Reflections

What have you learnt about your eating habits?
I learnt that I can eat healthily at time, but sometimes I would just eat what I like without thinking of the possible negative consequences. For example, on Day 2 for lunch I had soup noodles. However, the dish was not healthy, because even though the soup was made with no artificial seasoning, it contained a lot of processed food such as fishballs and meatballs, which I like but contain a lot of salt and other unhealthy ingredients. I need to eat in moderation, which means taking enough greens and not going overboard with the tasty but unhealthy stuff.
I also found out that I am quite consistent with eating fruits. Having fruits as dessert after dinner is something that my family does regularly. We have it almost every day, except for when we go out for a big family dinner. This is a good habit, as fruits contain vitamins, minerals and fibre, and are vital for our health. However, I realise that my intake of fruits and vegetables is probably not enough. I should consume more fresh fruits daily.

Do you consider your diet a healthy one? Why?
I do not consider my diet to be very healthy. As I make out from my 3-day record, I am not eating enough for breakfast, and not eating enough vegetables and fruits. The only time that I would eat more for breakfast is during the weekends, when my parents are around. Also, I realise I eat too much hawker centre food during the weekends. One Day 1, a Sunday, both my lunch and dinner were bought from outside, at nearby hawker centres. This is very unhealthy as these type of food that are not home-cooked probably contain a lot of unnecessary artificial seasoning and fats. For example, the char kuey tiao I had for dinner was very black and oily, suggesting the use of a lot of oil and sauces. The fishcake in it is processed food, and a healthier option would be to replace it with fresh meat that requires no processing. Its nice taste does not make up for its lack of health benefits.
What I like about my diet is my regular intake of milk. On any day, I would usually drink either two cups of milk or one cup of milk and one cup of Milo. As far as I know, many of my peers have stopped drinking milk some time ago. Milk contains calcium and is good for bones, therefore is good for our bodies. Also, milk helps in water replenishment in our bodies.

Are the suggested nutritional tools useful? How?
No, the nutritional tools are useful, but it is very tiresome to use them. They help us calculate the components of our diet, but take a long time.
The RDA is a very useful tool. It gives a guide on what and how much of the components in our food we should be eating daily. Though it does not help me to actually analyse my diet, it gives me an estimate on how much I should be eating, and allows me to guess before I analyse it on the other tools.
The Food Intake Assessment is a very useful tool. It allows me to analyse my food day by day, and has many choices of foods to choose from. This is the main too I used to analyse my food, as it covers a broad range and is precise. It also provides a graph so as to allow me to compare my intake vs the RDA visually. Finally, it gives me nutrition messages based on my results, so that I know what to cut down on or what I need to eat more of.
The Healthy Diet Pyramid is quite useful, and the easiest by far. It allows me to know if I am eating enough. However, what it cannot do it analyse the components of food, so I do not know whether the food I am eating is giving me enough nutrients.
Finally, the Energy and Nutrient Composition of Foods is a useful tool that helps to calculate the energy composition of dishes and meals. I used it for an analysis of one meal, Char Kuey Teow, that I ate on day 1. It is precise in giving details on different components, but to do so for every dish I ate would take far too long. Thus, I only used it for one dish.

Why is your suggested 1-dish meal healthy?
My one-dish meal is healthy because it does not require any artificial flavourings or oil when cooking. Also, I did not use much salt, as there was no need to. The dish contains ingredients from many food groups too, like cabbage from the Fruits and Vegetables group, noodles from the Rice and Alternatives group, wantons from Meat and Alternatives group, and so on.