I tried to write a post about nutrition and realised it is probably too big a scope so I'm just going to write about some concepts of eating healthily.

Note that this is a generic post for weight loss and not for maintenance mode i.e. maintaining your target weight and definitely not for athletes/body builders who may need a different diet altogether as they use up more energy. Also, the tips below may not be so applicable to people who are ill or not feeling well : you may have to check with your doctor, nutritionist or do your own research.

How much to eat?
I tend to follow information from the MyPyramid.gov and Harvard Healthy Eating Pyramidas well as various food websites but I do a lot of cross-referencing as well. It's mostly the same but I tend to just use the plate as a gauge as it is easier to go by. I seldom go by the serving size recommended as being an Asian, I would tend to eat a lot less than the Americans do (and I have seen them eat. It's scary, even with healthy food). That's why I use a plate to gauge the portions as well as my fist. As long as I have eaten enough to have the energy to carry out my daily activities, it means I've eaten enough.

I divide up the plate into 4 sections (into quarters). One quarter is grains (rice, multi-grain, pasta, etc.), another quarter is meat, last 2 quarters are for veggies.

The other thing I do is use my hand to agak-agak/gauge portion control. Here is a link about using the hand.

And I make sure the size of the place is not too big. Too big = too much food.

When it comes to snacks, I usually don't take more than one fist of fruits / veggie or 3 slices of biscuits (low salt high fibre).

I try to make sure that I eat enough to have a steady weight loss of 1 kg per week but once I switch to maintenance mode, I will review my diet again (not to eat more fat or meat but maybe more proteins / complex carbo from veggies to slow down the weight loss).

Food Planning
It takes practice. The first week that I started dieting was bad and everything was so red and boring. It's now been 7 weeks so it's getting easier.

I goto websites and look at pretty pictures of food that make me hungry. I see the recipe and start planning whether it's easy or not. If it's going to be tedious, then I do it over the weekend. If not, then I do it after dinner, preparing my breakfast and lunch.

Some sites that I go to :

• Heart Healthy Online
• Epicurious
• Eating Well
• Bodybuilding.com : Nutrition

Sometimes, I just google somethign that I want to try and make. Say like tomato sauce as I can't take the ones with salt in them. The Google Search yielded a lot of blogs with recipes so I picked one out to try it.

One thing about websites is that it's not easy to decide whether what they say is correct or not. You'll just have to do some comparison and hopefully they all don't go and link to the same website or same text. If the text is writtenly differently but the information is essentially the same, it's usually ok but then again, there is always the possibility of that one problem case.

I also browse through cooking books at the bookstore and buy something that is relatively easy to do. I'm toying with the idea of going to baking classes just to learn how to make some of the more complex pastries like puff pastry etc. Just for the heck of it. Doubt if I can learn it properly through youtube.

I talk to colleagues and friends about food preparation and recipes to share. I exchange emails with family and we really get into the habit of food preparation.

Shopping
This is fun. I spend usually about 2-3 hours just waiting through the supermarkets looking at labels and food and remembering where to get stuff. Also, because of my high blood pressure, I can't eat salt in food so I also occassionaly look for stuff in Organic Shops but even they have stuff with MSG and too much salt inside so I do have to read labels a lot. Wet markets are also a good sauce but some stuff, I still prefer to get it from supermarkets because it's surprisingly fresher.

The problem with Malaysian food manufacturers is that they seldom put the Sodium Content on their labels as it's currently an option. However, if you check out the World Heart Federation and click South-East Asia, you'll notice that there are a lot of deaths due to heart diseases (remember to add 3 more zeros at the end and you'll end up with millions). Makes one wonder whether the govt is really taking community health in the long run but admittedly, it is extremely hard to give up soy sauce. After getting diagnosed, I'm off the opinion that the govt doesn't have a long-term strategy that meshes food manufacturing with the health problems currently faced by the community. But there's not much of an avenue to properly voice it up and it's not easy to find the time to do the information gathering.

