Reflection on process and learning points

What have you learnt about your eating habits?

I have learnt that my eating habits can be improved on a lot. I realised that I have been putting a rather lot of unhealthy food into the body, thus my sodium intake is so high. Even though sodium is essential in small amounts, too much will cause blood volume to increase because sodium attracts and holds water.Increased blood volume will cause your heart have to work harder in order to move blood through the vessels, thus increasing pressure in the arteries. In order to not further harm my body, I should lower of sodium intake and increase my calcium intake.

Do you consider your diet a healthy one? Why?

No, I do not consider it a healthy one. I think I eat a lot of junk food throughout the day and my meal times are also inconsistent. Potato chips are present in my diet for 2 out of 3 days, and they are not the healthiest food to snack on. I do not have a specific timimg for my meals, and I even skip some of my meals. For example, I did not eat dinner on Day 1 since my lunch was taken rather late. That is not very good for your body. I need to cut down on my junk food in order to lower my sodium intake which is currently exceeding the Recommended Daily Allowance by a rather big amount. Since the 3-day diet was recorded during the holidays, I think the timing problem will solve itself when school starts and the meal times are fixed for us.

Are the suggested nutritional tools useful? How?

Yes, they are useful. They allow me to analyze my diet by looking deeply into it. I was able to learn how unhealthy my diet was and which items I consumed were causing it to be unhealthy. For example, I never knew that I was greatly exceeding the Recommended Daily Allowance for sodium, and that my calcium intake was also too low. The nutritional tools are rather detailed, thus making the analysis more precise.

Why is your suggested one-dish meal healthy?

It has healthy ingredients like a variety of vegetables and most of its ingredients are also a healthier choice.

Instead of normal rice, brown rice is used. Brown rice has many health benefits, including aiding in the control of blood sugar and cholesterol level, providing carbohydrates requirements and being rich in mineral thus supplying nutrients to the hair, teeth, nails, muscles and bones.

The chicken it uses is uncooked, boneless and skinless chicken breast. Although chicken skin adds flavour, it is usually the most unhealthy part of the chicken, thus the meal is made healthier by removing the chicken skin.

Also in replacement of normal cooking spray, non-fat cooking spray is used. Low sodium soy sauce is used instead of normal soy sauce.

With this combination of healthy ingredients, the meal also becomes healthy! :)