One of the corniest (and for me, rather offensive) jokes is, "Bitter? Just add sugar!" I'm told to ease down because it's just a joke like if someone calls me stupid and I should learn to just "laugh it off". However, I feel that the problem with the mindset that says, "If it's bitter, just add sugar!" is how often it goes from just a joke to a bad mindset. Sugar isn't entirely bad since we do take sugar when we eat fruits. The problem is too much sugar. With Christmas around the corner, it's very easy to think of high sugar consumption. Christmas songs tend to sing a lot about sweets. A Filipino cover of "Frosty the Snowman" sings about two sweets named puto and suman which are two kinds of rice cakes. There's also the serving of puto bumbong which is made from purple rice served with butter. Christmas tends to be associated with sweets as well.
Now, this isn't a post to completely discourage the consumption of sweets. I'm personally one who eats chocolate or finds myself craving it. Though, my preferred chocolate is dark so I consume only its sugar. However, I've noticed the sugar addiction of a lot of Filipinos is a whole year round. This article from ABS-CBN News about high sugar consumption does disturb me. It's been an ongoing problem which the introduction of the said article says this:
Many Filipinos cannot get enough sweets and it is not just because they have a sweet tooth. Attachment to sugary food and drinks is saifsd to be rooted in socio-cultural experiences of having a great time.
"Filipinos often associate childhood memories with sweets like sodas and pastries. When there is a celebration in the house, the sugary food is often always present. So the brain equates these treats with happiness," explains Dr. Eric Cinco, President of the Philippine Heart Association (PHA).
The PHA is one of the organizations of medical professionals supporting "For Your SweetHeart," a nationwide movement that aims to raise awareness about the critical link between diabetes and heart disease.
"Our language also determines our happiness. Because Filipinos have gotten used to saying 'matamis na pagsasamahan' (sweet memories) and 'mapait na karanasan' (bitter experiences), bitterness has become associated with bad moments, while sweetness with good and happy ones," Dr. Cinco observes.
Addiction can go like this. I remember complaining about cafeteria spaghetti for adding sugar. I heard that the children wouldn't eat it if there was no sugar. Some people don't even want to drink plain milk because of its taste. Fortunately, I learned to enjoy warm milk without sugar. I ended up enjoying my milk tea without sugar. If there's sugar--I usually add minimum sugar or prefer to go after muscovado sugar which is less tasty but healthier. I even remembered people saying, "Brown sugar is gross." Worse, some people tend to add too many sweets. Getting a banana cue is okay. However, drinking it down with a soft drink is bad. It's a good thing I've avoided soft drinks as much as possible except during parties when roasted pig (which is super greasy) is served.
Unfortunately, this mindset of associating sweetness with good memories with sweet and bad experiences with bitter. I guess that's why I had some trouble eating vegetarian foods. I dreaded the idea of having no meat at all. My early struggle with eating vegetables is pretty common among children. I heard it's because the underdeveloped taste buds make vegetables taste bitter. Vegetables do contain certain enzymes that make them bitter. Yet, there's always the reminder of eating your vegetables. Maybe, my only complaint was overcooked vegetables. Otherwise, I ended up liking to eat vegetables slowly but surely.
The mindset of using sweet and bitter to associate good and bad memories may also be why their finances are sinking
This reminds me of my memories in both high school and college. I'd like to emphasize college more than high school. Some people do overcome their hatred for school in college. I used to hate high school a lot due to highly inflexible schedules, studying what you considered you're bad at (and I hated trigonometry with a passion), feeling stupid, especially in a one size fits all system, and that K+10 was truly a rushed learning pace. In college, I started to think more about how money doesn't grow on trees. I started meeting different types of people. I remembered being told, "If you're going to a university, don't go with bad people." This is where I started to meet more people with really bad priorities.
I was thinking of times when we had projects to do. I was panicking (and I'm not a calm person) about the project's deadline. Yet, I had groupmates who were more particular about the arrival of a handsome celebrity in town over the project. Is the arrival of that certain celebrity in town more important than our project? I angrily asked, "Which is more important? The arrival of the celebrity or the project?" I practically lost my temper and ended up blowing up at the wrong person (who didn't do anything wrong) as a result. It was because the two starstruck women said the arrival of the actor was more important. This was just the beginning of such stupidity. This kind of problem even persisted during the practicum. I even remembered how somebody prioritized watching primetime shows over helping in the project. Another decided to attend her friend's wedding in Bantayan instead of participating in an important presentation. I ended up screaming in public, " Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines doesn't improve?"