At the moment, I buy a lot of vegetables and fruits and coming up with different ways of preparation. I don't feel the need to go to the extreme of boiling and steaming yet although some of my food preparation are like that. It just depends on my mood and whether there is something I would like to eat. I can't eat fast food anymore or goto restaurants as often so I am slowly experimenting with different recipes to see if I can make something.

Your Health
Depending on what kind of health problems you have and where you want to end up, this will greatly determine your food selection. It's hard to advise more than that but I would suggest to search some sites and see what they say.

Anyway, that's the end of it. Feel free to post your thoughts and even recipes. I would luv to see what you have cook and I can share what I eat regularly.

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Added on March 27, 2009, 6:20 pmp.s. I forgot to mention that since I started following this weight loss + diet plan + exercise, I've lost 7 kg since 14 Feb 09. It's a steady drop of 1 kg per week.

This post has been edited by myremi: Mar 29 2009, 12:05 AM

Good piece!
A start to healthy living begins with your grocery list, what to buy and where.

I no longer take mass-produce poultry, the likes from our super market, its either Ayam Kampung or nothing at all. The one brand of Ayam Kampung that I trust is Azzain's (www.azzain.com). Apart from not using anti-biotic and also using chemical feeds, growth hormones etc, I also the the owner personally. He is a social activist on healthy eating, chemical free farming etc.

There's also a tv series on Astro just to show you the dangers of eating chicken with all of the hormones used.

Next is, I look out for wholemeal, brown sugar or any other food that has gone through less process. Organic is even better.

The Malaysian government is yet to come out with a 'Healthy Food Approval Label' unlike the Singapore government. So, I try my best, when buying Brown Rice or even Almond, to buy the ones with this logo.



Cooking?
Oh, this is so much fun.
Tons of recipes to try out from Men's Health, Muscle & Fitness, Kraft's food website, Food Network etc.

Yes, I also attended cooking classes before, but most of the cooking classes here in Malaysia is not healthy cooking focus.
The instructor still insist in using peanut oil, lotsa salt, refined sugar, refined flour etc.
So, a lil' creativity is required into pimping the recipe to make it healthy.

I've managed to pimp a chewey choco chip cookie, using whole meal flour, dark chocolates, brown sugar etc.
Taste good, without or less of refined ingredients.

I need to add this.
The FOOD pyramid was a researched backed, funded and ran by the American agriculture department.

http://www.rense.com/general12/wrong.htm

Speak with me ...AGGGG-REEE-CUL-TUREEEE. = BIJIRIN SARAPAN BAPAK ENGKAU

So what's the purpose of this research?
It was run to improve the sale of grains. Duh.

Doesn't it run upon your minds that it makes NO sense to eat more bread than vegetables? The world's most carb resistance individuals are Asians so this is still OKAY to apply to us. How about Americans? Well half the population are obese, so you tell me.

The real pyramid should really be;

- More protein (meat, poultry)
- More vegetables and fruits
- Moderate to low carbs and fats

trifecta : Thanks for the compliment although it's still very much so a progress at work. I don't know if the Malaysian government is doing anything about food nutrition tbh. They are very caught up with political issues these days that unless food nutrition becomes a political issue, we probably won't be able to see it. Also, the food manufacturers would be screaming up and down.

Oh, one thing interesting. I was reading the World Heart Federation website and found out that in South-East Asia alone, more deaths due to heart diseases happen and we're nearly head-to-head with Europe (their land mass and population is bigger though) and Western Pacific (only in one case). Go here and click on the links : http://www.world-heart-federation.org/cardiovascular-health/ . It's very unnerving to see these statistics, considering that heart diseases is the #1 killer worldwide, and not other health problems. US surprisingly has lower incidents although it could be due to better heathcare and awareness of the general public.

Also, thanks for the tip about Azzain. Not easy to find an organic source. Sadly, I'm stuck in Kuching, Sarawak. Have to search around a bit. The most I do atm is keeping my portions small.

