Comments on Samantha's blog

Hi samantha, I saw your blog post about not eating enough fruits and too much oil and sugar. I have those problems too!!!! What I do is

1) If I am going to eat something oily, I use paper towels to wipe it first. For example, before I eat french fries, I wrap some of it in a paper napkin and just gently rub it, so the salt and oil will be transferred to the paper towel instead. And then when I eat the french fry, I try to use my lips to brush the fry, so the salt will be on my lips instead, and then wipe my mouth after every few fries:)
2) Get a larger plate. I wipe the oil of the food on the plate:)
3) Dilute your drink, so you will be taking in less sugar and more water:)

Comments on Isabelle's blog

Hi:) I think you don’t eat enough veggie. Haha, me too:) Although you eat plenty of fruits, and they both provide fibre, but fruit fibre and veggie fibre is different, so you still need veggie:) BTW, I think you should eat the fruit before dinner, because fruit has a lot of fibre right? So you will feel satisfied easily, so if you eat it before dinner, you will feel less hungry:) But if you eat it after, you will just feel super full, and like dying, ok, that’s exaggerating:)

Comments on Wenli's blog

Hi, I read your blog, and I think the chicken porridge that you suggested looks quite tasty in the picture:) However, I think that it may not have enough nutrients to be considered 1 meal. As in, I think it's 1 dish, not 1 meal. I think maybe you can add fruits to make it more complete? And a beverage. BTW, I think you can add more things in the porridge, such as egg(don't add century egg or salted egg btw, there's a lot of preservatives) and more veggie, since I think the proportion may be a bit off if you analyse it using the food pyramid as there is a lot more carbo than protein and fibre. Or you can make it teochew porridge, so you can just have a separate veggie dish, so you dont have to add it all into the porridge:)
Hope this helps:)

Reflections

All in all, I have learnt that I need to include more veggie in my diet, and besides that, it is still rather healthy(in my humble opinion anyway). Initially, I was a little worried, as the carbohydrate and protein level were pretty low too, but then I saw the RDA for calories(2000), and for some reason, it is much higher than it ought to be. Although I don't know the RDA for the rest of the nutrients, but I know that my RDA for calories should be lower, in other words, the RDA for the other nutrients should follow suit and be lower too, since this set of RDA has probably been crafted for someone who requires more energy.

Note: Although my eating habits seem very weird and senseless, (haha, like myself) such as eating the same thing everyday, but this is because I check the nutrition label of everything I eat, because although some food items may have the words "low fat" on it, it can still be unhealthy with high cholestrol or transfat or high sodium or high sugar. Therefore, I find it easier to just compare all the brands of that food item once and for all in the supermarket and eat it every single day.
Note 2: The "not-eating-after-3pm-thing" was because I was fasting then, when I recorded my diet, so actually, on normal days, I do eat a light snack at about 5 or 6. This is also because I sleep very early, so if I eat dinner at 7, the unused energy will store up as fats, which is a terrible thought.

The suggested nutritional tools are useful, though there is still room for improvements. Although, I already have a rough idea of my diet before using the FIA, the test has also provided exact figures, which is very helpful. However, it is very annoying as I believe that the RDA they use is not very accurate. In my first post, I wrote that I found out that the RDA is based on more than just age. It is also based on job, activity level, etc... In other words, the reliability of the RDA is greatly reduced, as ultimately, it only serves as a guideline as everyone requires different amount of energy and nutrition. For example, I require more calcium than 1000mg, and most sources state the minimum as 1200mg, and since I still want to grow taller, it should be even more than that. Plus, I want to lose weight too, so I should not be consuming the number of calories as suggested.

Many iphone apps also provide the same services as the FIA, such as LIVESTRONG, or GoMeals, and personally, I find them a lot more userfriendly, as it requires a shorter time to record my diet and they have more variation. For example, when I entered "milk" the FIA returns results of more than 50 types of milk, however, they are all weird brands that cannot be found in Singapore, rather than the common Meiji, Magnolia, HL, etc...

My suggested one-dish meal is healthy(considering the fact that it is pizza). Pizza is like, known for being unhealthy, but I believe that after making the changes in the recipe, it is quite healthy. Afterall, its just baked dough(carbo)with mean(protein) and veggie(fibre) on it. I am proud to say that all the unhealthy stuff, like oil and salt and msg has been greatly reduced, especially msg, since it causes hair loss. :)

Healthy Dish

For this part of the assignment, I made pizza:)

Pizza is known to be unhealthy, and before I started on the assignment, I studied the ingredients used, so as to tackle the problem more effectively:)

1) Oily

2) High levels of salt and msg

3) Cheese is very fattening and pizza uses a lot of it

The difference between the homemade pizza and the stuffed crust pizza hut pizza is:

1) I used olive oil instead of normal oil, and I barely used any:) Usually, after the pizza is removed from the box, you can tell where the pizza was from the circle of oil on the cardboard box. I Think they have used so much oil as they do not want it to stick to the pan and also for it to cook faster(since pizza delivery is about speed). However, by making it at home, I can take as much time as I need, and to prevent it from sticking to the pan, I used aluminium foil. In other words, only 1 teaspoon of olive oil was added into the dough, in contrast to those made outside, since no oil was used at all the oil the baking tray. After its baked, any excess oil is wiped away using kitchen towels.

