Food and plastic

I wish I could choose a better title but I was really shocked when I found out about microplastics and how they have gotten into our food. If you read more about fish and how they absorb or eat microplastics, you may just become carnivorous again. But if you have already skipped red meat and chicken and have turned to fish as a safer protein, think again. Knowing about plastics and how our oceans are full of it may drive you to avoid fish and turn vegetarian.

More than ever, we need to know where our food comes from. So let me share the story about a friend who has developed an allergic reaction to processed food, anything that is older than fresh and anything “cured” like salami and hotdogs. She has become so careful about consuming food outside the house as her skin breakouts are predictable as soon as she consumes food that is not freshly-prepared. In Filipino we can say she is “maarte” or picky.

In reality, she just wants to stay on the safe side and avoid taking anti-allergy pills each time she eats. And that’s been going on since she started to be conscious and observant on why she reacted to food additives, processed food and cured meats.

It may be a good time to study and know your own food intolerance. Because these days, freshly-prepared food is hard to come by. With scaling up of food production to supply hundreds of fast food outlets and preservation of food to prevent spoilage, one is hard pressed to find unprocessed or whole foods. Whole foods are edibles that come closest to its natural state – fresh fruits, uncooked vegetables and dare I say fish or meat when I was not the one who caught the animal?

I met an intellectual who did not want to try a barnacle because it had no eyes! And I met someone who did not want to eat anything that could look you in the face, like fish or cow. It may be a good way to describe what we choose to eat. Eyes or no eyes, why are we getting picky about food? Because we are what we eat.

But for most everyone, taste is the differentiator. What tastes good seems good. So we can say butter wins because it tastes good. Ice cream wins because it tastes good. Some say what tastes good is actually bad because it is laden with fat and salt – the two secrets to peek up plain boring food. Fry it, salt it and it becomes good. But we should go beyond just salt and fat if we are to discover food flavors.

We must take a moment to understand depth of flavor and food’s inherent sweetness, if that is the only flavor we can still describe. After being conscious about taste, we may soon learn what depth is about and look for it. This way we can help the producer come closest to staying naturally sweet or naturally sour.

Natural food or food derived through natural means also helps us develop our taste for better food. If we fast or stay away from unclean or processed food, we may just discover again what food naturally tastes like. This is another lesson I learned from a travel angel we met recently. He says quality food tastes good. Period. And quality for him is knowing the source of the food, not a chef’s interpretation of good food. “Quality is free from transfats,” he says, and comes from the farmer who puts his or her name on the product.

This is why in Europe it pays to get a DOC mark – Denominazione Origine Controllata ( for Italian food) and DOP or Denominazione di Origine Protetta or Protected Designation of Origin. Here in the Philippines, hopefully we would soon have a designation for GI (geographical indication) through the Intellectual Property Office (www.ipophil.gov) or soon a way to know if your Sagada oranges are really from Sagada or just marked that way. How will we know Guimaras mangoes from those coming from Zambales or Pangasinan? And while my first attempt to explain good food is about fish – how do you know if your pampano is local or imported? I am certain you know that these days even our skad mackerel or the ubiquitous galunggong or GG is imported. Maybe it’s best to buy different fish – Pangasinan for bangus, tilapia from Laguna de Bay and deep sea fish from Sorsogon.

Give them a taste test and if you can, a microplastics test. I am afraid of the results, to be honest.

The best solution for us is to have everything in moderation. One cannot really stay vegetarian and prevent lifestyle diseases a hundred percent. So we need to have a variety of food sources or, as my mantra has been, grow your own food or know your farmer. I have had the privilege of knowing a few farmers whose farms I have visited. It helps to know how they grow the vegetables, not just for safety reasons, but for taste. Because what kills the taste are chemicals used to have higher yields or to prevent holes and natural insect bites on vegetables. I am after taste because it can only happen if the vegetable is left alone to grow organically.

As for fish, my only tip is to eat small. The smaller the fish, the lesser time it has had to be exposed to microplastics. And for meats, hopefully you can save the craving for it and get it when you travel abroad and look for DOP or DOC. Meantime, know a farmer and check how he grows his vegetables or raises his chickens. What they eat is what you will eat.

This article is about food, not plastics, but now, it is no longer a scare but a reality that sometimes they could be one and the same. Mind your plastics and mind your food.