Why are Filipinos so physically unfit?

A video shared on Twitter by ABS-CBN News correspondent Pia Gutierrez (who is, as of this writing, covering Philippine President Bongbong Marcos’s official visit to the United States), shows anti-government “activists” in Washington DC chasing what appears to be Marcos’s motorcade. Observations have since been made about a number of things seen in this video — the shrillness of the voices, the triteness of the template messages, and the contradictory nature of said messages. All of these had, of course, long been observed about anti-government and, specifically, anti-Marcos “protestors” much of which had proven woefully ineffective to efforts to move public opinion during elections.

Watch: The convoy of President Marcos Jr at the White House is met with protests by militant groups pic.twitter.com/COQiR8m809

— Pia Gutierrez (@pia_gutierrez) May 1, 2023

The more interesting takeaway from the above video however is in how unfit Filipinos generally appear to be. The video shows participants in this “activist” event running (many of them screaming while running) in order to quickly position themselves for maximum exposure to both the subject of their “protests” and, very likely, media cameras. Many of these participants can be observed struggling to move their own weight in a rapid enough manner to achieve this objective. A few of them are visibly out of breath as they attempt to both run and issue their shrill “activist” slogans at a good enough volume to be heard by as many people as they could reach.

What could account for this general observation with regard to the physical fitness of the participants of this “activist” event? Is the sample of Filipinos shown in this video representative of the broader population of Filipinos? Or are they representative of the Filipino-American subset — Filipinos who live in the US and, as such, possess more resources to acquire a bigger volume of food per meal and, as most know, the sort of food sold in American retail outlets that tends to be richer and higher in fat and salt content?

Even in the Philippines, Filipinos tend to consume an inordinate amount of carbohydrates — mostly rice — to achieve personal volume targets at every meal. The objective of most meals is to become busog (satiated to the point of no longer being able to eat any further). Given that rice is relatively cheaper than protein viands (such as beef, chicken, fish, and pork), most Filipino meals are rice-heavy to achieve this end. This is why unlimited or “unli” rice is a popular promotional feature of some Filipino eateries. It is likely that this habit of eating fast and large was something Filipinos took with them to affluent countries like the United States. Despite the astounding abundance of food in the US, the habit of shovelling in the volume at every meal as if it was going to be the last one stuck for many Filipinos who likely passed these habits to their American-born offspring.

Perhaps this is yet another characteristic of their culture Filipinos need to reflect on. It did not take a close examination or a detailed study for these insights to emerge — only a short video featuring militant “activists” behaving badly as the leader of their nation visited.

benign0

benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.