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Added on March 29, 2009, 12:29 amHeh! You sound very ticked off tonight. Sabar lah, Mr. Baba.

I'm hesitant to advocate more protein because of the problems with agricultural practices that can lead to other problems. Also, there are some disadvantages to eating protein that is not quite conclusive but can be experienced because the human body is very different from one person to another. Also, people who are suffering from illnesses may not be able to handle that much protein in their system because their kidneys/liver(?) may not be in a good condition to process so much protein. The other thing is that ppl may start thinking "that crazy Myremi woman on LYN gave me wrong info, now got problem".

One thing that we need to remember is that not everyone can take the amount of proteins that bodybuilders/weightlifters/athletes take, especially those who are seriously competing. (And I still think that the LYN bodybuilders do too much extreme meal planning, considering that bodybuilding.com gives so much recipe alternatives and you guys are putting yourselves through torture ).

At the moment, I have 2 food projects to do : revive my blog to focus a bit more on heart diseases awareness amongst women (their symptomes are very different from men) and find out more about diabetic nutrition to help my father out.

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Added on March 29, 2009, 12:53 amp.s. my amendments of the post are in red. To try and make it sound more neutral.

This post has been edited by myremi: Mar 29 2009, 12:53 AM

http://www.hyperstrike.com/Nutrition-for-B...Article-90.aspx

1 gram per pound of protein is absolutely a must for the bodybuilders, but for athletic performance and general health, the macronutrient breakdown would preferably be:

For athletes, the American and Canadian Dietetics Associations recommend

carb 55-58%
protein 12-15%
fat 25-30%

These are the same requirements for sedentary individuals.

http://www.personalpowertraining.net/Artic...or_Athletes.htm

Of course the physical

hmm, im increasing my protein intake, cutting down on carbs and eating more vege, main source of carbs would be from fruits and weetbix, covers the fiber side of things as well ensuring maximum poopage. eating between 1400-1700 max calories a day. 8D

seems to be working so far with a steady weight loss of 1 kg/week, although i think i should be losing more since i go to the gym at least 5-6 days a week. sigh, dunno what im doing wrong

Are you a guy ? then you are eating too low calorie. At least 1800 for a guy. furthermore you exercise 5-6 times a week. 1kg per week is ok I guess for the beginner. After 2 weeks, it's not healty to lose 1kg per week.

As for the food pyramid. I think it can go like this for normal people on fat loss. Please correct me percentage for your need

Vege 5%
Fruit 10%
grain 45%

Protein 20%

Good fat 20%

This post has been edited by kurtkob78: Mar 29 2009, 10:07 AM

A picture shows a thousand words.




An overall natural therapies teacher told me that, the latest food pyramid, they are going to remove the white rices, white noodle column and not giving them a single space in the food pyramid anymore.

hahaa yea i know man, used to think that 1500 is considered a lot, but now after reading more XDDD

i wanna increase my carb intake, but im scared its gonna make me gain fats cos my body is too used to a 15-1600 calories diet

If you're that worried about carbs, switch to complex carbs. It's healthier than simple carbs and will help with weight loss or maintenance mode and it can help with general health. It may take awhile getting used to but you can have different choices.

And in all honesty, I don't know whether 1800 calories would make that much of a difference compared to 1500 - 1600 calories. Being slightly higher isn't too bad if you can balance out with the activities that you do.

1 kg per week is about 2.5 lbs. Hmm... what is your current weight atm? I remembered that as I got nearer and nearer to my target weight, it was harder to lose weight.

One thing I haven't really look into is the diet of maintenance mode i.e. maintaining the ideal weight.

With the food pyramid scheme, bear in mind that the concept was done quite a few decades ago. Lifestyles have changed since then (ppl do less walking in their day-to-day activity today than say in the 40s/50s) and nutrition research have yielded different results since the pyramid scheme was first introduced into the world.

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Added on March 29, 2009, 2:38 pm300 - 400 calories is about a one plate meal. From what I read in online recipes and cookbooks that's in front of me. Mind you, they keep fat content low.