2) I used lightly salted cheese. Cheese has incredibly high levels of sodium as it spoils easily and needs to be preserved with salt. Although lightly salted cheese can be found easily on shelves, it is not the alternative chosen by pizza hut due to 1) taste 2) shorter shelve life and 3)higher cost.

3) I used fresh tomatoes instead of tomato paste. Tomato paste is canned and although convenient, is unhealthy as it is also preserved and contains msg. This problem is solved using fresh tomatoes.

Although this is not part of the recipe for the pizza, but I would just like to adopt this healthy tip in future. Next time, before I eat unhealthy food, I will eat a fruit first as I will feel more satisfied with the fibre so I will not over eat, and also drink a glass of water as water fills up stomach space easily too. After I eat the pizza, I will drink another glass of water to "wash away" the sodium and msg.

To make the pizza a meal, I suggest that 1 serving of fruit be eaten(as suggested above) and the beverage be milk/water. Although soft drink is often chosen to go with pizza, it is extremely unhealthy, as it's all empty calories that do not provide any nutrition. Although some "zero sugar added" or "zero-calories" options may seem like a good alternative, but in reality, they may be just as unhealthy. For example, although it may be lower in sugar content or calories, more msg or preservatives or transfat may have been added. It is tedious to check the food label for every single type of nutrition to ensure that you don't fall into the trap, plus, people will think that you are a nutcase if you order a coke and stare at it for 2 mins and then order another drink instead and stare at it for some more time. Therefore, water is the best alternative, and milk too(depending on the brand and whether its skimmed and low fat) if you want to grow taller:)

Analysis of diet

 According to the food pyramid, the nutrient that I am lacking the most is fibre.

Therefore, I have decided to make alterations to my diet while still taking into consideration 2 huge factors
1. My mom does not approve of me eating vegetable outside(as they may not have been washed properly)
2. I don't eat dinner as I sleep too early(so the unused energy will store up as fats)
I have decided to make the following changes to my diet:

1. Have an apple for breakfast instead (although vege fibre is different to fruit fibre, as they provide different nutrients, but it still counts as fibre:)
2. Bring my own cherry tomatoes for recess instead of buying canteen food
3. Have a banana after lunch
4. Have a light snack at 5pm instead of dinner. Eat a fruit and 1 whole stalk of brocolli

Food Intake Assessment

Day 1

Breakfast  6 am
Iko Oat cookies                            2 pieces
Meji Low Fat Milk                        200 ml

Recess     10 am
Rice                                              1 portion
Samosa                                         1
Otah                                             1

Lunch       2pm
Rice                                              1 portion
Scrambled Egg                              1 portion
Seaweed Chicken                         1

Day 2(pretty much the same:)

Breakfast  6 am
Iko Oat cookies                            2 pieces
Meji Low Fat Milk                        200 ml

Recess     10 am
Rice                                              1 portion
Samosa                                         1
Otah                                             1

Lunch       1pm
Rice                                              1 portion
Scrambled Egg                              1 portion
Seaweed Chicken                         1

Snack        2.30pm
Mixed Berries Yoghurt                  4 tablespoons
Apple                                            1
Meji Low Fat Milk                        200 ml

Day 3(weekend)

Breakfast     9am
Iko Oat cookies                            2 pieces
Meji Low Fat Milk                        200 ml

Lunch 1 pm
Stuffed Crust Meat LoverPizza      2 slices
Meji Low Fat Milk                        200 ml

Energy (kcal)	Carbohydrate (g)	Protein (g)	Total Fat (g)	Saturated Fat (g)	Cholesterol (mg)	Calcium (mg)	Dietary Fibre (g)	Sodium (mg)
Average intake per day	1,229	173.8	53.2	36.0	13.8	240.6	657.5	8.3	1,954.1
Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA)	2,077	311.6	71.0	69.2	23.1	207.7	1,000.0	20.8	1,385.6
% of recommendation met	59	56	75	52	60	116	66	40	141

Conclusion

I need to eat more veggies and less salt. The calcium intake seems low, but since I take 1000mg of calcium pills, I guess its ok:) I've done this test before, and compared with other people, so I think high sodium is a common thing. Anyway, I googled to find out how to rid your body of excess salt. You can do so by

1. Drink more water

2. Exercise more, because when you sweat, salt is released from your body

I think my diet is average, though a bit boring, but then oat cookies and milk is my second favourite food in the whole wide world!!!! Other than needing to eat more veggies and less salt, I think everything else is still uhh acceptable:) At least I take in enough calcium and protein etc...