What Is The Quality Of Water And Food Sources

[Gold Heart]

In response to a recent discussion on quality of life here, It was mentioned that water and food sources are not healthy and may be loaded with contaminents, pestisides, steroids, et al.Most of us here use bottled water. Is it clean or pure? Has anyone had this tested to ensure that it is in fact good?Is the produce actually contaminated with toxic pestisides?Is the fish contaminated with chemicals?Are there regional differences and issues. I've heard of outbreaks of red tide an algae issues in Manila bay.Is it possible to ensure the safety and quality of water and food here in the Philippines? Is this a problem or hazzard of living here?

[Mr Lee]

In response to a recent discussion on quality of life here, It was mentioned that water and food sources are not healthy and may be loaded with contaminents, pestisides, steroids, et al.Most of us here use bottled water. Is it clean or pure? Has anyone had this tested to ensure that it is in fact good?Is the produce actually contaminated with toxic pestisides?Is the fish contaminated with chemicals?Are there regional differences and issues. I've heard of outbreaks of red tide an algae issues in Manila bay.Is it possible to ensure the safety and quality of water and food here in the Philippines? Is this a problem or hazzard of living here?

I forgot in my last post to address the unhealthy food issue in the Philippines so thank you Ron for starting this topic. I feel that there is no difference where you are as to food problems. In the US it seems I read in the paper almost weekly of products being recalled for Salmonella contamination and people who had gotten sick from eating those products, be it from the vegetables and fruits which are shipped in from countries such as Mexico, where it has often been said that the products seem to be contaminated by human waste and that really does not surprise be since in many third world countries human waste goes right into lakes and rivers, and then there have been continual stories on how unclean many of the restaurants are and also the meat and chicken processing plants and so on and so on, so what the heck is safe nowadays. IMO nothing and nowhere is totally safe. My wife and I were eating at a buffet called Golden Corral in Florida the other night with friends, I watched the cook use the same tongs to put the raw meat and raw chicken on the grill as he did to take it off the grill. One tongs was all he was working with. Now I would never have thought twice about that, but in the past one of my friends got very sick doing the same thing at one of those do it yourself hibachi grill type restaurants. Another issue is that the chickens in the US are loaded with fat because of the additives that they use to fatten them up, and then there is the coloring that some put in their feed in order to make them more yellow and robust looking, so in my opinion and from my eating both, I think most chickens in the Philippines not only taste better but should be healthier for us because they have way less fat. Again, no place is perfect but if normal precautions are taken in the Philippines such as not using ice in drinks when in a restaurant that does not filter their water to make the ice and drinking water, and cleaning the cans tops of canned soda or other products that get stored in dirty warehouse or supermarkets (yes I have seen rats and roaches in Robinson's supermarket in broad daylight which means they are probably all over the place after closing and probably in other supermarkets as well) Of course not drinking the tap water, not eating meats or chicken that have been undercooked, and not eating foods from food courts or street vendors that have been sitting around for a long time would definitely be always be safer. So to sum this up, I have also seen big rats in New York City, some in Florida and I even had a giant roach in my French onion soup in a fancy Florida restaurant, so again it really does not matter where you are. As many of you know, my wife and I have been going back and forth and I have spent quite a bit of time within the Philippines in the last 15 years plus years and I have gotten diarrhea only once and my wife did also once on this past stay and the only difference was that she and others of our group of six that had canned soda got sick and those who did not did not get sick had iced tea or beer, so the only difference was the canned soda and my guess the tops were not cleaning or were cleaned with a dirty cloth because we all shared all the foods and those of us who drank iced tea or beer did not get sick at all. So is the food and drinks in the Philippines safe, with just a little bit of extra care IMO it is just as safe and probably healthier than food in most places in the US.

