Health Issue: How much do families in the Philippines spend on contraceptives?

The Reproductive Health (RH) Bill is such a big issue in the Philippines today. As of publication time, the Senate is still in a hot debate whether to pass this bill or not. Meanwhile, people may be wondering just how much the poor can save if the government will be providing free contraceptives to them.

If the spending reflected in the Family Income and Expenditure Survey is indeed reflective of the total amount they need, we can have an estimate of how much the government will likely spend.

Health Issue: Top sources of Vitamin C and their contents

As a mom, I always see to it that my kids meet their daily needs of Vitamin C to protect them against infectious diseases. But I realize that if I am already giving them some fruits, I need not give them Vit. C supplement anymore. This is because the fruits I am giving them may already suffice to meet the minimum requirements. If their meals also contain several vegetables, then they may already be getting adequate amounts of Vitamin C.
The USDA recommended dose of Vit. C that women should take daily is 75 mg while for men, it is 90 mg. For children, the requirements are lower (see below). To help you with the right servings and fruits, here are the top sources of Vitamin C and the corresponding contents.

Home Issue:How much is the average expenditure of Filipino families on food?

I have started this Home Issues series in my blog with the average spending of families on electricity. Now, I think I should have started with food as it is the most basic need. I used the same dataset (FIES 2009) as the one I used in electricity. The FIES is a nationally representative survey of around 40,000 families conducted all over the Philippines. The 2009 survey is the most recent available Public Use File.
I found that the average family spent P74,808 in the whole year of 2009, roughly $1,570.  The typical family in the Philippines during this time was composed of about 5 members (4.7 to be exact). The typical person's food consumption has amounted to P17,554, or $368.

Pasta ala Nina, my version

I hope I did some justice to my BFF's pasta recipe- I call it pasta ala nina. I don't dare publish the ingredients here and the correct measurements - for I can't remember (sigh...). Anyway, here's my version - I just remember one more thing I forgot, it should have olives in it. Nonetheless, I rate it as a "okay", for now I'll just wait til Nina makes one for us again - hers is way tastier. What actually inspires me to make this pasta recipe is that the basil in my garden are getting taller, about to bear flower already, and yet I haven't really used it in the kitchen. If you remember the "Sonya's Garden" post, I bought the basil from there. I learned that once basil flowers bloom, the leaves will taste a bit bitter. So I found a way to make use of the basil leaves.

The famous Davao Pomelo

There's a lot of catching up to do in here. I start with this delectable, juicy encounter with Davao's famous pomelo I bought from SM Hypermarket. It's really pricey but I tell you, it's worth it. My kids loved it coz it's so sweet, and juicy. The kids are enjoying their semestral break with lots of TV hours these days. The pomelo was a great, healthy treat for couch potatoes!
I remember our paternal ancestral home flanked with lots of variants of pomelo when I was young. Some trees were huge, some were easier to climb. When my grandpa, the one who planted these trees, passed away, the pomelo trees started to die one by one too. The fruits too were sweet but nothing beats the Davao pomelo.

The pork barbecue and sodium

So appetizing, isn't it? No Pinoy can resist this mouth-watering, finger-lickin', Pinoy classic pork barbecue sold either on the streets or in some Filipino restaurant or food chain. It's ever present during parties. It's best eaten when dipped with vinegar with siling labuyo and onions. There are many versions of it, but we, Pinoys, always go back to this salty-sweet unique taste of our local barbecue. I can guess that a lot of you may be swallowing, craving for it this moment, I know exactly how you are feeling. :)
But just before you go and grab some, here's some warning. Not that I'm letting you drool over it only to spoil your appetite just even before you can have some, but just a friendly reminded - a stick of that can give you 111 calories - oh no big deal, that's very little. But- the warning comes with the sodium content. You eat 5 sticks of that and you're approaching your quota on sodium. It is because a stick contains about 429 mg - and our daily intake limit for sodium should not be more than 2,400 mg. If you have a heart or kidney disease your limit is only 2,000mg. This limit should include ALL salt and sodium consumed, including those in cooking and at the table. So the next time we eat barbecue, we take note of the amount, and the other salty food that we are going to eat on that day. If we can't resist the temptation, we should watch our sodium intake for the rest of the day! That way, we're happy but not at the expense of good kidney health. Cheers!
For more reading:
My Fitness Pal
Harvard Health
Anne Collins

Homey pizza

'Enough about my China trip, I'm back home to my usual working mommy mode. I wanted to make up for the lost time, so I made the kids a home-made (sort of) pizza - Hawaiian, their favorite. One thing I've learned about preparing food for my kids, they need not be expensive and complicated. They wanted a simple pizza, I willingly obliged. Apart from the fact that that's the only one I can do for now for I'm still yet to read the cookbook I inherited from my dear Aunt, the ingredients are quite easy to find.
I used Village Gourmet's Gourmet Pizza Crust Personal size, thin, and I was lucky to find pizza sauce in the nearest supermarket. Added some pineapples, ham slices, and bell pepper, quick-melt cheese - and there in an instant - pizza, fresh from the pan, without a lot of waiting or queuing. The kids loved it - we even used Gardenia bread when we ran out of pizza crusts!

