Add more fruits, vegetables to meals for wellbeing
CHOCOLATES, confectionaries and candies are some of the choices of comfort food that are able to reduce stress levels. The pleasurable feeling of eating chocolate triggers our dopamine to be released and creates a gratifying sensation which causes us to eat oftentimes more than recommended.
Our community is of the thinking that “it’s okay to eat more chocolate, or chocolate helps to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer”, but they forget to emphasise the type and amount of chocolate that is recommended to experience the benefits.
Based on studies, habitual intake of cocoa or dark chocolate without extra sugars and fats does benefit our health, but we need to ensure that we only take a small amount of chocolate to avoid any detrimental effects, which can lead to other diseases too.
Eating more than the recommended intake is the main culprit that exposes the risk of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes. According to the National Healthand Morbidity Survey last year, about 3.9 millionMalaysiansaged18andabove experienced diabetes in their life, while 5.3 per cent aged 18 to 29 did not know they had diabetes. So, how canwetacklethisalarmingsituation?
TheHealthMinistryrecommends consuming five servings of different fruits and vegetables as it will create a fullness effect, thus prompting us to eat less. Besides, it contains a vast amount of fibre to help our bowel system to work efficiently.
Multitudinous vitamins and mineralsinfruitsandvegetablesofferlimitless advantages to our bodies. Even now,onlyoneoutof20,orfivepercent, of Malaysian adults consume enough fruits and vegetables according to the recommended daily intake.
Here are some tips on how to achieve five servings of fruits and vegetables in a day:
Fruits or vegetables can be eaten raworcooked. Simplyadd fresh fruits suchasbananaintoyourcerealoradd salad to an egg sandwich. Make fresh juice using fruits or vegetables of your choice. They can even be turned into popsicles without any added sugar.
If you love potato chips, you can prepare your homemade chips by using sweet potato or carrot for a snack.Youcanalsotrypumpkinmuffinswithalmondflakesontopinstead of chocolate muffins.
Vary choices of fruits and vegetables by its texture, forms, colours and shapes so that your taste buds experience a diverse unique taste in
each meal.
Incorporating even one serving of fruits or vegetables in our daily meal can change our future into a healthy one. We need to practise consuming “balanced, moderate and variety” of foodsinourdailyintaketosustainour wellbeing.Questionis,arewereadyto change our eating pattern?
NUR ARINA BAKERI
NUR FARAH SYAHIRA SELAMAT SAIFUL ADLI SUHAIMI DR MARIMARAN KRISHNAN
National Institute of Health, Health Ministry Malaysia