[Gold Heart]

Mr. Lee,Thanks for your perspective. It is consistent with what I have heard from other who have actually gotten healthier while living here. They have not changed their diet too significantly except for the reduction in beef. They continue to eat fried foods and sometimes pork and Filipino cooking, as you know even the vegetable dishes have meat and fat. Yet many have reported reductions in blood pressure, Cholesterol, and diabetes. They may be getting more exercise here without knowing it and I know what a huge difference that makes.Someones specific comments on the quality food caused me some concern. I know there are markets that hang meats on rusted hooks out in the hot sun -- attracting flies and I've seen the fish out for sale in these markets on hot days. We generally buy our foods in quality super markets here and buy and use the bottled water for our drinking needs. We have bought fruit and vetegables from the street markets.I have also been coming here for many years at least once each year for a little less time than you, about 12 years. I've gotten sick only during one of these trips and I have no idea what caused it. We have been living here for almost 6 months now and my only sickness occured on a plane trip back to the US. I attribute it to being next to a person who was sick on the plane.Are there any food quality studies? Anyone had their water tested? I'm thinking of finding out how to do that. Years ago when I was on a business trip in Mexico, I went back to the room because I forgot something and caught the maid filling the water bottles from the tap in the bathroom. Maybe we are paying for nothing with the water.

[Jollygoodfellow]

As many of you know, my wife and I have been going back and forth and I have spent quite a bit of time within the Philippines in the last 15 years plus years and I have gotten diarrhea only once and my wife did also once on this past stay and the only difference was that she and others of our group of six that had canned soda got sick and those who did not did not get sick had iced tea or beer, so the only difference was the canned soda and my guess the tops were not cleaning or were cleaned with a dirty cloth because we all shared all the foods and those of us who drank iced tea or beer did not get sick at all.

I am glad you got to the bottom of this Lee and proved a point,I will take your advice and drink beer all the time while I'm there.

[TheMason]

Mr. Lee,Thanks for your perspective. It is consistent with what I have heard from other who have actually gotten healthier while living here. They have not changed their diet too significantly except for the reduction in beef. They continue to eat fried foods and sometimes pork and Filipino cooking, as you know even the vegetable dishes have meat and fat. Yet many have reported reductions in blood pressure, Cholesterol, and diabetes. They may be getting more exercise here without knowing it and I know what a huge difference that makes.Someones specific comments on the quality food caused me some concern. I know there are markets that hang meats on rusted hooks out in the hot sun -- attracting flies and I've seen the fish out for sale in these markets on hot days. We generally buy our foods in quality super markets here and buy and use the bottled water for our drinking needs. We have bought fruit and vetegables from the street markets.I have also been coming here for many years at least once each year for a little less time than you, about 12 years. I've gotten sick only during one of these trips and I have no idea what caused it. We have been living here for almost 6 months now and my only sickness occured on a plane trip back to the US. I attribute it to being next to a person who was sick on the plane.Are there any food quality studies? Anyone had their water tested? I'm thinking of finding out how to do that. Years ago when I was on a business trip in Mexico, I went back to the room because I forgot something and caught the maid filling the water bottles from the tap in the bathroom. Maybe we are paying for nothing with the water.

