Taste of Control by R. Alexander D. Orquiza

January 30, 2022

I was born and raised in the US, and love Filipino Food. So reading the words of both Americans and Filipinos about food in the Philippines during the time of US colonization further expanded my understanding of this period. It also gave me insight on why we are where we are today in terms of American and Filipino cuisines, and even perspectives on skin color.

Food and… skin color?

Take for example the advertisements by American colonizers in the Philippines back then. Some of these actually still persist today, like the focus on using light-skinned people and references to white skin in advertisements for processed food and other synthesized products. Dr. Orquiza cites a Magnolia Ice Cream ad from 1927 stating, “My complexion cream is none other than delicious Magnolia Ice Cream.” Crisco was also marketed in Philippines, “No additives, whiteness, purity – all of these are the properties of Crisco… like the whiteness of cotton. Crisco is so pure.”

The Magnolia Ice Cream ad below from the 1920’s says “Because Magnolia ice cream contains these essentials of good food, a clear, healthy skin and good, natural color comes to those who eat Magnolia regularly.” Advertisements today may not be as literal (or claim that ice cream is healthy), but the depiction of lighter-skinned models and celebrities sustains these notions of beauty and health. The signals are now even more subliminal.

A Magnolia Ice Cream ad from the 1920’s compared to one today.

Some billboards today can be quite literal though, like the one below by GlutaMAX, where they say that being dark-skinned is “unfair”.

“Maputi lang, maganda na? Unfair di ba? ‘Wag magalit, mag-GlutaMAX!” (Just by being white, you’re beautiful already? Unfair isn’t it? Don’t get angry, get GlutaMAX!). Basically the “solution” to being dark-skinned, is to use their product to make your skin lighter.

Some billboards today can be quite literal, like this one by GlutaMAX, where they say that being dark-skinned is “unfair”. Photo by Janana, @bukotart on Twitter.

When I go on YouTube and see an ad, or look outside at a Manila billboard, all I see are ads highlighting whiteness as a worth-while aspiration from milk advertisements to lotions and deodorants.

Light or white skin is beautiful, but should our ads not reflect the beauty of Filipinos of all shades? Why or why not? How has this affected the mental health of Filipinos in the Philippines and in other countries, including the US?

Mental health to physical health

Dr. Orquiza’s book unveils how food has been used as a conduit for colonization, and how it may have affected the mental, as well as the physical, well-being of Filipinos. But Filipinos weren’t the only ones colonized in the Pacific. And from Crisco to canned food, countless studies have already covered the impacts of food and food advertising via colonization.

In Guam for example, the local Chamorro diet prior to European colonization consisted mainly of plant foods and had seafood as the main source of protein. Today Chamorro islander’s have shifted away from traditional agriculture and less than 1% of the population on Guam now farms for food, so the majority relies heavily on imported goods.

So even today, mere decades after colonization, the importation of food has an impact on diets in the Philippines and the Pacific at large. Why? Because much of these are processed foods which mirrors increases in health issues such as heart disease and stroke.

In the end it may leave a bad taste in your mouth, but what comes with knowing these problems, comes eventual solutions. Hopefully.

Further insights from Dr. Orquiza

Dr. Orquiza will be sharing more about this book in an upcoming lecture presented by the Boston University Gastronomy Program. It will be on Friday, March 18, 2022, 12pm-1pm eastern (Saturday, March 19, 1am-2am Philippine time). It’s a free event and will be via Zoom, so register here.
He shares more about this book in a podcast put out by his university, Providence College in Rhode Island, USA. Entitled “Food as a historical lens”. Check it out here.

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