Not about the Babuyan Islands

I recently had a chat with a friend of mine who is both a painter and a photographer. We met in a well known coffee shop somewhere in Glorietta, Ayala area. He just got home from a photo shoot in the Babuyan Islands. He went island hoping in that group of islands in the northern part of Luzon. He told me that all the islands were extremely beautiful, but there is a catch, the price tag for that is a five hour boat ride under the sun, in a small boat, with gigantic waves. That boat ride was so memorable not just because it changed his color from brown to browner (or should I say brownest because any additional shade of brown would make him black already), but because he was holding to his dear camera as well as his dear life during the wavy and rocky boat ride. One of his colleagues even fell from the boat and got his camera soaked in water.

But let’s not talk about the Babuyan trip because as the title suggest, this isn’t about the Babuyan islands. When the waiter finally served the food we ordered, it lead me to a question “Why doesn’t my food look like the one in the picture?”. My friend told me, “You don’t know what you are asking for”. I asked why? “You will die if you eat that” he said. I thought it was a joke so I rode with it, I said “of course I won’t eat that, that’s a picture, I know that.. ”. “No, no, no, I’m not talking about the picture. I’m talking about the actual thing that was photographed” he said. “What do you mean? It looks so delicious and mouth watering” I said. He told me that some things doesn’t appear as they are. He told me that the foam on top of the picture of the cappuccino, in the real life, is really soap mixed in coffee and was meticulously fashioned to look like that. He also told me that the picture of the ice cream I was looking at isn’t ice cream. Ice cream doesn’t roll when you scoop it with spoon. In reality, it’s mashed potatoes with food coloring. The delicious syrup on pancakes, isn’t really a syrup, its varnish.

It shed light to my question ever since I was a child, “Mommy, how come every time I try to roll the ice cream I often ended up chipping just a piece of it?”. Guess what? She also doesn’t know.

I know what your thinking and I agree. I wouldn’t want soap or vanish anywhere inside my mouth, its just so amazing how the food designer in cahoots with the photographer were able to convince my eyes to perceive it to be delicious. It’s called the Art of Food designing.

~ Nobody

It’s more complicated than just eating yogurt.

Hi decoders,

We had an event in the company where we invited massage therapist to massage the employees. When it was my turn, the therapist grabbed my hand and rotated my arm with a 90-degree angle from my elbow to my shoulder. To my surprise, the therapist said you lack calcium in your bones; your joints are not well lubricated. I asked the basis for his accusations, he rotated it again; it made a faint sound like a snapping of a wooden stick. He said, “Did you hear that?” I said, “Yes”. He said “So that answers your question”.

First, I asked if it is bad. He said, “of course it is”. My next question was “Will I live?” He nodded. I asked again “will I live long?”. He said, “it depends, it’s not for me to tell whether you live or die, I just know its not fatal”. Contented with his answer I smiled and popped another question “Will I live comfortably?”

He said, to be honest, it’s like running a machine that isn’t well oiled. I was so surprised to know that I still lack calcium even though I drink almost half a litter of yogurt daily, I even eat yogurt during snack time.

I did an initial research about the benefits of eating yogurt. Besides the live microorganisms that helps the digestive system and protects the body from bad bacteria, yogurt is a good source of calcium without the lactose that causes diarrhea to people who are lactose intolerant. Ergo, it’s a good source of calcium without the side effects that milk gives. Could it be that yogurt has betrayed me? So does it also mean that the live microorganism theory is also not true? I must get to the bottom of this. By cause and effect, more calcium in-take means more calcium inside the body, right? The funny thing is it doesn’t work that way. I forgot about calcium absorption. Non absorption means it becomes waste material flushed out of the body.

So as a logical person, my first step was to stop, think, and Google.

Of course, the all-knowing Google always has something to say. According to Google’s results there are various factors that contribute to calcium absorption. It’s one thing having the raw materials, it’s another to turn it into a building. So in order to build the calcium building, my sources (Actually it just Google) tells me that I need to follow this equation

Calcium Absorption = Vitamin D (the SUN) – Whole grains – Sugar – Sodium – Coffee + exercise + fruits (for minerals) + magnesium – Smoke – Eggs.

I have no problems with the smoking, since I really don’t smoke. But all the other stuffs require extra discipline. Well, actually I’m just confused because in the process of being calcium sufficient I might become protein insufficient. Balancing everything seems so complicated, so I guess I’ll just eat more natural unprocessed food since those are our natural food as human beings.

~ Nobody