7.093 Budae Jjigae

7.093

7 (Thu) April 2016

Budae Jjigae

2.5

at Chung Ki Wa

-Malate, Manila-

with RK and JL

April 7 — the day on which WHO was founded in 1948 — is World Health Day, every year highlighting a different theme.

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Commemorating the day at the Regional Office, with invited members of the diplomatic corps and other dignitaries.
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“Get in the Circle” comprises 4 quadrants : Get Moving, Check Your Blood Glucose, Protect Yourself and Your Family…
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… and Eat Healthy — the over-consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and non-alcoholic beverages being a prime risk factor for noncommunicable disease, such as diabetes.
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Though personally a fan of raw vegetables (not fruit, in any form), I’ve always felt that this kind of display seems to send the wrong message to those who need convincing — “healthy” = “boring.”

This year, the theme is Together on the Front Lines Against Diabetes.

The theme last year was food safety.

While the theme two years ago was vector-borne diseases, we did by coincidence convene the Consultation on Overweight, Obesity, Diabetes & Law just two days later (see generally 5.094 Not What I’d Ordered) (the event that had brought me into the Organization).

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Whereas the food served at our receptions tend to be kinda junky, even for meetings hosted by the division responsible for healthy living (see for example 6.224 NCD Risk Factors), a conscious effort was made today to offer only wholesome items, like fresh fruits…
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… fresh vegetable sticks …
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… deep-fried fish fingers with tartare sauce.

The overall campaign, which featured country-level activities, as well as our celebration at the Regional Office, had been orchestrated by the NCD unit.

At the end of the day, I bought dinner for RK and JL at Chung Ki Wa (see most recently 6.322 Godeung-Eo Gui).

Without thinking, we ordered the budae jjigae (see most recently 6.166 Budae Jjigae).

A few minutes into the meal, I was suddenly struck by the apparent impropriety, irony, and hypocrisy of us — health professionals, specializing in the prevention of noncommunicable disease, technical officers at the planet’s leading health agency, having developed then launched a campaign against diabetes — RK, de facto leader of the organizing team; JL, who’d helped to design the communications; and I, who’d helped to draft the Call to Action — now congratulating ourselves for the achievement, on the occasion of the year’s biggest health event — gorging on perhaps the most energy-dense, nutrient-poor dishes in Korean cuisine.   Just goes to show how easy it is to break bad.

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When “bad” = “good.”

RK informed us that the team had eaten Burger King for lunch — the indiscretionary nature of which hadn’t occurred to him at the time, right smack in the midst of World Health Day.

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