If you shop in the mall grocery stores you'll likely be ok with quality. We do most of our shopping at SM and have only had 1 episode of bad meat. I'm not sure if it was spoiled or not really beef as advertised, but it tasted quite bad and we threw it out after 1 bite. The local markets are a different story. It is quite common to see very unsafe food handling practices there. Your comment about the rusted hooks and flies sums it up. We avoid shopping at the local market for meat because of the conditions. The quality also varies by location of the market. My wife grew up in Malabon in the Metro Manila area and shopped at local markets all her life. When we moved to Baguio, she took one look at the city market here and hasn't bought meat there since. She's used to Filipino markets but no longer buys meat or fish there.Aside from the retail outlet, I'm also concerned because there is very little govt. oversight of the food chain here in the Philippines. In the US, when an outbreak occurs, they can track the contaminated product and recall vast quantities of food rather quickly. There is also ample media coverage of foodbourne illnesses. If an outbreak happens, you'll know about it and can take precautions accordingly. Here in the Philippines, nobody is really watching. If there is a bad batch of chicken out there, your only defense is to hope you didn't buy any of it. You won't see it on the news and the vendors will not proactively remove contaminated product from their shelves. Why would they? There are virtually no consumer protection measures in the Philippines, including the food supply chain. If someone has bad meat they'll just sell it to the poor or mix it in with the rest of their food.As for the producers, if you want to raise chickens for commercial sale in the Philippines no licensing is required and nobody pays attention to what you feed the chickens. My step-sons raise chickens in their house in Manila. They buy 'vitamins' to add to the feed. Their chickens go from chicks to 1-2 kg in 30 days or less. The ingredients of the vitamins are not listed on the bottle, but the chickens sure do grow quickly! I'm sure the commercial chicken growers here use similar products in their operations. If a 12 year old kid sees how much more money they can make I'm sure the corporate growers do too. Its foolish to assume Filipino food producers don't use the same unhealthy additives that are used in the West.Given the profit potential and lack of any oversight about additives I think you are likely to have more unhealhty things in the food here, not less. I can't prove it because I'm not a scientist and don't test my meat before I eat it, but common sense tells me the same shenanigans that go on in every other business in the Philippines are alive and well in the food production industry as well.And don't forget, a lot of food here is imported from China. Look at what the Chinese export to the US and the West. I'm sure they send the Western rejects right to the Philippines.

[Mr Lee]

Mr. Lee,Thanks for your perspective. It is consistent with what I have heard from other who have actually gotten healthier while living here. They have not changed their diet too significantly except for the reduction in beef. They continue to eat fried foods and sometimes pork and Filipino cooking, as you know even the vegetable dishes have meat and fat. Yet many have reported reductions in blood pressure, Cholesterol, and diabetes. They may be getting more exercise here without knowing it and I know what a huge difference that makes.Someones specific comments on the quality food caused me some concern. I know there are markets that hang meats on rusted hooks out in the hot sun -- attracting flies and I've seen the fish out for sale in these markets on hot days. We generally buy our foods in quality super markets here and buy and use the bottled water for our drinking needs. We have bought fruit and vetegables from the street markets.I have also been coming here for many years at least once each year for a little less time than you, about 12 years. I've gotten sick only during one of these trips and I have no idea what caused it. We have been living here for almost 6 months now and my only sickness occured on a plane trip back to the US. I attribute it to being next to a person who was sick on the plane.Are there any food quality studies? Anyone had their water tested? I'm thinking of finding out how to do that. Years ago when I was on a business trip in Mexico, I went back to the room because I forgot something and caught the maid filling the water bottles from the tap in the bathroom. Maybe we are paying for nothing with the water.

Ron, I also catch colds many times shorty after getting to the Philippines on a plane and I am not sure if it is because of the plane trip over or because of the different strains of colds that may be in the Philippines than my body is not used to but once we are in the country then I rarely catch a cold unless I spend time with friends who have colds. That is one thing that I see more often in the Philippines that I do not see as often in the states, people still have to work, so from the taxi driver to the clerk, they will be working and not staying home when they have a cold and that could be why people catch colds or other illnesses.

I am glad you got to the bottom of this Lee and proved a point,I will take your advice and drink beer all the time while I'm there.

Just remember to clean the bottle top because most bottles are reused and I am pretty sure not sterilized well.

