Reflection

What have you learnt about your eating habits?

I have learnt that I tend to eat my 3 meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) at a specific time of the day, especially during school days, with little snacks in between and my main source of carbohydrates is usually rice.

Do you consider your diet a healthy one? Why?

I generally consider my diet a healthy one, because according to the analysis provided by the nutritional tools, my diet meets most of the nutrients required daily. However, I can try to eat more fruits in my diet as I realised I did not take in any fruits over the span of 3 days (period of analysis). I also recognise that there are certain nutrients, such as calcium, that I need to aim to take more, while others, such as cholestrol and sodium, that I need to reduce.

Are the suggested nutritional tools useful? How?

The suggested nutritional tools are generally useful. They helped me to keep track of the nutrients I take in from my food daily, thus helping me to understand and be more conscious of my diet. The analysis provided by the nutritional tools tell me the nutrients/minerals that my diet have missed out and even provide advices on how I can go about to take in more of that particular nutrients. At the same time, the nutritional tools also provided feedback on the food I should try to cut down to make my diet healthier. For example, before I used the nutritional tools, I did not know that I have been taking in too much sodium and cholestrol. After I used the nutritional tools, I am more aware of it and thus be consistently conscious to reduce the intake of sodium and cholestrol.

However, sometimes, the nutritional tools are not very useful as I have difficulty finding the exact description of the food I have eaten, therefore for many instances, I have choose a similar alternative. This may lead to an inaccurate gauge of the energy and nutrients the food I have eaten gives me. Overall, however, the nutritional tools are still useful in helping me understand my diet better.

Why is your suggested one-dish meal healthy?

The suggested one-dish meal, chicken veggie marconi pasta, is healthy because it uses heathy ingredients, such the olive oil instead of other types of oil.. This plant oil is one of the few widely used culinary oils that contains about 75% of its fat in the form of oleic acid (a monounsaturated, omega-9 fatty acid). In terms of monounsaturated fat, the closest common culinary oil to olive is canola oil, with about 60% of its fat coming in monounsaturated form. By contrast, the fat in soybean oil in only 50-55% monounsaturated; in corn oil, it's about 60%; in sunflower oil, about 20%; and in safflower oil, only 15%. Research has shown that when a diet low in monounsaturated fat are replaced with a diet high in the monounsaturated fat content (by replacing other oils with olive oil), there tend to be a significant reduction in total blood cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and LDL:HDL ratio. Research studies also show that olive oil has been associated to the decreased blood pressure.

The one-dish meal is also healthy because it uses a balanced variety of ingredients from the various food groups in the healthy diet pyramid. The marconi, the main ingredient in the dish, gives us the complex carbohydrates that provide us with the energy for physical and mental activities. The capsicums and the tomatoes made up the vegetables in the meal. Tomatoes, being low in sodium and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol, is also a good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Copper, Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Potassium and Manganese. There is also a small amount of chicken meat, which made up the meat and alternnatives in the dish. The chicken meat provides us with a moderate amount of protein (about 100 calories per 100g). It is also contains all Vitamins B, especially Vitamin B3.

The dish also uses healthy methods of cooking, namely boiling and stir-frying. Stir-frying is considered a healthy way of cooking as it only requires a little amount oil and as the vegetables are usually cooked for a very short period, they retain their nutrients, texture, flavour and colour.