Vernice Tan (31) 207

Her blog is really neat and it is easy to navigate.

Furthermore, she stepped out of the confines of the PT requirements and also uploaded a healthy pyramid on her blog. This will be really useful to clueless readers as it will give them basic knowledge on a healthy and balanced diet. She also uploaded photographs of what she saw during her trip to the Health Promotion Board. I find this really considerate of her (:

She has analysed her diet really well and she has used quite a number of tools to do so. She even recommended mobile applications that teaches us how to maintain a healthy diet. Also, she has reflected on her diet well and proposed solutions to counter the problems in her diet. To cut down on her saturated fats intake, she will reduce her intake of coconut-milk based foods.

Vernice's reflections are clear and concise. It clearly sums up the entire process of this PT as it includes what she has learnt, her judgement towards her diet, her views on the suggested nutritional tools and a justification for her one-dish meal. It is also put into clear paragraphs (one for each topic) and is easy to follow. I can tell that she put in a lot of effort in this PT (:

Well done Vernice! (:

Xu Jing Yin (33) 207

Her blog is very structured and tidy! She dutifully recorded all her meals consumed for her 3-day diet analysis. Interesting pictures were used to keep the attention of the readers. Apart from analysing her diet well (it's really detailed), she also included some personal inputs and her feelings. For example, she mentioned how her lack of dietary fibre led to her feeling hungry frequently. I think this is a lot better than simply stating the facts as we can all relate to that more easily (:

I think her one-dish meal is also quite healthy and nutritious. Chicken rice is a common food found in Singapore, however the ones sold in shops are usually quite unhealthy. Jing Yin has introduced a healthier way of cooking chicken rice. By ridding the chicken rice of skin, she is able to provide a solution to people like me as to how to reduce their saturated fats intake. Her dish is also able to increase her dietary fibre by using brown rice instead of white rice.

Her reflections are also very well done as it provides a detailed explanation as to why she chose her one-dish meal. She mentioned that using brown rice instead of white rice will let the chicken rice be less oily yet the taste will remain as delicious. From her reflections, I can tell that she has learnt a lot through this activity (:

Good job Jing Yin! (:

Noorul Naseema (21) 207

She has analysed her diet in great detail. She used a variety of nutritional tools to do so and has also included the RDDA for the nutrients. This is really thoughtful of her as some people may not know the RDDA and perhaps be unaware of what amount of a certain nutrient is considered too much or too little.

She blogged her one-dish meal really well. She classified the ingredients used into the different nutrients. This makes it very clear to readers why the dish is healthy. Apart from that, she also includes the steps for cooking the meal and I find that very helpful and considerate to readers as they will learn how to recreate the meal and they themselves and consume a very healthy dish (:

Her reflections are good in the sense that it was able to sum up the entire process and include her takeaway. She provides clear explanations for every point she makes. From her reflections, I can tell that a lot of thinking and effort has been put into the process. I commend her for her hard work (:

Great work Naseema!

Through analysing my diet, I realised that I am consuming far too much sodium and saturated fats. My calcium intake is also far too low. This shows how unhealthy my diet is, and to think that I never realised... Well, it's not too late to change my diet. I intend to make modifications to my diet so that I will have a healthy and balanced diet.

One way to cut down on sodium is to simply cut back on my addiction to junk food such as potato chips. Potato chips is merely a want, not a staple food. I should moderate my intake of this so as to reduce my sodium consumption. Saturated fats can also be reduced by removing the skin from meat that I eat. More suggestions for me to achieve a healthier and more balanced diet are in the post below where I used the Food Intake Assessment to assess my diet.

I find my one-dish meal - chicken porridge - to be healthy as it does help me to reduce my sodium and saturated fats intake. The addition of carrots enables me to increase my Vitamin A and fibre, yet it does not add to my intake of saturated fats and the sodium levels are low too. Also, instead of using chicken stock which is full of sodium, I let the natural taste of the chicken blend in with the porridge. Not only is this healthier, but there is also no vast difference in the taste. More elaboration is in the post where I uploaded a photograph of my one-dish meal.

I find the nutritional tools in the Health Promotion Board website to be really helpful. Especially the Food Intake Assessment, the tool was very clear and user-friendly. I did not encounter many problems while using the tool and the results it produced were very detailed. It really taught me the flaws in my diet and how I could modify my diet to make it healthier. The Fat Info Finder and the Energy and Nutrient Composition of Foods tools were helpful in telling me which of the foods I eat were healthy and which were not. By using those tools, I found out that food I enjoy eating, eg. potato chips, are really unhealthy and that I should kick my craving for junk food. Bread, the food I usually eat for breakfast, is very healthy, and therefore I should continue this habit.

I learnt a lot through this activity. I will make amendments to my diet and I hope to achieve and healthy and balanced diet soon! (:

This is the one-dish meal i have cooked. As can be seen from the picture, it is a bowl of porridge with vegetables, chicken, carrots (the small orange things) and really tiny slices of mushrooms (the colour of the mushrooms blend in with the porridge so I guess it's difficult to see).

According to my 3-day diet record, I ate chicken porridge on Friday (26/8/11) for dinner. Usually my chicken porridge is literally simply porridge with chicken slices on it. Well, for this one-dish meal, I modified the usual porridge slightly by adding in carrots and vegetables.

According to the Food Intake Assessment, I consume too much saturated fat and sodium in my diet. Carrots are free of fats and saturated fats. Even the sodium levels are low. Furthermore, it is high in Vitamin A and a good source of fibre. And unlike my favourite snack, potato chips, carrots have low cholesterol! Adding carrots to this dish will certainly increase my nutrition intake.

Plain porridge tastes really bland and is not delicious. By adding in the chicken, not only have I included a protein food, but I have also put in some taste into the food. To let the chicken taste spread, I boiled the water and porridge, and afterwards put in the chicken too, even while the water and porridge was boiling. This way, the taste spread and and the porridge tasted wonderful. One quarter teaspoon (really little) of salt was also added in. This method is indeed healthier compared to using chicken stock as chicken stock is high in sodium and my sodium intake has already gone through the roof.

Therefore, I feel that this one-dish meal is a lot healthier than the usual chicken porridge I eat.

Also, another food I eat frequently - bread - has 0.9g total fat and 0.3g saturated fat for every serving (57g). The fat content here is not that high so I guess it's alright to continue eating it. Bread is also rich in fibre.

According to the Energy and Nutrient Composition of Foods tool, the bread I eat in the morning for breakfast is quite high in dietary fibre. The dietary fibre RDA for females in my age group is 25g and the bread already contains 8.1g of dietary fibre for every serving (336g). The sodium level is also quite low at 1,364g and it contains 0 cholesterol too.

However, my favourite food in McDonalds (I know I shouldn't even be eating there often), Chicken McNuggets, is really really really unhealthy as it has 940mg of sodium and 7.2g of saturated fats. I should really stop eating this as it is really unhealthy and contributes a lot to my excess of sodium and saturated fats.