If you can’t go vegetarian…

By Herbert Vego

HAVING tuned 74, I wonder whether I could have gone so far had I stuck to the carnivorous regimen I had developed in childhood.

Those were the days when my late mother would often come home from the market with a fresh supply of meat which she would cook in different ways. The family favorite was bulalo, Filipino for beef stew with pelvic bone and marrow.

Mom also served vegetables, which I would avoid because I had no appetite for them.

My craving for meat intensified in my 20s in the 1970s when I became an entertainment-beat reporter and columnist in Metro Manila. I enjoyed the meatiest lunches and dinners in press conferences hosted by movie producers.

It’s almost the other way around today. I may not like the taste of certain vegetable preparations, but I have to eat them to recover from chronic diseases that have developed over time due to unhealthy beefy and “porky” meals. Chopsuey and pinakbet are now my favorite veggie meals.

It was more than a decade ago when a cardiologist advised me to go slow on meat because, as confirmed by my laboratory tests and x-rays, atherosclerosis or plaque in my blood vessels had gone to dangerous levels.

There was a time when I thought I was dying of heart disease due to unprecedented dizziness, labored breathing, body weakness and muscle pains. I had no choice but to heed my doctor’s counsel.  If he had his way, my meat would have to be restricted to fish.

I could not imagine myself junking meat.  So, I opted to be a semi-vegetarian, allowing moderate lean meat.

Resisting expensive drugs that could induce side effects, I decided to spend more time reading health books and articles. Some of them advised strict adherence to vegetarianism to reverse congestion of my blood vessels.

Historically, vegetarianism sprang from philosophical and religious beliefs. Followers of Hinduism and Buddhism have for centuries avoided animal flesh because of the belief in the sacredness of life and the reincarnation of souls into the bodies of other animate beings. The Seventh-Day Adventists preach vegetarianism purely for better health. The Roman Catholic Trappist monks also practice vegetarianism for a different reason: to fulfill vows of austerity and self-sacrifice.

Modern vegetarianism entered public consciousness during the 19th century, specifically in 1847 with the establishment of the Vegetarian Society in Great Britain, which also taught that killing animals was both cruel and unnecessary; and that using available land to raise vegetables, grains and fruits instead of livestock makes better economic and ecological sense.

Today, scientific studies show that diets rich in fatty animal foods may contribute to the early development of diseases, including obesity, coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes and colorectal cancer.

The plant-based diet has the advantage of being low in saturated fats, cholesterol and salt, but most vegetables can be lacking in essential nutrients received from meat, fish and poultry. The good news, however, is that certain grains like mongo are as rich in protein as meat. An excellent substitute for milk is powdered soy bean.

In the United States, the American Dietetic Association recommends that vegetarians take vitamin and mineral supplements. Vegans who avoid dairy products and eggs tend to be deficient in vitamin B.

Many Hollywood stars have publicly embraced vegetarianism. To quote Alice Silverstone, “Since I’ve gone vegetarian, my taste buds have opened up to a whole new world.”

If you have seen the latest sexy pictures of Filipina singer-actress Geneva Cruz, you would doubt that she is now 47.  She traces her “youth” to being a vegan since age 15.

“For me, being vegan is not about the diet. It’s really about my love for all creatures,” Geneva said in a magazine interview. “Animals are made of flesh, blood, and bone, just as humans are. They have the same body parts, the same five senses, and the same range of emotions.”

Going back to myself, I am happy to say that semi-vegetarianism has done good enough.

-oOo-

THE ‘MORE’ THE BETTER

THE month of February marks two milestones for MORE Power, Iloilo City’s power-distribution utility.  It was on the 14^th of this month in 2019 when President Dutete signed RA 11212, the law awarding a 25-year franchise to the company.  It was on Feb. 29, 2020 when the company started operating under that law.

The transition from the previous utility had not been easy though. Until then, Panay Electric Company (PECO) had handled the distribution monopoly for 95 straight years.

But with the expiration of the PECO franchise and its grant to the new winning bidder, Ilonggos learned that it was only prim and proper. As provided in the law’s Section 17 on transition of operations, the outgoing franchisee could operate in the interim “until the establishment or acquisition by the grantee of its own distribution system and its complete transition towards full operations as determined by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), which period shall in no way exceed two years from the grant of the legislative franchise.”

Kudos to MORE Power Roel Z. Castro for the fast growth of MORE Power from 62,000 customers to almost 100,000 today.