Tips for Healthy Eating and Cooking

According to nutrition experts, the 3 keys to healthy eating are balance, variety, and moderation. In other words, eat a lot of different foods without too many calories or too much of any one nutrient.

• Eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods.

Your body needs more than 40 different nutrients. To get them, eat complex carbohydrates and starches like bread and other whole-grain products; fruits and vegetables; dairy products; meat, poultry, fish, and other protein foods.

• Maintain a healthy weight.

The weight that’s right for you depends on a lot of things – your age, height, and sex as well as heredity. Being overweight increases your risks for high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Being too thin can increase your risk for many other health problems.

• Eat moderate portions.

It’s easier to eat the foods you want and stay healthy if you eat smaller portions. For example, routinely eat too much protein – the recommended serving of meat is 3-4 oz – that’s about the size of a deck of cards.

• Eat regular meals.

Skipping meals leads to overeating.

• Reduce – don’t eliminate – certain foods.

If your favourite foods are high in fat or sugar, don’t try to deny yourself altogether; instead, moderate how much of these you eat and how often you eat them.

• Balance your food choices over time.

If you’re eating a food high in fat or sugar, complement it with others that are low in those ingredients. If you miss out on any food group one day, make up for it the next day. Your food choices over several days should fit together into a healthy pattern.

• Know your pitfalls.

Write down everything you eat for 3 days to identify what’s wrong with your eating habits. Do you add a lot of butter, cream sauces and salad dressing? It may become easily clear where you break the rules of healthy eating and need to make a change.

• Make changes gradually.

Trying to change too much, too fast will lessen your chances of success. Start with modest changes that can add up to positive, lifelong healthy eating habits.

In general, remember that foods are not «good» or «bad». Don’t feel guilty if you love foods like apple pie or potato chips; just eat them in moderation and choose other foods to provide the balance and variety that your body needs for good health.

• Try some of the following tips to avoid calories, fat, sodium and sugar.

1. To cut down on fat:

Instead of… Whole milk Evaporated milk Butter Shortening Mayonnaise 1 whole egg Cheese Fat for “greasing” pan

Use... Light cream Low fat or non-fat milk Mix equal portions of coconut milk and evaporated skim milk Evaporated skim milk Soft margarine or vegetable oil Margarine Light mayonnaise or fat free salad dressing ¼ cup egg substitute or 2 egg whites Low fat cheese Non‑stick cooking spray

• Save any recipes calling for deep frying for special occasions;

• Remove and discard the skin from chicken and other poultry;

• Use a non‑stick pan to cut down on the amount of oil used.

• Thicken your cream sauce with 1 percent milk and corn starch instead of a roux of butter and flour.

• Use 2 tablespoons of fat-free sour cream instead of regular sour cream (on baked potatoes or in stroganoff).

2. To cut down on the sodium in your diet, here are a few suggestions.

• Use half the added salt called for in recipes;

• Be aware that seasonings like onion salt, garlic salt, celery salt and seasoning salt is about 95% salt. You may want to use minced onions or onion flakes, chopped garlic or garlic powder and other fresh herbs and spices or ones with no added salt to flavour your foods;

• substitute low-sodium soy sauce for regular soy sauce ;

• cut down or eliminate stock cubes in making soup; instead use natural ingredients such as chicken and beef bones, dried anchovies (ikan bilis), mushroom stalks, nuts & beans to make soup stocks;

• use only a small amount of salted meat, fish, poultry or pickled vegetables to give flavour to the food. Do not add additional salt as the food is highly salted already.

3. To reduce sugar in the diet

• cut down by 1/3 in most recipes. If a recipe says 1 cup, use 2/3 cup. This works best in making puddings, gelatine desserts, cakes, and kuihs.

• as you reduce the sugar in your baked goods, try adding spices like cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, nutmeg, ginger and mace to enhance the sweet flavour of foods. Spiced foods will taste sweeter if warmed.

• rather than snack on 1 cup of grapefruit canned in syrup, peel and section 1 small grapefruit.

• buy fresh fruits or fruits packed in water, juice, or light syrup rather than those in heavy syrup.

4. Increase fibre by:

• substituting brown rice for white rice (or use half and half initially until you get used to the taste of brown rice);

• using whole grain flour for refined flour in baking;

• cooking vegetables with its skin on.

(A) Do you know much about dieting? Have you ever been on a diet? Read some more facts about dieting and be ready for discussion.