3 Health Tips From The Food Nutrition Lunch Talk
Food and nutrition. A topic that remains close to our hearts because all of us love to eat. You will be lying if you say you hate food because there is a foodie in all of us. We are just attracted to different types of food.
Singapore is a food paradise. Being surrounded by food joints, hawker centres and convenience stores, we have to consistently ask ourselves these three questions:
• What shall we eat?
• How should we eat?
• How much should we eat?
As a food nutritionist, I love making everyday topics like food and nutrition fun for my audience…especially since I am sharing this topic during lunch.
So here’s the 3 biggest takeaway tips from today’s food and nutrition lunch time talk.
#1: Eat Foods In The Right Sequence
Yes, you heard me correctly – we must eat foods in the right sequence. Just like breakfast comes before lunch and dinner, so too is there a right order for us to eat our foods.
I made the audience guess the right sequence. Now you can learn as well.
Question: Guess the digestion times of the following foods (i.e. arrange the foods according to which ones digest the fastest to slowest in our body).
– Vegetables
– Fish
– Water
– Chicken
– Fruit
(Write down your answers)
:
:
:
:
:
Did you get the digestion times correct?
The correct order of digestion from fastest to slowest is: water, fruit, vegetables, fish, chicken.
Based on the digestion times, this is also the reason why we should NOT eat fruits after meals. This is because if we combine fruit with with other foods that take longer time to digest, the fruit starts to rot and ferment in the gut.
So remember, always eat your fruit before meals.
#2: Use The Food Plate To Proportion Your Servings
I’m not sure if you still remember your science class days back in school when your teacher introduced the food pyramid and told you to eat more of this food class (at the bottom of the pyramid) and less of that food class (at the top of the pyramid).
If you still remember, congratulations! I’m happy for you.
If you cannot remember, I’m equally happy for you…
…Reason being, the food pyramid is outdated! HAHA…
This is not surprising as my “more” and your “more” is different. There is no basis for comparing serving size. If you are bigger-sized than me, obviously you will eat “more” right?
Funny how it took years before health experts noticed this and did away with the food pyramid.
The newest and more accurate way of determining your servings is the food plate.
As most of us consume our meals in plates or bowls, this makes perfect senses for all of us.
Divide up your food plate into three quadrants.
A) Fill half of your plate with fruit and vegetables;
B) Fill quarter of your plate with meat and legumes; and
C) Fill quarter of your plate with whole grains
By following this simple guide, we can not only eat healthy but also less guilty.
#3: Eat All Food Classes
Contrary to popular belief, there are actually six food classes. They are carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats and water.
Many people forget about water.
Speaking about water – it is one of one of the most important nutrient food classes.
Water helps us digest our food and excretes body waste. It also helps maintain body temperature and blood circulation. More importantly, without water, we would get dehydrated and this is dangerous.
Another common misconception I shared with the participants was the necessity of including fats in our diet.
Fats?
Won’t taking in fats make me fat?
Yes and no!
Fats are necessary as it helps us insulate against the cold and supplies energy in emergency situations. What we need to do is to make a distinction between good and bad fats.
Good fats include essential fatty acids (e.g. in fishes such as salmon, sardines, fish oil etc), monounsaturated fats (think peanuts, canola oil) and polyunsaturated fats (think nuts, corn, fish etc).
So you see, taking in good fats is actually good for our health.
On the other hand, bad fats include saturated fats (normally from animal fats, butter and full-fat diary) and trans fat (from hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils).
Now you see, we should steer clear of bad fats as it’s detrimental to our health.
If you loved my sharing in this blog, you will be in for a great treat as I share more food and nutrition tips. Simply contact me for a lunch time talk soon!