By LAUREL FANTAUZZO
Last month, on October 17, 2011, the start of National Health Education Week, Dr. Custer Deocaris faced hundreds of students at Tarlac State University, asking them if any of their loved ones were stricken with these ills: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, obesity
The students’ raised hands were nearly unanimous. Their experience was a microcosm of the larger reality of the Philippines—where cardiovascular disease is the number one killer—and the Western Pacific region, where non-communicable diseases are causing a whopping 80% of all deaths.
“Meat!” cried Dr. Deocaris in Tagalog, in the packed basketball gymnasium, with a lush collection of potted plants behind him. “Kailangan, o hindi?”
The students, again, were unanimous. “Kailangan!”
Dr. Deocaris shook his head in patient disagreement. He was here, he said, so the students could reconsider their assumptions about their native diets.
Is meat necessary at every meal? The students may say yes. But Dr. Deocaris spent Monday in Tarlac providing an alternative answer. He helped Tarlac State University to inaugurate the first Meatless Mondays University in the Philippines.
Luntiang Lunes’s mission is simple. On Mondays, cut out meat. Prioritize indigenous Filipino vegetables. Replace white rice with nutrient-rich brown rice.
Meatless Mondays began in the United States at Johns Hopkins University, with the goal to reduce cardiovascular diseases and curb the negative effects of climate change. Celebrity chefs like Mario Batali have since signed on, and the movement has gone international. Here at TSU, Dr. Deocaris and his collaborators hope to use the university’s Meatless Mondays as a jumping-off point to rehabilitate Filipinos’ meats- and sweets-heavy diets—especially young peoples’.
But the festive event assured the audience that there is no need for students and faculty to feel the chore and deprivation in their diets, should the animal protein present in early every Filipino entree be suddenly absent one day a week. The lush potted plants positioned behind Dr. Deocaris? They’re green indigenous vegetables, among them sili, malunggay, and arugula.
Reclaiming these vegetables at the Pinoy dining table is not only delicious, Deocaris argues. He considers it a health-reclaiming act of nationalism, since the Philippines is the most vegetable biodiverse nation in the world. Contradictorily, the Philippines also has the lowest vegetable consumption in Asia—39 kg per person— whereas China’s is 250 kg.
According to the World Health Organization, a minimum daily intake of 200 grams of vegetables (73 kg per year) is necessary to meet the micronutrient requirements of the human body.
In the Philippines, however, 27% of the population is malnourished, though indigenous vegetables can be grown nearly everywhere.
“It’s impossible that our country should be starving!” Deocaris said.
Reclaiming vegetables at the Flipino dining table is not only delicious, advocates argue. They considert it a healthy reclaiming act of nationalism since the Philippines is one of the most vegetable biodiverse nations in the world. Contradictorily, the Philippines has also the lowest vegetable consumption in Asia.
