Food Choices

Well, some tennis stars have been living a little bit on the healthy side not just while they're on tour (which is like what, basically almost the whole year?). Other athletes choose the really-healthy path when they're on training for some big events like swimmers on training for the Olympics have not been eating desserts for quite some time. Put Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams on the spot light. Nole has been in a gluten-free diet when he learned that he was actually allergic to gluten and this means no pizza, pasta, cake, pie, cereals, cookies, and bread. CARBS!!! Venus Williams says she's a raw vegan, drinking a lot of fresh juice ever since she was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. Hmmm, they were forced into a new diet!

Why I can't be vegan (from currently being vegetarian) is that I looooove dairy products, most especially cheese. Well, I have reduced my intake of cow's milk from almost everyday to practically never-a-day. I'm banking on my soy milk for quite some time but cheese, oh my, cheese powers me up on a sad day. There are current articles saying that we don't need milk anymore. How about calcium and osteoporosis? Article says the keys to bone strength is lifelong exercise and vitamin D which you practically get from the sun.

But, says Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Sugar — in the form of lactose — contributes about 55 percent of skim milk’s calories, giving it ounce for ounce the same calorie load as soda.”

Well I know the trouble the cows are getting just to give out milk for the human consumers but then, if you're lactose intolerant, it's obvious that you should cut out the idea of drinking milk in the first place. Fortunately there are alternatives now, you can have soy milk or almond milk if you want to drink something that looks like...well...milk. There are also a number of food choices available in restaurants that are for those who opt to eat differently from the norm, they aren't cheaper but they give us something to order that is not soup or water while we watch our friends devour their butchered animal meal.

It's tough knowing a lot of food that we consume aren't particularly "healthy" while most of us find solace in food. To be healthy and be stressed while thinking of what to eat, or succumb to an easier lifestyle with fast food, microwave-friendly or just-add-hot-water provisions? Sodium!!! Food is everyone's best friend. It gives you something to do (when you don't feel like doing anything), something that makes you feel better (pizza, chocolates, chips, ice cream as comfort food), and sometimes it's the cheapest thing you can purchase that you feel is worth its amount when you just want to buy something.

Then here comes the article from GMA News Online titled "What to say when you land in the Philippines" and Pinoys, are well, all about food and good times. That's the best part of coming home anyway, eating breakfast (which usually consists of sinangag), lunch, merienda, dinner, and eating before you sleep. Ahhhh the life. It's about the food.

photo credit from
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/263251/opinion/what-to-say-when-you-land-in-the-philippines