The “Hemp” Vegetable

The “Hemp” Vegetable

By Apolinario Villalobos

 

The “hemp” vegetable is popularly known in the Philippines as “saluyot” among the Tagalogs and “tagabang” among the Visayans. I swear to its preventive values against diabetes. For several years now that I have been eating plenty of the vegetable the sugar in my blood has been consistently maintained in its normal level. The fibers of the vegetable also make it easy for me to move my bowels.

 

Foremost reason why many Filipinos do not want to eat the vegetable is its slimy broth that results when cooked. The remedy is by adding a little vinegar or several drops of lemon or kalamansi, as the acidity prevents the juice of the vegetable to become slimy.

 

There is a big market for the vegetable, especially, in Japan. Big tracks of land are planted with saluyot for its leaves that are processed for the juice that is mixed with flavors to become a delightful medicinal bottled drink, just like the aloe vera juice.

 

The vegetable can be cooked simply as “paksiw” in which a little vinegar and slices of ginger are added, the way “fish paksiw” is cooked. It can also be stir-fried and flavored with canned sardines, flaked smoked fish, or just tomatoes and onions. Other optional culinary use of the vegetable are:

• Sauce thickener for kare-kare
• Extender for the Visayan “laswa” and “law-uy” dishes
• Important ingredient for the veggie combo that includes thin slivers of bamboo shoots, corn, okra, fresh shrimp or crab and cooked optionally in coconut milk
• Essential ingredient for the “pinakbet” and “dinengdeng”
• Steamed and dipped in fish sauce it becomes appetizer best eaten with fried or grilled fish or fried dried fish.

 

The vegetable is of various varieties with the most popular being the short one, barely two feet in height and widely sold in the local market. But left to grow further, it could reach the height of a shrub. In the Middle East, it is popularly used to thicken the sauce of chicken casserole.

 

Hemp is the generic name of the vegetable because a sturdy variety is being used in making “hemp rope” characterized by twined strong fibers, akin to the “abaca hemp”, the source of which is related to banana plant.

 

With the onslaught of diabetes today due to the proliferation of unhealthy western foods, simply called “junk food”, and which is considered as harbinger of other diseases, my advice is the inclusion of the vegetable in the daily diet. Forget the slimy juice…just think of it as another kind of medicine, some of which are even bitter. One has a choice between the cheap prevention from the lowly “saluyot” or the development of the dreadful diabetes that could result to other diseases resulting further, to the devastation of budget. Remember: prevention is better than cure.

A Pint of Unsolicited Reminder on Health

A Pint of Unsolicited Reminder On Health

By Apolinario Villalobos

 

If for two days, you have not moved your bowel to get rid of waste from your body, stay calm and eat plenty of fibrous vegetables. If on the third day, still you failed to move the waste out of your guts, you should start to worry. If on the fourth day you still failed, better see a doctor…or if you believe in alternative healing, MAGPALABATIBA KA NA in any wellness clinics. In case you have consulted a doctor who prescribed drugs to supposedly “soften” your waste so that they can be easily eliminated through your anus, instead of using direct cleansing such as the LABATIBA, doubt his expertise, as the latter is the safest way to get rid of accumulated waste from the guts that could already be feeding colonies of cancer cells! Direct application of softening solutions to the accumulated waste as a process in “labatiba” is better than taking a drug and wait for several hours if it is effective, while your body emits odorous sweat and your breath smells like an exhaust of a septic tank! Imagine being sent home by a doctor who prescribed waste -softening drug and still suffer for 24 hours!

 

If you do not want to suffer from the uncomfortable bloated stomach due to the accumulated waste for several days, do not act like an idiot by still eating meat and just taking anti-bloating drugs that can be bought over the counter (OTC drugs) as advertised on TV, instead of being sensible by eating fibrous food such as vegetables or seeing a doctor.

 

The problem with many Filipinos who are influenced by the West as regards their diet, is that, despite their knowledge that daily intake of meat can be disastrous, they still insist on the unhealthy acquired habit. They intentionally and adamantly refuse to eat vegetables, as for them, they belong to the poor man’s table, while others  failed to appreciate the taste due to their moron parents who raised them on hamburgers, hot dogs and other junk foods. Later, they wonder why at an early age, they developed diabetes, accumulated cholesterol in their veins, and hastened the building up of stones in their kidney and gallbladder.

 

When their suffering has tied them on their bed, they either regret, albeit late, or blame HIM. Many Filipinos still cannot seem to understand the logic that if certain diseases are in the blood of their family, they are supposed to already take an extra precaution to avoid, or at least minimize their occurrence. They even console themselves with the thought that man lives only once in this world, so that he should enjoy every minute of his life by all means!…an idiotic guiding principle of some unthinking Filipinos!