Malaysian Food Pyramid
One may encounters a thought, saying
how boring a nutrition education could be. Some of us may never even take a
look at the food guide pyramid adv that had been loyally stuck on the wall of
the canteen since our primary time in school. Some of us may never even take a
look at it, to even realize it was merely there including me. However, since I have
that strong nutrition awareness in me especially now, I feel like I need to
walk the talk. FYI, I am taking a nutrition course in one of the local
university in Sabah.
So, what is really a food guide
pyramid? Generally, it is a guideline for us on how many serving we should consume
in a day. Before I study nutrition, I never really care about how many serving I
should take in a day, I don’t know how to read the nutrient fact on the back
label of the processed food, I don’t know that oily food is a bad fat food.
Now, I know a lot about nutrition and I love it. I love it when I apply it
during my younger age. What we are now, is the preparation for the future. If
you eat healthily, exercise regularly, u’re gonna have a long life in the
future. Same like the bank saving analogy, save money now and be rich later. Hehe.
Back to the food guide pyramid
thingy, the first base of the pyramid is carbohydrates. As a Malaysians,
majority of us eat rice every day. So, one cup of white rice is considered as 1
serving. Based on the Malaysian dietary guidelines, it is recommended that we
consume at least 4 serving of carbohydrate in a day. Tapi, takkan la mau makan
rice saja in a day kan. U may want to take other carbs food like bread,
cereals, mee goreng et cetera. So to
me, it is fine to consume oat/cereal for breakfast, rice for lunch, kueh for hi-tea
and fried mee for dinner. 4 serving kan? It is the standard serving for each
one of us, 4 serving a day. We need carbs for energy!! Even if u need to lose
weight, don’t cut your carbs intake. Try different type of carbs that has lower
calories.
Next major number of food we should
consume is fruits and vegetables. I love love love love this group of food. There
so many good, nutritious and benefit of fruits&vege to our body. It makes u
look healthy, fresh and pretty too. And it’s really yummy !!! It is really really important to take fruit at
least 2 serving in a day and 3 serving of vege in a day. Even if u don’t like
vege, u need to replace ur unfavorable vege with other type of vege. For
example, if u hate green leafy vege (I know most of the people who dislike vege
is because of its bitter and leafy texture like) u may want to replace it with
other type of vege. There are so many types of vege in the market, u have fruit
vege like tomato and pumpkin, u have tuber vege like potatoes and even bean
plant vege like bendi. So, think
positive and find the alternatives! For fruits, there is no harm to consume
more than 2 serving of fruit tho. But I suggest u people don’t take vitamin C
supplement. Get yr vitamins directly from fruits and vege which is much more
natural, organic, cheap and yummy! Based on my understanding, supplements may
sometimes increase/decrease the other nutrients that u may already had it enuf
and may complicate your body system. Because fyi, one vitamin C does not only
contain vitamin C, it may have other types of nutrient which u may already had
it enuf. Even if you are about to take
supplement, make sure u’re dealing with a nutritionist /physicist before u buy
it.
Third
base; milk products and poultry. Drink milk people. I know how uncommon it is
for Malaysians to drink milk especially teenagers. You never know when u need
it. Remember the susu kotak that we
got from the government during our primary school? U shud have drank that instead
of giving yr other friends. That was one of the nutritionist ways of promoting
milk intake on during our younger age. I’m glad I drank mine, and my friend’s. susu kotak. Haha. No wonder I am way
taller than my friends haha. Just kidding. Based on FGP, we are advised to
drink at least 1 cup of milk in a day. We really need milk la, nanti
osteoporosis o later age.
Next, poultry,fish et cetera. These are a protein group of
food. Same with milk. One reminder, these kind of food are the best source of
protein especially lean meat such as chicken breast. Tapi if u eat the skin
sama ja macam u eat fat kan. So don’t eat the skin, eat the chicken breast
meat. It’s good! Even if u’re about to eat it, constaint yrself from doing it! Don’t
eat kfc!! Hehehe. For the food serving, u may want to check the FGP.
Lastly, bad bad bad group of food
that u should avoid from eating it every day. Mostly, semua yang sedap sedap,
paling sedap punya makanan ialah makanan yg paling banyak calories and fat. U
shud consume food that is less in sugar, less in salt, less oil. And there u
go, a good healthy body to live long.
So,
my conclusion is, eat good/variety of food. Don’t diet, it never works.
Seriously. Exercise and make it a habit. U will appreciate it in yr late age.
So I guess I need to stop writing now. I think this will be the longest post of
mine. Lol. Ok bye.
