Eat as you can

CAPILLAS

At a time when the Marawi City siege by the Maute terrorist group resulted in the exodus of its more than 200,000 residents to cities and provinces across the country including Cebu, and both the police and dive teams have yet to locate the remains of Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Bendong-Boniel, somehow Filipinos needed something to laugh about this week.

They found it in Sen. Cynthia Villar’s call on eateries and fast-food establishments to eliminate “unli rice” or unlimited rice in their menus and to encourage people to eat more vegetables instead.

To say that it sounded absurd amid the backdrop of said major events in the past few days may be questionable to some, but one need only read the Facebook and Twitter posts and memes to know just how the public felt about Villar’s call.

One such comment as published by TV5’s Interaksyon read: “Cynthia Villar ang sagot sa inyong pamamayat (Cynthia Villar: the answer to your slimming regimen).”

Another Facebook post showed a photo of Senator Villar with a popular fast-food restaurant’s logo in the background and the punchline “Unlimited kangkong Iwas Jabetis (Unlimited water cabbage to avoid diabetes).”

Sen. Villar’s turnaround a day later after drawing flak from netizens showed that the senator may have underestimated the public’s passion for rice, something Filipinos share with their Southeast Asian neighbors and those countries within Asia like Japan.

But I find that Villar, who clarified on her social media account that she had no plans to pass a bill banning unli rice, does have a valid point at least as far as health and not wasting rice is concerned.

As chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, it is but expected that the senator should take a direct interest on the country’s rice supply which involves such issues as smuggling and even “unli rice” which is something that has become a must for consumers out to maximize their peso when dining out.

Thus, she isn’t exactly trying to score political brownie points when she made the call since it’s within her committee’s concern. And the National Food Authority (NFA), which has so far failed to resolve the country’s perennial inadequate rice supply, had earlier called on the public not to waste rice by eating only what they can.

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Those who cared to know will remember that the Cebu City Council passed an ordinance requiring fast-food outlets and eateries to offer a “half-cup” of rice for diners as an option instead of a full cup that would likely go to waste if they cannot eat all of it.

Again, even if Senator Villar sought to downplay her call to ban “unli rice” this isn’t something to laugh about and dismiss outright. It does involve our eating habits and our health both individually and as a country so it has to be given its day in the sun.

In fact, Senator Villar is not alone in her proposal as some militant lawmakers called on the Departments of Health and Education to heavily promote public consumption of vegetables as part of their everyday menu, with particular focus on schoolchildren.

Villar was right when she said that other countries around the world specifically Japan had inculcated the right mind-set for eating well and healthy by starting with the children.

Other countries such as the US aren’t as successful; the “school lunch” program of former first lady Michelle Obama is in danger of being rolled back by the Trump administration, but even during her husband’s presidency, it didn’t click with US students who still want their burgers and fries over fruits and veggies.

In the United Kingdom, British celebrity chef Jaime Oliver is spearheading his “Feed Me Better” campaign aimed at producing healthy yet flavorful and affordable meals for schoolchildren and discouraging consumption of junk food.

For it is the schools where one needs to plant the seeds for healthy eating and a healthy mind-set and respect for food including how to avoid wasting it and producing more of it to feed and make it affordable to more people.

By doing this, by persuading people to eat sensibly without depriving them of their choice to eat what they want and what they can afford to eat — a lot of people have a point when they see the unli rice ban as “anti-poor” — market forces dictated by popular demand will eventually compel the eateries and restaurants to do away with “unli rice.”