Women in Philippines put food before sex in survey

Women in the Philippines rank food a lot higher than their sex life among the main things that make them happy, according to a government survey released Wednesday.

Both Filipino men and women ranked family, health and religion in that order as the three most important things that made them happy, the National Statistical Coordination Board found in a poll.

Female respondents, however, put food in fifth place, just ahead of work. Love life came 10th and and sex life at 18th, just one rank above the bottom.

For men, love life figured in 6th place and sex life 10th, with food at 9th.

And this can lead to trouble, said the agency's secretary-general Romulo Virola.

"This is easy to trivialise, but the unmet expectations for love and sex by either partner can surely lead to problems, and must be managed properly and professionally," he wrote on the government agency's website.

For the Philippine poor, the survey found that men ranked their sex, love lives and food at the top while women said family, love life and food were top of their lists.

In the four months since Benigno Aquino became president of the Philippines, the impoverished country's population has grown by about 600,000 - the fastest rate of increase in Southeast Asia.

It now stands at around 94 million and there have been calls to increase access to contraception in the devoutly Catholic nation.

The non-random 2010 poll covered 356 respondents two Manila districts, a nearby province, staff of two government offices and one private firm.