This post has been edited by myremi: Mar 29 2009, 02:38 PM

got a question about the groundnuts. First we peel the outer skin, then some people eat the inner skin while some peel it off. So is it healthy to eat the inner skin ? ?

This post has been edited by kurtkob78: Apr 1 2009, 01:12 PM

hi just wondering whether fried rice with salted fish is fattening?

Everytime I order this, I will ask the cook to use less oil.
It's cheap and it fills you up.

But does it make you fat?

yes, fried rice it is unhealthy food. You better eat more protein than more fat. Usually less oil is how much tablespoon oil ? Any good cook here ? 1 tbsp oil contains around 126kcal calories. Better drink a 250ml low fat milk. Around 120-130kcal also. More nutritional than just mere fat.

This post has been edited by kurtkob78: Apr 1 2009, 02:23 PM

yeah agree, fried rice is unhealthy food. Eat more protein and good fat than carb. If the cook uses olive oil, ask him to get more for you

I eat everything. No harm getting more fibre. But it's a personal choice. Although I do like eating the boiled groundnuts rather than the roasted one. Easier to digest too but that's just me.

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Added on April 1, 2009, 3:05 pmFried rice is very fattenning because the amount of oil used is a lot. Usually, the cooks don't measure it out but they sometimes use a big ladle to scoop it out of a bowl that can accomodate the ladle.

Salted fish is just too loaded with salt. This will give you high blood pressure int he long run.

If you really want to feel full, eat more vegetables and fruit because the fibre will fill you up. Not to mention healthier. Although if you do make your food portions smaller, eventually you'll also end up eating a lot less.

This post has been edited by myremi: Apr 1 2009, 03:05 PM

Er, I think they're not using the old food pyramid ady nowadays because it's caused serious obesity xD Only Gardenia still advertising using the Old ood Pyramid I think Thye've come out with a new one.


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The pyramid you just posted is the one that pizzaboy was protesting.

Although, it could be that he's protesting about the serving size rather than the food itself because without a doubt, unprocessed grains are a good source of carbo i.e. slow release.

One thing about food servings is that it's not all the same but dependent upon what food it is. E.g. one cup of potato is not the same as one cup of sweet potato.

That's why I said that I went by food portions. Easier to manage although I do end up eating less than the recommended amount in the pyramid.

Bear in mind that if you're living in a country that has the same season all year round, you will not get hungry (coz less energy used) compared to ppl living in temperate countries (more hungry during winter time because the cold makes your body work harder to give out enough heat to keep you warm). Just eat more veggies.

And note that potato is classified as a carbo source.

Is it? I thought he's criticizing the old pyramid xD. anyway, the Food Pyramid is just a general guide of proportion of food that you're supposed to take and it's made not only for Asian or American only. Different individuals will require different proportion of food. It just gives you a rough idea. It's pretty unfair to say that the Food Pyramid is a failure judging by half of the population are obese because there may be other factors that's causing the obesity. e.g how many of them actually follow closely to the Food Pyramid and I would say those that're obese don't even exercise. Why they are obese? Well, blame Mc D<< jus kidding

This site have info on poultry rearing, http://www.dqcleanchicken.com .
http://www.bidong-valley.com supplies good chicken at reasonable price.
http://www.al-masyhur.com supplies good chicken sold in most Jusco.
On Azzain's read my comments at:
http://duniaherbahpa.com/2008/07/artikel-ayam-organik-hpa/
Go down to the bottom of the page and read ALL my comments.
For the guy who is recommending Azzain, your intentions may be good but you should not recommend something that you have not seen or confirm yourself, tho for some odd reason you mention you know the owner, Dr. Zainol, personally.
I have seen the farms I recommended and I have also seen Azzain's or Dr. Zainol's.

Zaharah2009 : Double-posting is not recommended on the forums. The moderators frown upon it.

Refer to this for my response to your posting : http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=25319513

Think you are very disturbed by this. I'm now wondering whether you are from one of the other 3 companies or are you truly a 3rd party.