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Avocado for Andre

As a mom, I always look into it that my kids get only the most natural snacks and food most of the time, with very minimal canned goods and fast food. I also give 'em chips only once in a blue moon. It helps me that they're not picky and that they don't demand too much on what particular food to eat. So I get to choose what to give them. Of course, I cannot control everything, they might get unhealthy foods sometimes when they're at school or in some other occasions when they are tempted to. That is why at home, we go natural and if possible organic, to make up for those times when they crave for those appetizing junk foods and sodas.
At least the habit of not eating healthy does not come from our household.

The best time to give the kids healthy snacks is when they're bored and hungry in a lazy weekend afternoon. Believe me they'll eat anything as long as they don't have access to chips. I'm happy that we live in a gated community where there aren't sari-sari stores nearby. They can't just go and buy whatever they want. My son, Andre, came to love avocado when I topped it with some condensed milk. He even actually asked me to make him an avocado shake later on.

Healthy and natural, that's what we should always aim for, as long as we have choices. And guilt-free too, for Andre ate his avocado snacks with a smile on his face.

A delightful snack

This post was inspired by a friend's status in Facebook. It's about her eating mangoes with bagoong and it was so mouth-watering. So here it is, the power of Facebook materializing. I got these mangoes this morning from a nearby home-based fruit stand here in our village at a very cheap price of P15 per kilo (the joys of living in the suburbs, stuffs are way cheaper here). For my dip, I mixed the bagoong with my favorite vinegar brand "Pinoy Kurat" from Datu Puti. The best tuba vinegar I've tasted. It's a great substitute for my most fave red cane vinegar from Ilocos. Just so yummy!

Ensaladang Bagnet

This reminds me of one of my favorite appetizers in Via Mare, their ensaladang bagnet. One day I was really craving for  it at home so we improvised. Here's what we did.

Mercury Contamination in Fish

We fish-eaters should be wary of the mercury content in certain fishes. The Environmental Defense Fund listed the most contaminated fishes because of risks of PCBs and mercury. These are alewife, striped wild bass, bluefish, white croaker, American eel, European eel, shad, wild sturgeon, and weakfish. These types of fish should not be eaten by all in a monthly basis. Moreover, there are types of fish that should not be eaten by women and children in addition to those listed above. These are king mackerel, bluefin tuna, marlin, shark and swordfish.

Of course, note that the younger the person is, the more vulnerable he/she is. It is advised that young kids (aged 0 to 6) should not eat more than a serving of yellow fin tuna and canned white tuna (among others) each month!

The good news is that it's safe to eat 4 or more servings each month of tilapia, squid, anchovies, salmon (canned), sardines, crab, shrimps, farmed oysters, crab, scallops and others. Please click here to get the complete EDF lists.

Enhance your instant noodles

Like most kids, mine really likes to eat instant noodles. Whenever I serve instant noodles, their eyes would roll in ways that I rarely see when I serve them other, more nutritious, dishes. But because of the sodium content and MSG, I rarely give them instant noodles, including the famous Lucky Me Pancit Canton. And when I do give in to their wishes, I make sure that it has some bits of sliced veggies and/or egg into it so that they can still get the vitamins and minerals that they need from this delightful, appetizing food. With their wanting of instant noodles, they really don't mind that there are added ingredients to it. They're now actually used to it. 

Ang Pancit

Guess what just made my lazy Saturday afternoon? It's pancit! Yummy! This one we prepared at home is a combi of pancit canton (thick noodle) and pancit sotanghon (thin rice vermicelli, thinner than bihon). Pancit is the classic Pinoy favorite noodle dish. It is likened to the Japanese yakisoba and yakiudon. It's a very simple stir fried noodle dish with slices of pork and veggies. In the Pinoy birthday party tradition, pancit is a must. People say that having pancit during birthday celebration will give the celebrant a loooooooong life. And because Pinoys love pancit so much, there are a lot of different types of pancit out there. There's pancit bihon, pancit canton, pancit luglog, pancit malabon, pancit lukban, pancit palabok, pancit miki and pancit habhab among others.


Pancit Bihon

Pancit Canton

Pancit Luglog

Pancit Malabon

Pancit Lukban

Pancit Palabok