Matanglawin host Kuya Kim Atienza has encouraged everyone to go easy on sugar as he launched a campaign to raise awareness about diabetes and its link to cardiovascular disease.
Kuya Kim has been chosen as the ambassador For Your Sweetheart, a nationwide public awareness and education campaign which aims to educate the public, especially those living with diabetes, about the link between diabetes and heart diseases.
“At first I had second thoughts about it kasi I thought I was going to be endorsing medicine; and I don’t really endorse medicine unless I use it. Now when I met with them, I realized that it’s not an ad campaign. And the advocacy is actually my advocacy also – linking heart disease to diabetes and about people not knowing they have diabetes and that they could die from heart attack/heart disease coming from diabetes,” says the popular TV host during an online interview recently.
Kuya Kim said that he is proud to be part of the health campaign. “So I am really proud to be a part of this… we are not selling anything, but we are selling an advocacy or a belief that we got to have our loved ones safe and healthy.”
When he joined the disease awareness campaign, Kuya Kim said that his No. 1 mission is to spread the word that “the enemy is sugar.”
“The goal is to go on a real anti-sugar campaign. Sugar is the enemy… and a lot of people think that fat is the enemy, but actually, some fats are actually good for you,” he said.
Kuya Kim added: “Number 2 are for those who are already diabetic: Make the treatment reasonable, and subsidize it too if possible, although of course we don’t have funds because of what’s happening in the pandemic.”
“A lot of diabetics are into dialysis already and dialysis is so expensive. If there is such a thing like ‘subsidized dialysis’ and make it more available to the public then that would be good,” he said.
Kuya Kim revealed that he got inspired by the campaign because his mom is diabetic. “My mom is, she actually looks quite young for her age, she is already 72 years old but more importantly she has diabetes.”
“And then, she really likes sweets. Despite the fact that she has diabetes; she still eats like she’s not a diabetic. So it’s very tricky to convince her to live a healthy lifestyle so she can live longer.”
Kuya Kim said that practising a healthy lifestyle is one of the keys to longer life.
“Well alam mo, because my family – specifically my mom’s side they are all diabetics so ako naman, I had a stroke in 2010, but after that I got into a healthy lifestyle. I became a tri-athlete, I was starting marathons, I was swimming, I was biking, I was running. But only to realize that despite my fitness and my thinness I was still pre-diabetic my sugar was 129… I realized na ‘exercise is not enough,” he said.
Kuya Kim added: “If you are to avoid diabetes, diet is very important, I have to constantly watch it because if I don’t watch my diet even with my ironman lifestyle, I would still become diabetic because I come from a family of diabetics.”
“Being healthy is a constant commitment and it has to be sustainable. You could be committed but if it’s not sustainable then you are setting yourself up for a failure,” he said.
Kuya Kim encouraged everyone to undergo regular health check-ups.
“People nowadays refuse to go on check ups now, they refuse to go to the hospital because of the fear; dahil takot sila dun sa COVID 19 and because of that mental health issue also, andaming mga lifestyle changes na ginawa not for the better but for the worse; because they are stressed and anxious, they eat a lot of sugar… they don’t exercise.”
“At hindi naman maiksiang quarantine na ito, it’s our 6 month already; the longest in the world and this virus is not going away and if it’s going to stay then we have to ‘dance’ with it and we have to dance with it well…carefully and with health in mind,” Kuya Kim added.
“If you are to avoid diabetes, diet is very important, I have to constantly watch it because if I don’t watch my diet even with my ironman lifestyle, I would still become diabetic because I come from a family of diabetics. Being healthy is a constant commitment and it has to be sustainable. You could be committed but if it’s not sustainable then you are setting yourself up for a failure,” he also said.