Hunger

One of the Social Weather Station (SWS) surveys that perhaps stirred the most reaction was its study that showed 15.1 percent of Filipinos nationwide have experienced hunger, covering the period of July to September this year. 

It should not be taken to mean however that the food crisis emerged only today.  In fact, in 1998, a nationwide research by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) showed that eight out of 10 Filipino households were food insecure.

FNRI Chief Science Research Specialist Maria Regina Pedro, Ph.D., explained that in their research, food insecurity would mean that household heads had doubts whether they would have something to eat in the next mealtime but, as a disclaimer, she said, “this did not necessarily mean they went hungry.”

Pedro said food insecurity translates to malnutrition that comes in two forms: the marasmic type (severe undernourishment) or the kwashiorkor. 

According to her, the undernourishment could be determined from a person’s weight for age, weight for height or height for age.  If a person’s weight were low for his age or height, this would indicate that the person might be thin due to reduction of food intake or illness and/or infection. 

Pedro said being underweight would determine a person’s present nutritional status. In its 2003 study, the FNRI recorded that 27.6 percent of children 0 to 5 years old were underweight for age and 5.5 percent underweight for height.

A person’s height for age, however, reflects long-term malnutrition. More commonly known as stunting, Pedro said that this may impact on the person’s mental development. The FNRI research showed that in 2003, 30.4 percent of children in the same age bracket were under height for age. 

Note: For adults ages 20 and up, underweight for age is called chronic energy deficiency that would mean they have experienced long (chronic) years of undernourishment.

Pedro said that in both researches, statistics show that undernourishment and stunting are more prevalent in the low-income strata. This would mean that persons belonging to this social stratum have inadequate food and are more prone to illness and infections.    

If this is the case, people who are malnourished and sickly become less productive to the society, Pedro explained. 

She further said FNRI researches prove that malnourished school children perform poorly in school.  It is the same with malnourished laborers and employees who also perform poorly in their line of work.

Overweight and obesity

Excessive fatness or overweight, in children and adults alike, has been prevalent in the country in the last five years. If this is not averted, Pedro said, it might lead to obesity which means a person has 120 percent of the desired body weight vis a vis a person’s height.

Although the number overweight Filipinos has not reached alarming proportions, Pedro said it has increased threefold from 0.4 percentage in 1998 to 1.4 percent in 2003 among children 0 to 5 years of age.

This condition should not be taken for granted, according to Pedro because overweight or obese children might suffer from certain heart and other cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and hypertension when they grow old. 

The FNRI statistics showed that overweight and obesity is more prevalent among young adults aged 20 to 39 years old and among adults aged 40 to 59 years old. In 2003, 20.6 percent of young adults and 30 percent of adults were found overweight and obese. 

Pedro said obesity and overweight maybe be caused by a diet rich in fats, carbohydrates and bad cholesterol.  It might also be due to the changing lifestyle where children and young adults are less active and unable to burn their calories.

The 2001 records of the Department of Health (DOH) showed that among the top 10 causes of morbidity are hypertension and diseases of the heart.

Hidden hunger

Nutritionist Natalie Pulvinar of the Samahan ng Nagtataguyod ng Agham at Teknolohiya Para sa Sambayanan (Agham or Advocates of Science and Technology for the People) said that more prevalent today in Third World countries like the Philippines is what is called “hidden hunger” or micro-nutrient deficiency.  This means that while Filipinos might still have something on their tables, these do not contain the proper nutrients that are needed for healthy minds and bodies.

FNRI 2003 statistics show that 66 percent of infants 0 to 6 months old suffer from anemia or lack of iron while 29 percent of children 1 to 5 years old suffer from the same.

The prevalence of hidden hunger is basically due to the lack of nutrition in a person’s diet.

Nowadays, many poor Filipino families subsist on P5-instant noodles, P3-grilled chicken innards such as isaw (intestine) and balun-balunan (gizzard), and other street foods, grilled and fried. Also common are meals of plain rice with a dash of salt, particularly in urban centers, and of camote (sweet potato) in rural areas. 

Instant noodles’ labels show they are only high in carbohydrates and sodium. Pedro herself said instant noodles do not contain proteins, vitamins or minerals, and therefore do not provide a balanced diet. 

Dr. Famela Santos, M.D., of the Council for Health and Development (CHD), said most manufacturers of instant noodles emit the fiber from the noodles leaving it rich only with carbohydrates.  Although the DOH has approved the instant noodle varieties as “fortified foods” – meaning it contains essential vitamins – Santos said instant noodles succeeds only in filling the stomach.  Although reportedly fortified with vitamin A and iodine, instant noodles are only rich in carbohydrates, salt and monosodium glutamate.  These, she said, are not enough to make children healthy.

Kids who are constantly fed with instant noodles may at times look healthy because they appear fat. But according to Santos, the fatness is mainly caused by edema because instant noodles can cause bloating. These are the kids who are called “ampaw” in Filipino, which literally means puffed rice. Though fat, these children are also considered malnourished, according to Santos.

Meanwhile, Filipino ingenuity also gave birth to grilled parts of chicken and pork which in some countries are considered scrap.  From chicken feet to chicken head and neck, and pork ears to pork intestines, these foods are popular primarily because they are cheap and can be found at almost every street corner in urban areas. 

Santos also explained that although these foods, while priced cheaper than the prized parts of chicken and pork, also contain protein, they may also cause illnesses such as hepatitis A or amoebiasis if not thoroughly cleaned and properly cooked. Others, such as fried chicken skin, are high in cholesterol which if habitually eaten, may deadly diseases such as hypertension and heart ailments. 

“Fortification”

Since studies show that Filipinos from all ages suffer from vitamin A, iron and iodine deficiencies, the government introduced a program called food fortification, a process of adding essential vitamins and minerals to commonly eaten foods. 

The program started in the 1950s when beri-beri, an illness caused by lack of vitamin B1 or thiamine, became prevalent in the country.  Pedro said that rice, the Filipinos staple food, was then fortified with vitamin B1 to help eradicate the disease. Beri-beri was considerably lessened but has resurfaced in recent years, Pedro said. Meanwhile, in response to the need for vitamin A, there are now rice varieties available in the market fortified with vitamin A. 

It was on Nov. 7, 2000 however that the government enacted the Philippine Food Fortification Act of 2000, encouraging manufacturers of food commonly eaten by Filipinos – such as instant noodles, margarine, powdered juices, canned goods and even soft drinks – to fortify their products with vitamin A, iodine and iron. 

The DOH tags some of these products with the “Sangkap Pinoy” seal.

Pedro however admitted that food fortification may only help alleviate the country’s nutritional status to a certain level but will not cure the country’s malnutrition problem. 

According to Pedro, the answer to the malnutrition problem is a balanced diet that is accessible to the poor especially those in from the rural areas. Particularly since a big percentage of malnourished Filipinos comes from the lower income brackets.

Furthermore, she said, the poor should eat a variety of foods because no single food can provide what a person needs to be healthy. 

Pulvinar however said that to achieve this, the poor should first be given the power to purchase nutritious foods. 

“The poor eat what they eat not because they are not educated on the nutritional value of their food but only out of a lack of choice,” she said.

This would mean that the poor should have adequate employment and livelihood to be able to make good choices of food that would make them more physically and mentally productive to the society. Bulatlat

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