The logic behind the love for fiestas is "to forget about the problem". There's nothing wrong with fiestas per se. A feast may happen for a good reason. Even first-world countries have feasts. Singapore is a pretty festive place. The big issue is when feasting has become an obsession. Maybe, call it feasting for the sake of feasting. It's like when one decides to skip classes or to skip work to attend a feast. I remembered how a classmate of mine skipped her accounting class (and unjustly called the professor a tyrant) for not excusing her absence. The reason for her absence was that she went to the town fiesta. Sure, nothing would be wrong with attending the town fiesta. However, if there's something more important to do then skip that feast!
The addiction to sugar and addiction to sweet memories crashes a more bitter truth. Their lack of priorities is a
real problem. Why splurge the paycheck? Why have a blowout if you've got
bills to pay? If one's going to a blowout then why blowout where it's so expensive? I guess it's to forget about the bitterness (bills to pay) so they add sugar (by having a blowout). Instead, it has complicated the problems and resolved them because they have no money to pay the bills. I guess that also explains why more people decide to go gambling and investing (read
here). Cost-averaging in an AXA Equity Fund for five years boring and you need to wait? Why wait when you can "win big" with
Axie Infinity (read
here)? Sure, gambling can give "quick wins" but how often are quick wins? It's pretty much "boring" to stock average into an index fund or to wait until the next market crash to buy lower-priced quality stocks. After buying the low-priced quality stocks--the drill is to simply wait or add some more if you've got the money you don't need now. It's not easy to wait. Meanwhile, the thrill of gambling is really there even if one already lost a huge amount of money. It's because the bitter (which is cost averaging or market timing for lows) isn't as preferable as instant gratification from gambling wins, right?
It's no wonder why we've got the Christmas debt trap too (read
here). How can they have money if they choose to waste the money they get paycheck to paycheck? It becomes common that payday arrives then they decide to go blowout instead of prioritizing the necessities. What happens next is that they discover they're out of money so they
borrow money when they can't pay it. If the person is leasing--the lessor may be knocking hard on the space for
delinquency payments. A lack of common sense ends up with their obsession with luxury goods. Why get an iPhone if you can barely afford it? Why get a car if you can't afford gas? Why buy an airconditioner if you can't pay for higher electricity? These are very practical tips often ignored about money. Then when Christmas arrives--they simply start to panic over a lack of money. The Christmas bonus and the 13th-month pay arrives. They spend on impulse, borrow a lot of money, and you know how it goes. It's because it's sweeter to spend on nonsense than the necessities.
Christmas parties tend to get so lavish one way or another. They think it's not enough to have that "simpleng handaan" or simple preparations. It's not even helped when they do last-minute Christmas shopping (read
here). They want to keep things as sweet as possible. They decide that Christmas and New Year must be full of "sweet memories". What they do is borrow more than they can pay back. I remembered living downtown for a good portion of my childhood. Neighbors tend to celebrate lavishly. I even remembered they even hire a band. I guess it's no wonder that by January--a lot of angry creditors are out there. It even reminded me how I could see a lot of Indian five-six dealers with their motorcycles. It's because they want
more added sugar into their celebrations. If too much sugar can cause diabetes then spending too much can cause debt burdens.
Too much sugar is bad for health. Trying to avoid the bitter truth by "adding sugar" is really stupid. I guess the better statement about life would be this. If life throws lemons then make lemonade or use the lemon to make barbecue. Besides, lemons are pretty much used in cooking. Lemons are used in covering up the stench of fish or certain meats. Lemons are used to adding flavor to a lot of dishes. Bitter vegetables are good for your health. Drinking your tea or coffee without sugar maximizes the antioxidant value. Adding sugar to everything is just a terrible solution. You sure need to add sugar (at times) such as if the lemon is too sour but trying to avoid excess sugar is better for your health.
