Has Your Filipina Gf Or Wife Changed Your Diet Or.....

[JJReyes]

I also lose weight when we visit I guess because I love seafood and all the fresh tropical fruit. I've been fairly sick with the runs too maybe too much fruit or mild food poisoning.

So long as the skin is not damage, tropical fruits are okay. Wash the exterior thoroughly and peel off the skin. Never eat the skin because that is where fruit flies deposit their larvae.

Seafoods are your big problem especially shellfish, which is harvested in inlets and along the shoreline. The possibility that the water and sand are polluted is very high. My preference is large ocean fish caught in nets at least five kilometers out at sea. Either the area is fresh saltwater or the pollution is more diluted.

[tiger31]

I also lose weight when we visit I guess because I love seafood and all the fresh tropical fruit. I've been fairly sick with the runs too maybe too much fruit or mild food poisoning.

So long as the skin is not damage, tropical fruits are okay. Wash the exterior thoroughly and peel off the skin. Never eat the skin because that is where fruit flies deposit their larvae.

Seafoods are your big problem especially shellfish, which is harvested in inlets and along the shoreline. The possibility that the water and sand are polluted is very high. My preference is large ocean fish caught in nets at least five kilometers out at sea. Either the area is fresh saltwater or the pollution is more diluted.

er don,t forget you got radioactive tuna wizzing about they are definately bad for you hahaha thankyou japan lol

[JJReyes]

er don,t forget you got radioactive tuna wizzing about they are definately bad for you hahaha thankyou japan lol

Sorry. I forgot about those damn tuna from Japan.

[Old55]

Darn it JJR you are correct sir. For sure the shellfish we eat was most likely harvested nearby Cebu City.

[joeatmanila]

I am FAT and Bon Viveur!!! My diet is changing others. 9 years in this country and i still deny eating this boiled sticky rice and most of the filipino food. I eat very few local dishes, such as lumpia, manok, lechon, fish tinola, beef caldereta and that's about it. The rest is greek or international food. i tought my wife and i keep on teaching every helper we get how to cook my food.

Our table always have my food and theirs.

They do enjoy my food, they do not cook dried fish while i am home, neither kinilaw, these things sting like no tomorrow...

[Old55]

I'm curious how many other Expats chose to avoid Filipino food for the most part?

[MikeB]

I'm very skeptical about medical advice given here. I was told by 2 doctors that eating mangoes is a very bad thing for diabetics because of high sugar content. Every medical article I found says that is a myth and also that it's beneficial to diabetics when eaten in moderation. White rice is the killer. Nothing good about it and very hard for a Filipino to give up. Almost impossible to overestimate it's importance to the culture. As has been said, the other varieties are much more expensive. I cannot eat fish, never have, and that is another big part of the local diet.

[Okieboy]

Red rice is good also and does cost a little more but better for you, i never never eat any meat or sea food from the open market, we buy vegitable and noodles from open market, i do buy chickens whole sale 15 to 20 at a time they are class A and delivered frozen from Davao City,they are magnola, other than that we have our own pork ,i do buy in the NCCC store if i want seafood, we have a lot of people getting into the Hito here, i buy them live and cook them my self, they are expensive compaird to other fish but i like the taste they are about P150 kilo maybe if their are more producers the price will come down

[JJReyes]

The rest is greek or international food.

Greek and Southern Italian, also known as the Mediterranean diet, is suppose to be one of the best for your health. But it has to be traditional including whole grain bread, lots of fish, vegetables, lemons, olives, cheese, and fruits for dessert. The difficulty is economic prosperity creates dietary changes. For example, eating lamb and sweets was reserved for really special occasions like Easter Sunday, a baptism or wedding. Now many Greeks and Southern Italians consume lamb and other meats several times a week.

Regarding Mike B's comment about white rice as a killer, it is true. Most of what you buy are grown from hybrid and genetically modified seeds. They are engineered to increase the sugar content. This makes the rice more tasty and technically, you need less to feed people in famine ravaged regions. With prosperity, you eat more of the tasty rice and more condiments. Pot belly Filipinos & Filipinas were unheard of twenty-five years ago.

Edited September 13, 2012 by JJR

[Adventurer]

The only time I got sick was when I had not eaten tropical fruits daily like I do each day usually. I would recommend everyone eats plenty of tropical fruit each day. Diabetics might want to consult their doctor though!

As for rice, I managed to persuade my fiancee to try brown rice and she enjoys it. It is so much better for you than white rice. She still eats white rice but each time I have rice she makes sure we eat brown rice.

As for Filipino food. I have to admit I would never eat any food that is left open in buffets, in local soup pots etc as it can be a breeding ground for disease and bugs, even the stuff sold at food courts is dangerous for foreigners. Locals seem to have a tolerance for it. In fact I ate it at times in the past and never got sick but I was recently staying at a hotel in the city that offered a free buffet Filipino breakfast. Later that day on the bus ride home I had a bad headache. By the next day the headache was like someone smashing two bricks against my head non stop. It went for 4-5 days. I lost weight and could not eat properly. I have hardly ever got sick here over the 5 years I have visited the place. This time I had not eaten fruit for 5 days and I think that let my defenses down. The only other times I have been sick here was with the occasional 1 day general fever.

I have tasted first class Filipino cuisine at Greenbelt Manila, the food was as good or better than any western or other world cuisine. So Filipino cuisine can be top quality if it is cooked by top chefs believe me. The problem is there seems to be another way many locals make food to be extra sweet or have strange mixed and often sour or over sweet flavours that seem to have lost their direction. So I believe the Filipino food can be great if it is cooked to the original recipes and not lost with mixed spices, MSG, over doses of salt and sugar. I have tasted some pretty good dishes out in some remote provinces too.

My fiancee now makes some delicious soups and meals for us each day although I'm the main chef in our house since I was once a chef. She makes a delicious vegetable type of chop suey with noodles, i taught her how to use garlic and other natural ingredients to improve the flavor without the need for a lot of salt, soya sauce and those packaged chemicals that are used here. We threw all those things out long a go and now we are cooking and eating in harmony, I'm respecting her tastes and her understanding what I like.

We do have a problem though living so far from the city in that we are limited by the fresh food we can get so we are considering moving closer to the city just so we can eat better. That can be a problem here in the Philippines in that there is a very limited amount of local foods available and it's very hard to find those ingredients you might like to use sometimes.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Adventurer