If France is a fashion capital and South Korea is known for plastic surgery, the Philippines should strive to become the world’s health promotion capital. While we’re not there yet, we have all the natural resources that we need to lead the international community in promoting healthy lifestyles. Filipinos even have the temperament for it, because we’re super friendly, chatty, hospitable, and humorous. The majority of us can also speak English, which enables us to communicate with many foreigners.
What we lack though are the skills to make this dream happen. Still, health promotion will be crucial in the years to come given that COVID-19 is most likely here to stay. Other public health emergencies could also be lying ahead.
So what skills do Filipinos need to make our country the world’s health promotion capital?
# 5 Developing better fintech apps. We want to promote cashless transactions to avoid physical contact with possible disease carriers. Filipinos should therefore acquire better computer programming skills for creating convenient fintech apps.
To be honest, I only use one bank account for my online transactions. I didn’t download other digital wallets because of their terrible verification processes. Other users also gave local fintech apps extremely negative reviews because of unauthorized transactions and difficulties in cashing out their money.
# 4 Urban gardening. The big cities here in the Philippines have pretty much all the conveniences that people can’t live without. Metro Manila even has the best malls, hotels, restaurants, and health facilities, as well as some good tourist spots. Knowing that you can get anything that you need in a certain country is crucial for one’s sanity. This is why many locals and foreigners will opt to live and work here in the cities even if they’re crowded and polluted.
We can reduce our urban areas’ pollution and improve their aesthetics by cultivating more plants in them. Besides, it’s probably safer to grow your food in your own backyard. Many of us can do it because our country has a good climate and has very fertile lands. Case in point: in my grandfather’s small yard here in Metro Manila, we’ve had many flower- and fruit-bearing plants over the years — even a coconut tree! The coconut tree’s gone now, but we still have lots of plants.
# 3 Herbal medicine. The local Food and Drug Administration has approved many plant species in the Philippines for medicinal purposes. We should conduct more research studies on herbal medicine because natural health products are low-cost interventions for different diseases.
# 2 Marketing the unique outdoor activities in our Instagrammable tourist destinations. There are so many fun things that tourists can do all year round because even our rainy season has many sunny days. Plus they're so affordable! Some things that they can do: swim alongside whale sharks in Oslob; dive in the Tubbataha Reefs; surf in Siargao; take a dip in Pampanga’s Puning Hot Spring that has many therapeutic benefits; climb and bathe in the Kaparkan Falls; swim in the Hinatuan Enchanted River; meditate by the Asik-Asik Falls; hike along the Philippines’ “Grand Canyon” in Bukidnon; go trekking in the Banaue Rice Terraces; climb Bohol’s Chocolate Hills; explore the caves and jungles of Palawan; and pretend that they’re a Lord of the Rings character in Compostela Valley’s mossy forest.
# 1 World-class healthy cooking and plating. A lot of the Filipino foods that we serve in the big cities are tasty enough, but they’re not among the best. Many of them tend to be too greasy. Some are either too salty or too bland. This might be because we imitate our colonizers’ cooking styles so much that we no longer use the many delectable fruits, vegetables, and seafood that we have for whipping up a distinctly healthy Filipino cuisine.
The good news is that a lot of Filipinos in remote towns and villages are still using healthy yet
delicious indigenous recipes. But we have to replicate what they’re doing on a grand scale. Plus, we’ve got to plate our food beautifully. So no fish heads in the soup, please!
Wanna see examples of Filipino ingenuity in healthy cooking? Check out the links below!
Documentaries about seafood recipes:
Seafood in Roxas City, Pampanga’s Crab Paste, Seafood in Bohol, Zambales Shellfish, Sorsogon’s Slipper Crab, Snail Dishes in the Philippines, Pampanga’s Catfish Recipes, Bohol’s Seafood Recipes
Documentaries about fruit and vegetable recipes:
Philippine Exotic Fruits, Native Fruits in the Philippines, More Philippine Fruits, Harvesting Fruits, Ilocos’ Pinakbet, Organic Dishes in an Antipolo Farm, Nueva Ecija’s Onions
What skills should you learn to promote healthy living?
(Photo by Edgar Castrejon)
I love this article! Annie you should work in the Department of Health!