If you shop in the mall grocery stores you'll likely be ok with quality. We do most of our shopping at SM and have only had 1 episode of bad meat. I'm not sure if it was spoiled or not really beef as advertised, but it tasted quite bad and we threw it out after 1 bite. The local markets are a different story. It is quite common to see very unsafe food handling practices there. Your comment about the rusted hooks and flies sums it up. We avoid shopping at the local market for meat because of the conditions. The quality also varies by location of the market. My wife grew up in Malabon in the Metro Manila area and shopped at local markets all her life. When we moved to Baguio, she took one look at the city market here and hasn't bought meat there since. She's used to Filipino markets but no longer buys meat or fish there.Aside from the retail outlet, I'm also concerned because there is very little govt. oversight of the food chain here in the Philippines. In the US, when an outbreak occurs, they can track the contaminated product and recall vast quantities of food rather quickly. There is also ample media coverage of foodbourne illnesses. If an outbreak happens, you'll know about it and can take precautions accordingly. Here in the Philippines, nobody is really watching. If there is a bad batch of chicken out there, your only defense is to hope you didn't buy any of it. You won't see it on the news and the vendors will not proactively remove contaminated product from their shelves. Why would they? There are virtually no consumer protection measures in the Philippines, including the food supply chain. If someone has bad meat they'll just sell it to the poor or mix it in with the rest of their food.As for the producers, if you want to raise chickens for commercial sale in the Philippines no licensing is required and nobody pays attention to what you feed the chickens. My step-sons raise chickens in their house in Manila. They buy 'vitamins' to add to the feed. Their chickens go from chicks to 1-2 kg in 30 days or less. The ingredients of the vitamins are not listed on the bottle, but the chickens sure do grow quickly! I'm sure the commercial chicken growers here use similar products in their operations. If a 12 year old kid sees how much more money they can make I'm sure the corporate growers do too. Its foolish to assume Filipino food producers don't use the same unhealthy additives that are used in the West.Given the profit potential and lack of any oversight about additives I think you are likely to have more unhealhty things in the food here, not less. I can't prove it because I'm not a scientist and don't test my meat before I eat it, but common sense tells me the same shenanigans that go on in every other business in the Philippines are alive and well in the food production industry as well.And don't forget, a lot of food here is imported from China. Look at what the Chinese export to the US and the West. I'm sure they send the Western rejects right to the Philippines.

I do not dispute any of these facts but the chickens in the US have so much fat on them that they have to be even more unhealthy. Also, I usually lose weight when we are in the Philippines and my lifestyle is basically the same but I do drink more beer while in the Philippines than I do in the states where I rarely drink at all. I am not sure if that is a bad thing or a good thing but one would think that with all the beer that I would gain weight. I also feel better when we are in the Philippines most of the time but because of a medical issue that I have I sometimes have to take Prednisone and that can make me gain weight no matter where we are, so it can often be hard to tell for sure yet all in all I think that most of the foods seem to be natural compared to in the US where everything is used to make things bigger and fatter. I will agree that natural raised chickens and grown foods have to be healthiest so maybe province life would be a better way to go if imbibing were not overdone. I feel that overdoing booze is often the downfall of many who live in the provinces because there really is not much else to do there most times but that is changing with progress or is it regress. :lol: One thing for sure, they seem to use a lot less pesticides in the Philippines compared to in the US or other fruit and vegetable growing countries and that might be because of the cost of the pesticide but less of that has to be healthier as well. Edited December 15, 2009 by Mr. Lee

[Call me bubba]

Any new updates or stories that anyone has to offer?

[Old55]

Potable water is a major problem.Japan International Cooperation Agency study;Philippine freshwater ecosystem faces severe problems of pollution. Surface water accounts for about three quarters of freshwater supply, but many of the major rivers and lakes, particularly those passing through or close to urban centers, are heavily polluted.180 of 421 rivers and water bodies are heavily polluted and 50 major rivers are biologically dead, a term used to describe places that no longer support any life form because of over pollution.A study by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) shows that 180 of the 421 rivers and other bodies of water nationwide are so heavily polluted that they may soon be declared such.http://www.malaya.com.ph/02242012/agri2.html

Edited March 20, 2012 by Old55

[Jollygoodfellow]

Personally when I'm in the Philippines I wash my veggies and fruit in beer, I wash my hands in beer and clean my teeth with beer. I shower in beer and even wash my meals down with beer.I do this as you cant be too carefully these days with the toxins in the water. Good thing I'm a non drinker or being careful could become addictive. :mocking:

[Mike S]

I'm sure glad the Philippines is the only country in the world that has non-potable water (sic) ....... :mocking: :hystery: :hystery: