"Healthy" brain for year 2011

Hi Happy New Year. What are we expecting for a new year? For me, of course a "healthier" brain! I need an active brain to do more work and handle tasks in next year. Here is a little tip of how to achieve that. A brain needs 120g glucose for every single day. During fasting period, normal blood glucose level should be 4.0 - 6.1 mmol/L. However, if measure in 2 hours after having meal, normal blood glucose level should be 4.4 - 8 mmol/L. If blood glucose level < 3 mmol/L, it can cause our brain response slower and faint if getting worse. Thus, since our brain needs continuous supply of glucose, we need to eat adequate portion size of foods for every meal and maintain appropriate frequency in a day to boost up our brain activities. So, what do you all think? Please "feed" your brain well to celebrate a whole new year!


大脑一日平均需要120克葡萄糖，由于脑部的葡萄糖储备只能维持15分钟，它必须依靠血液中的葡萄糖持续输送。人体在禁食的期间正常血糖值是4.0 到6.1 mmol/L. 若在进食两小时后测量，正常血糖应该是4.4 到8mmol/L. 若血糖值少于3mmol/L, 会导致脑部反应缓慢，甚至陷入昏迷状态。因此，为了脑部的正常运作，我们必须维持正常的饮食时间，每餐保持适合的份量，少吃多餐，以最好的状态迎接新的一年。

Suprise Research - Eating while gaming makes you FAT

Hi all readers, I just read through a newspaper article this morning. And this article caught my attention. Scientists from University of Bistol UK found that you will gain more weight while you are eating while playing game on your computer. This results directly show that the risk of getting overweight is getting higher for techie generation as well as hardcore online gamers. It has significant accosiation between concentration and appetiate. I think the last fact summarize our curiousity, “Memory and eating behaviors affect our food portions”.  I think is true, we tend to forget how much we take and drink when we are addicted to certain activities. So I should not turn on my TV too during my dinner hour and enjoy my meal well =).

如果不想变胖子，最好别边吃饭边玩电脑。英国一项研究说， 吃饭最好远离电脑，因为会分散注意力，导致吃入更多食物，增加肥胖风险。 这理论是因为边玩电脑边吃饭的人和专心吃饭的人相比，更不记得自己吃了什么。

Dessert or diet?

Even since 4 o clock evening, most people will start to think of having a tea time. Tea time is meant more to be relax and therefore dessert intake must be well control.

Favourite choice	Healthy choice
Cakes, Brownies, Cookies, Pastries, Ice cream, Pie.	Low sugar Pudding & custardà Tofu pudding, egg custard. Fruits (watermelon, apple, orange,grapes, mango and so on). Limit sweet and fatty dessert to 1 pieces only.

最喜爱的选择	健康的选择
蛋糕，蛋糕，巧克力，饼干，糕点，冰淇淋，馅饼	选吃低糖布丁，蛋奶豆花，鸡蛋蛋奶 水果（西瓜，苹果，橙，葡萄，芒果等） 限制甜和油腻的甜点只有1件

Planning for year end diet

Hi, once again merry Christmas. Today is boxing day and soon year 2011 is coming. I think is time for me to post more suggestions to everyone on "Plan a well year end diet". It's a request from one of my friend. She has Christmas dinner, company year end dinner as well as several gatherings too. This has directly cause a person eat more and uncontrollably. How do we actually plan our main course? Here are few of my suggestion.

Favourite choice	Healthy choice
High fat meals àDeep fried foods,(French fries, fried fish/chicken or BBQ), hamburgers.	Grilled, baked or steam.
Non veges food -> Low fiber intake.	Take some fiber foods (salad with veges and fruits, coleslaw) as appetizer before go for main course to fill up you stomach.
High sodium and sugar foods (gravy or sauces)àthousand Island sauce, black pepper sauce, mushroom sauces, chilli, tomato sauces	Less sauces or gravy intake. Go for natural flavor enhancer (lemon or black pepper).
High cholesterol foods intake (seafoodà oyster, mussels, lobster, prawn)	Control portion size intake (limit to medium size with 3 or 4 pieces only).
Steamboat (Frozen foods(fishball, meatball, nugget, sausage)à high in saturated fat).	Go for fresh fish or meat rather than processed foods. Take some vegetables or soy products.
Buffet (overconsumption)	Eat adequate portion size.

今天是圣诞节，很快2011年即将到来。我们到底怎么来规划我们的主菜呢？以下是我的建议。

最喜爱的选择	健康的选择
高脂肪食物à 油炸食品（薯条，油炸鱼或鸡），汉堡包。	烧烤，烘焙 或蒸。
低纤维的摄入。	另加高纤维食物（蔬菜和水果，沙拉）作为开胃菜。
高盐和糖（肉汁或酱汁à千岛酱，黑胡椒酱，蘑菇酱，辣椒，番茄酱）。	减少酱或肉汁摄入量。 使用天然增添口味的食物（柠檬，黑胡椒粉）。
高胆固醇食物的摄入量（海鲜à牡蛎，贻贝，龙虾，虾只）。	控制份量的摄入（限3或4只）。
火锅（冷冻食品à鱼丸，肉丸，鸡肉块，香肠（含饱和脂肪）。	食用新鲜的鱼或肉类，而不是加工食品。 加入一些蔬菜或豆制品。
自助餐（过量摄取份量）。	吃足够份量，不可过量。

Diet for your Christmas week

Merry Christmas. Christmas for me is a few days of holiday and higher chance to eat more snacks. ;-). Normally we celebrate this event with friends and family member in restaurant, for example buffet, steamboat, western dish, fast food and so on. If we are unaware of food selection, we might accidentally consume too much of high calories foods and might bring negative result to your next body checkup! Below is my healthy choice of beverages (for your reference) :

Favourite choice	Healthy choice
Soft drink (high sugar & gases) Coffee (diuretic effect and caffeine) Packet / Canned drink (high sugar)	Fresh fruit juice without sugar or less sugar. Tea (green/black) without creamer or sugar. Milk (low fat). Plain water.
Alcohol drink	Limit to 1 drink only (Maximum 360 ml Beer, 150 ml whisky) Mix with juice for cocktail drink. Increase water consumption, prevent dehydration.

嗨，今天是圣诞节前夕，你们是否在想着圣诞大餐呢？有些人通常会与朋友或家庭到餐馆去庆祝此活动。例如，精细餐饮，自助餐，火锅，西餐，快餐等。如果我们不知道正确地选择食物，可能会意外地消耗过多高热量的食物。因此，我们应该仔细和巧妙地选择正确的食物，享受一个美好的圣诞晚会。

最喜爱的选择	健康的选择
汽水（含糖分高，有气） 咖啡（利尿作用，咖啡因） 包/罐装饮料（高糖）	少糖或不加糖的果汁 茶（绿/黑）无奶精或糖 牛奶（低脂） 清水
酒精饮料	限制酒精饮料喝1份量（最多360毫升啤酒，威士忌150毫升） 混合果汁饮料与鸡尾酒 提高水的饮用，防止脱水

I hope you all enjoy your Christmas meal. Have a nice Christmas!

What's Soya?

Hi all, kind of busy week this weekend. Christmas is just there but works never done. :-) I read an article of cooking menu with soy as ingredient and felt "let's share something about soya". Some might pronounce it as soy or "soya" but I prefer "soya".  It is a good source of protein that will not provide too high calories, plant derived, so is free from cholesterol. It can be a good milk substitution for those people who suffer from cow’s milk allergy (I posted this topic previously) and lactose intolerance as soy milk is not dairy products. Awesome right? Soya is lactose-free, and some-more a “complete protein” which contains all 9 essential amino acids in the right balance to meet your body’s needs. This makes soya a great substitute for many meats, allowing you to eliminate more saturated fat and cholesterol from your diet. If you feel interest with soya's nutritious benefits, quickly grab a cook book to learn soya related food!


黄豆又名大豆，有人会说它含有如牛奶般丰富的蛋白质但不会对身体造成负担的高热量，而且其天然植物蛋白质没有胆固醇。它也可以代替牛奶，让那些对牛奶有敏感或乳糖不适，因为豆奶不是乳制品。这些说法都对。黄豆是不含乳糖，其植物蛋白质含有我们人体所需的九种氨基酸。它可以代替肉类在我们的食谱里，让我们可以减少摄取过多的饱和脂肪和胆固醇。

Nuts allergy

Do you have any friend who is allergy to nuts? Well, I am one of them. I am allergy to tree nuts as well as foods with nuts. I speak from my own experience, foods that contain nuts normally are chocolate (Ex: Forero Rossel chocolate (with hazel nuts)), brownies (walnuts), cookies (almond nuts) and different cuisines (Chinese, Malay, Western dessert etc). If you have the symptom of itchiness of tongue, eczema, or swelling, please think twice again whether you consume any foods with nuts from your meal. Consult doctor for further caution. Take care!

至于对坚果类有敏感者需小心选择食物，因为有些食物含有隐藏性坚果类的。这当中包括了巧克力，蛋糕或饼干。通常有敏感者吃了会导致身体某部位出现痕痒，红肿等现象。

  

Nutritious nuts

Nuts are good sources of vitamins E and B₂ (riboflavin, an antioxidant), and are rich in protein, folate, fiber, and essential minerals such as magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and selenium. But, do you know the high content of magnesium, potassium plus the low content of sodium in raw tree nuts are factors to control hypertension problem? It is suggested that people with hypertension problem can consume 4 to 5 servings of nuts in a week. 1 serving of nuts is equal to 1/3 cup. Of course, we need to be careful with its high calories contribute from fat. Again, only appropriate amount of nuts can bring benefits to our body.


坚果含有丰富的维他命B 和E，蛋白质，叶酸，纤维和必须的矿物质包括镁，磷，钾，铜和硒。你可知道吗？坚果类含有丰富的镁，钾，和低钠成分是可控制血压高问题的。高血压患者是建议一星期里吃4至5次坚果类。每次吃的份量可为1/3 杯。当然我们也必须小心控制份量因为坚果是高热量的食物。因此，只有适当的摄取足够的份量才能为我们带来健康；否则，相反的过多的只会成为我们的累赘。
 

Hello Nuts

Hello everyone, it's nuts time! I guess nuts should not be a strange food item for everyone especially those chocolate folks. Chocolate manufacturer usually mix their product with nuts to increase the variety of flavor for consumers. Example of nuts include almonds, mixed nuts, walnuts, peanuts, cashew nuts and hazel nuts. We usually take nuts as snack but my point is eating nuts frequently is more nutritious compare to junk foods that has no nutritional value. Nuts look small but it actually contain high nutrients inside. Nuts contain fatty acids, and the fats in nuts for the most part are unsaturated fats, including mono-unsaturated fats. It brings benefit to our body that can help lowering our body's bad cholesterol (which known LDL).


坚果类对你们来说应该不会陌生吧！我相信大部分的人都喜爱着这食物，有的会把它当成零食吃着，这坚果类包括了杏仁，胡桃，花生，腰果和榛实等。这其实是一个很健康的饮食习惯，因为坚果含有非常丰富的营养价值。把坚果当成零嘴吃着总比吃含有化学色素和味精的零食来的健康。虽然坚果看似细小和不出色，但其高营养价值是不容小嘘的。坚果富有人体所须的脂肪酸，而且大部分是不饱和脂肪包括单元不饱和脂肪。这不饱和脂肪可以帮助降低坏的胆固醇。

Egg shell

To ensure eggs free from bacteria, can we wash it before keep in fridge?

Washing eggs is not recommeded before storage; this will remove the oil coating applied by the processor to prevent microbial growth and moisture loss. So I strongly suggest to wash it before you are going to cook with it.

为了确保鸡蛋没有任何的细菌，我可以清洗了才放进冰箱吗？

这其实是不建议的因为这会造成鸡蛋壳外表的一层保护层给清洗掉。那层保护层是要保护鸡蛋内层不会受到感染和流失水分。

Well, it is time for me to continue to the next topic. i will focus on nuts starting from tomorrow. Thanks for viewing.

How do we store eggs?

I am a dietitian but I worked in food service field before. Therefore, I am going to review some egg storage information for all of you as additional tips. Hope you all like it. 

Did any of you know why we need keep eggs in refrigerator?

This is because eggs begin deteriorated and lose quality at room temperature. Usually eggs should be store among 0-4.4°C in refrigerator. The shelf life of eggs in refrigerator is about 1 month. This is important as I saw quite a number of housewife just put their eggs on table after purchasing.

Can I just put together with others foods when the fridge is too full?

No, egg should be store separately with vegetables or fruits as eggs shell contain Salmonella bacteria that will easily cause cross contamination on vegetables and fruits which is directly consume without heating cooking process (Ex, Salad).

你们知道为什么我们必须把鸡蛋收藏在冰箱里吗？

那是因为鸡蛋会在室内的温度之下流失其营养品质。鸡蛋通常是适合存放在0 至4度的冰箱里。鸡蛋大概会有一个月的存放期限。

那我可以把鸡蛋跟其他食材放在一起吗？

不可以，鸡蛋应该跟蔬菜和水果分开放。因为鸡蛋壳含有沙门氏菌，放在一起会造成交叉感染尤其是蔬菜和水果通常用作沙拉或生吃。

Eggs (Tips for Omega 3 usage)

When you walked around a mall, normally you will find Omega-3 eggs in food department. Lots of people say Omega3 is good for health so people won't feel hesitate to buy one or two trail every time. My opinion is Omega 3 is a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid which is essential for body that our body unable to produce by ourself. Rich Omega-3 fatty acid can reduce the risk of blood clots that block arteries that connect to our heart. However, an Omega-3 egg has 6 times the amount of Omega-3 fatty acid than regular egg but it also contain the same amount of cholesterol as regular egg. Actually 1 egg contains 213 mg cholesterol and the total cholesterol that we need in one day is just 300mg (this applies for Omega-3 egg too). So folks, remember consume Omega-3 according to the proper amount weekly (around 3 eggs which I suggest for normal adult to avoid high cholesterol in future).

有人会问我现在市场上售卖的是 Omega-3 鸡蛋，那我可以每天吃吗？因为听说对心脏有益哦！现在，让我为你们揭开谜题吧！Omega-3是一种多元不饱和脂肪，对人体很重要的脂肪。吃含有 Omega-3 的食物可有效地降低血管阻塞的问题，从而减低心脏病的问题。Omega-3鸡蛋含有高出普通鸡蛋六倍的 Omega-3.但是，我还是要提醒你们 Omega-3鸡蛋也跟普通鸡蛋一样含有同等份量的胆固醇。因此，要记住适量的才能够带来健康，过量只会是负担。

Eggs (Tips for kidney & hypercholesterolemia patient)

Having eggs as one of your food item is perfectly nice for us but patients that have kidney and hypercholesterolemia must take note of their eating habit with eggs. Kidney patient needs strictly monitor their total protein intake in a day so that will not cause a burden to kidney. It is so called as high biological value (HBV) as efficiency food protein that essential and incorporates to our body with 100% protein absorption. Those with hypercholesterolemia problem people should limit their egg yolk (yellowish one) intake. I recommended should not more than 2 egg yolk per week. When the amount of cholesterol exceed what we need, it will deposit in our body especially blood vessels that cause heart attack or stroke problem. Besides, we also need to aware the egg yolk acts as additional in fried noodles, fried rice, bread, cakes and other foods with hidden egg. If you are egg favor, I suggest you can just consume egg white without egg yolk daily which is mostly protein than cholesterol.

那些肾脏患者要控制一天里总蛋白质的份量，因为过多的蛋白质会对肾造成负荷。蛋白的蛋白质是我们人体所需的必须蛋白质，而且与我们人体蛋白质非常吻合，是100%吸收的。

那些有胆固醇高的患者要控制蛋黄的份量，最好一星期里不要超过2颗以上。当胆固醇份量过多会聚集在身体里尤其是血管，造成心脏病或中风等疾病。此外，我们也要留意有些食物是有附加蛋黄的如炒粿条，炒饭，蛋糕，饼干等。当然如果你是鸡蛋的爱好者，每天要吃鸡蛋也可以，那就只吃蛋白（只有蛋白质），不要蛋黄（有胆固醇）。另外，也有一个小提醒，鹌鹑蛋虽然很小颗，但却拥有4颗鸡蛋黄的胆固醇份量。因此，是不鼓励吃的。

Do you all aware of tips consuming Omega-3? Most of you don't really know much about the pros and cons but just attracted by the advertisement :). I was one of them before I did some research on it. I will share that in details for next post. Hope you all enjoy a good day :)

New diet topic - EGG

Hi everyone, I am changing my blog's topic (hope you all have well understand about milk from previous post). Next I will focus on eggs information, I know actually this is a favorite item for everyone. Egg has a lot of usage, it is not only use as one of the dishes in our daily meal such as fried eggs, omelet, steam egg; it also being used widely in pastry industry to make bread, noodles, cookies, cakes and so on. Eggs are an excellent source of many nutrients-protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water. An average large egg provides about 75 Kcal, primarily from fat and protein.

当说起鸡蛋，我想每个人都会十分喜欢吧! 鸡蛋的确有很多用处，可以做半生熟蛋，煎蛋，煎蛋卷，水蒸蛋；也在面粉糕饼, 馅饼皮等扮演非常重要的角色。鸡蛋富有很高的营养价值，包括蛋白质，脂肪，维他命，矿物质和水份。一颗鸡蛋大概可提供75卡路里，热量来源是蛋白质和脂肪。

I planned to introduce diet usage of egg and tips for sick people consuming egg's product for next few post. Stay tuned. You will find my useful tips in next few days.