The Health Guru

Facts, Hints, Tips, Advice and Inspiration on everything to do about health & weight loss.

You are what you eat: The Singaporean Diet

Posted on | June 10, 2010 | 4 Comments

The saying is true that ‘You are what you eat’.  I recently analysed a typical Singaporean diet to see the impact of the types of food being consumed and it’s impact on health concerns.

This is a sample of what I conclude as typical daily makan in Singapore:

Daily Makan

It was not surprising to find that many people are taking in way too many calories for their survival needs – which is the major cause of weight gain.  The average female only need 1200 calories /day and men 1500 / day – so consuming this diet every day will make it extremely hard to manage your weight.

Taking it one step further than just looking at calories – I created a week long eating plan where I chose a variety of meals in different combinations to analyse the sources of energy that are consumed.

During this week I only included dessert on 4 days, chose a variety of Singapore hawker food (including the healthy ones!), only 1 piece of fruit per day, only 1 sweet drink per day and no alcohol. This is what I believe to be a very conservative view of a typical Singaporean diet.

I was amazed to find out the enormity of carbohydrates, fat and salt consumed every week by Singaporeans.

It came to:

  • A total of 1.5kg of carbohydrates which is the equivalent of 59 bowls of noodles
  • 657 grams of fat which is 3 tubs of butter
  • 34000 mg of salt which is the equivalent of 490 salt shakers of salt.

Weekly Makan

“You are what you eat

The health implications arising from this diet include:

  • Eating such a carbohydrate dominant diet makes it harder to lose weight and manage weight.  All carbs are converted to sugar and if not used will be stored as body fat
  • Carbohydrate heavy meals leave you craving sweets, feeling hungry, have poor energy and feel very tired 2 hours after eating (i.e. when the sugar rush is over)
  • Eating large amounts of fat will cause Cholesterol levels to be high pills online which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

So if you currently have Weight Problems, High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure – assess your diet – make simple changes and I promise you your health will improve and weight loss will occur.


Comments

4 Responses to “You are what you eat: The Singaporean Diet”

  1. Shuyi000
    June 10th, 2010 @ 11:37 pm

    1500/day for men!?
    Isn’t it too little!?
    Cos..I remember reading from somewhere that says men need at least 200kcal per day.

  2. terence.heng
    June 16th, 2010 @ 12:03 am

    Love the site, and I agree with your take on salt and fat in hawker food, but I was just wondering where you got the figures for daily calorie intake? I always kind of thought the average calorific intake for women was 2000 and men was 2500.

    http://www.hpb.gov.sg/foodforhealth/article.aspx?id=2652

  3. Health Guru
    June 21st, 2010 @ 9:40 am

    Thanks Terence! The amount of calories the body needs for survival depends on your age, height, weight and gender. The correct range for Females: 1200 – 1500 Calories / day and for Men: 1500 – 1800 Calories / day. Then depending on your daily activity levels you need additional calories. To give you an idea, a 30 minute run completed by a 60kg person will use up only approximately 350 calories – so I believe that the figures of 2000 & 2500 you provided are too high. If you would like further information on your own personal calorie intake for your body & activity level please leave me your contact details and I’ll help you out. Cheers !

  4. Health Guru
    June 21st, 2010 @ 9:43 am

    Hi – thanks for your comment. The average male needs between 1500 – 1800 calories (this is the correct range) This is based on your age, height, weight and gender. Depending on your activity levels – you then need slightly more calories. If you would like to know your energy requirements according to your body and activity levels please let me know.

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