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After reading our previous posts, do you now know how to choose healthier options? If you're unsure, fret not! Today, we'll be reviewing common meals we may eat during breakfast, lunch or dinner, and how we can make changes for a healthier diet!
When we eat, it is essential for us to watch our calorie intake at each meal, so that we don't consume too much calories that may lead to weight gain, increasing our risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes.
You can find out your daily recommended caloric intake using the Calorie Calculator by the Health Promotion Board, below! It will help you in planning out your meals, so that you don't exceed your calorie intake!
Now, let's see how we can make healthier choices when we eat our meals!
Breakfast
1) Kaya Butter Toast
A popular breakfast option for many is the infamous kaya butter toast, that is easy to make and is surely delicious! However, eating 1 portion alone of kaya butter toast would lead to about 108 kcal(and to get full in the morning, we would normally eat more than one!)
To improve your diet, you can keep the kaya on the toast, but try to eat it without the butter instead – 1 teaspoon of unsalted butter gives you about 44.5 kcal! Butter is also high in cholesterol so you might want to avoid eating too much of it. Besides that, you can also opt for wholemeal bread instead of white bread to get your source of wholegrains in the morning!
You can also accompany your kaya butter toast with a fruit, to fulfil the My Healthy Plate recommendation!
2) Prata
Next up, is also a common favourite – prata! Though we might eat this from time to time as a breakfast meal, one piece of plain prata would give us about 162 kcal already (without the curry!) This may be due to prata being high in carbohydrates (about 20g in 1 piece) and is commonly fried in ghee, which has a high amount of trans fat.
Instead of prata, you can opt for 1 piece of thosai, which would have about 97 kcal. You can also eat it with Tandoori gobi(cauliflower) and a slice of pineapple to fill up half of your plate! You can add on some Chicken tikka too to give your meal some protein!
3) Mee Siam
Mee siam is a traditional breakfast food that we can find in Singapore. Alarmingly, one bowl-soup of mee siam would give us about 561 kcal and the meal is also high in sodium (about 2808mg). This may be from the large amount of noodles and flavourful gravy of the dish.
If you choose to eat mee siam, you can use (or ask for) wholemeal bee hoon, add more bean sprouts and have 1 hard-boiled egg. It would be great to also have a fruit, such as a banana, and make sure to drink plain water!
Lunch & Dinner
1) Chicken Rice
Now here's a local classic meal we all know – Chicken rice. We may eat this frequently, but are you aware of its calorie count?
It varies with the type of chicken rice you choose to eat, but one portion of chicken rice served with roasted chicken, would have a calorie count of about 596 kcal, while chicken rice served with steamed chicken would have a calorie count of about 557 kcal. Besides the lack of greens, chicken rice is also high in fat and sodium, due to the rice that is usually infused with chicken stock.
For a healthier option, you can replace the rice with plain rice (this helps to take away 100 calories, 8g of fat and 800mg of sodium!) For the chicken, you can opt for the skin to be removed and you can also add more vegetables to the dish (besides just having a few slices of cucumbers) such as kai lan or tomatoes.
2) Mee Goreng
Some of us love to have the traditional Indian-style mee goreng as a meal for lunch and dinner. Made up of yellow noodles, fried with egg and tomato sauce, along with some bits of stir-fried vegetables, this meal has a high calorie count of about 613 kcal.
For a healthier option, we can choose to have wholegrain noodles (such as brown rice Hokkien noodles) and ensure you have at least half a serving of vegetables. You can add a some prawns or slices of fishcake to give your plate of mee goreng more protein too!
3) Fishball Noodle Soup
Who doesn't love a yummy bowl of fishball noodle soup? This meal is surely tasty and may look healthy, but one bowl of it would give us about 523 kcal. If we opt for dry fishball noodles instead, it does make our meal healthier by cutting it to about 474 kcal.
Besides that, you can also choose to replace the usual egg noodles with wholemeal noodles and try adding more vegetables, such as chye sim!
Conclusion
Through the listed examples of the common food we consume, are you now able to make healthier choices when you eat?
By making these tweaks in your dish, it will surely lower the calorie count of your meals, preventing you from exceeding your calorie intake. This protects you from the risks of chronic diseases!
If you would like more articles on how to better plan your diet to put what you've learnt into practice, you may click on the buttons below for more recommendations! Happy reading!
Sources
Goh, K., 2017. How to eat healthier at hawker centres. [Online] Available at: https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/food/how-to-eat-healthier-at-hawker-centres [Accessed 25 June 2021].
Health Promotion Board, 2011. Energy & Nutrient Composition of Food. [Online] Available at: https://focos.hpb.gov.sg/eservices/ENCF/foodsearch.aspx [Accessed 21 June 2021].
Health Promotion Board, 2019. Mee Goreng. [Online] Available at: https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/1512/mee-goreng [Accessed 25 June 2021].
Health Promotion Board, 2020. Healthy Meals with My Healthy Plate. [Online] Available at: https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/1833/steady-balancing-meals-with-my-healthy-plate [Accessed 24 June 2021].
Health Promotion Board, 2020. How Much Calories Do I Need A Day?. [Online] Available at: https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/1341/how-much-to-eat-at-each-meal [Accessed 21 June 2021].
Health Promotion Board, 2021. Plan Your Meals with My Healthy Plate. [Online] Available at: https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/1332/plan-your-meals-with-my-healthy-plate [Accessed 24 June 2021].
HER WORLD, 2018. Save your calories with these 8 hawker food swops. [Online] Available at: https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/food/save-your-calories-with-these-8-hawker-food-swops [Accessed 24 June 2021].
Loh, A., Min, T. J. & Samsudin, S., 2021. 28 Breakfast Foods In Singapore That Are Unhealthier Than They Look. [Online] Available at: https://www.herworld.com/gallery/life/food/unhealthy-breakfast-foods-singapore/ [Accessed 20 June 2021].
who knew even fishball noodles could be so unhealthy :( maybe i should do more research before eating 😦