https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/the-food-challenge-can-you-eat-healthy-with-only-hawker-food
2024-02-18
The Food Challenge: Can you eat healthy with only hawker food?
BY LEE LI YING, ZHAKI ABDULLAH, SANDY NG, CARLOS MARIN, HANNAH ONG AND ERNEST ONG | PUBLISHED: FEB 18, 2024
Singaporeans love their hawker fare, it’s the easiest and satisfying option for a delicious meal.
But with rising obesity and high blood pressure incidence rates, can we have our hawker food and eat it too?
Try your hand at selecting a combination of breakfast, lunch and dinner, using 18 of the most commonly found hawker dishes here. Let’s see if you’ll bust the recommended nutritional limits.
Select a meal:
BREAKFAST
LUNCH
DINNER
See https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/the-food-challenge-can-you-eat-healthy-with-only-hawker-food
Select a dish: See
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/the-food-challenge-can-you-eat-healthy-with-only-hawker-food
Economic fried bee hoon
FRIED BEE HOON
ECONOMIC
Fried bee hoon with chicken and egg
FRIED BEE HOON
CHICKEN & EGG
Chicken briyani
CHICKEN
BRIYANI
Nasi lemak, rice only
NASI LEMAK
RICE ONLY
Nasi lemak with fried egg only
NASI LEMAK
FRIED EGG
Nasi Lemak with chicken wing
NASI LEMAK
CHICKEN WING
Prata set (1 plain, 1 egg)
PRATA SET
PLAIN & EGG
Breakfast set (kaya toast, two soft-boiled eggs)
KAYA TOAST
SOFT-BOILED EGGS
Brown rice bee hoon, fried, plain
BROWN RICE
BEE HOON
Chicken chop, grilled
CHICKEN CHOP
GRILLED
Chicken rice, with roasted chicken
CHICKEN RICE
ROASTED
Chicken rice, with steamed chicken
CHICKEN RICE
STEAMED
Wanton noodles dry
WANTON NOODLES
DRY
Wanton noodles soup
WANTON NOODLES
SOUP
Fish ball noodles soup
FISHBALL NOODLES
SOUP
Soup, fish with rice
FISH SOUP
WITH RICE
Mee rebus, without gravy
MEE REBUS
NO GRAVY
Mee rebus
MEE REBUS
WITH GRAVY
========
There are 1,140 possible daily meal combinations for this game.
Taking as its basis a 2,000 calorie a day diet - which can generally meet the nutritional requirements of a wide variety of people - ST’s analysis found that only 5 per cent of the possible daily meal combinations in this game would not bust the recommendations for intake of sodium or fat, among other criteria.
Of course, this does not take into account factors such as gender, age, weight and life circumstances - for instance, only 3 per cent of the possible daily meal combinations would be possible following the same criteria above for a young woman (21 years old, 60kg, 160cm); for an elderly man (60 years old, 70kg, 170cm), it would be 6 per cent.
Do speak to a health professional for advice on your dietary requirements.
What’s healthy?
It is clear that hawker centre meals on their own can be rather unhealthy. But can we modify the meals so that they are nutritionally better for us?
Over the course of five days, reporters from The Straits Times attempted to find the healthiest hawker dishes possible while dining out for at least two meals a day.
The reporters ate according to the Health Promotion Board’s My Healthy Plate guidelines.
This means for each meal, we should strive to have…
1⁄2 plate with fruits and vegetables, which is about 2 servings of vegetables or 1 serving of vegetables and 1 serving of fruit
1⁄4 plate with lean protein, which could be a palm-sized serving of fish or poultry, 3 eggs, or 2 small blocks of tofu
1⁄4 plate of wholegrains, which could be a bowl of brown rice or wholegrain noodles
=====
Tips from nutrition experts
**Plain rice can be a better choice compared with flavoured rice like chicken rice, duck rice, nasi lemak or nasi briyani, as such carbohydrates are cooked with salt and fat, said Raffles Hospital principal dietitian Bibi Chia.
**For noodle dishes such as fishball noodles and ban mian, opting for the soupy version is often healthier than choosing the dry version, as dry noodles are often mixed with a myriad of sauces that may contain chilli sauce, oil, lard and gravy. Soupy noodles like mee soto or beehoon soto are healthier halal alternatives to fried noodles, said Changi General Hospital senior dietician Fionn Chua.
**Are wholegrain options harder to come by in the hawker centres or coffee shops near you? Try bringing your own brown rice or noodles and ordering the other ingredients from the stalls instead, suggested Raffles Hospital’s Ms Chia.
Meal analysis
RATED BY CHANGI GENERAL HOSPITAL SENIOR DIETICIAN FIONN CHUA
SWEET POTATO PORRIDGE WITH TWO VEGETABLE DISHES AND BRAISED CHICKEN DRUMLETS
Price (Dec 2023): $4
From: Mixed-rice stall at 203 Toa Payoh North coffee shop
Reporter’s comments: This was one of my first few meals, and it was a very late lunch at around 3pm. Options were limited and all the meat dishes left were either braised with heavy gravy, deep-fried, or worse, deep-fried with a sauce like sweet and sour pork.
I took the best option I could find - which was braised chicken drumsticks. There were no brown rice or wholegrain options, so I opted for sweet potato porridge, along with two vegetable dishes - which gravy I avoided ladling all over my porridge like I usually would.
Dietician’s rating: 4/5
Dietician’s comments: Good choices. Although there are no wholegrains, the addition of sweet potato does increase the fibre content of this meal. Braised meat is less oily than deep-fried options. However, it is advisable to make an effort to remove the skin and fat of the drumsticks as much as possible. For the vegetables, having the dish on a separate plate helps, as the gravy is not directly added to the porridge.
BROWN RICE WITH TWO PORTIONS OF VEGETABLES AND CHICKEN BREAST MEAT
Price (Dec 2023): $2.70 for brown rice and two veggies at mixed-rice stall, $6 for chicken breast from chicken rice stall
From: Two separate stalls at Market Street Hawker Centre
Reporter’s comments: Office workers who work in the Central Business District have no lack of healthy options - with various salad bars and cafes catering to the health conscious. But I wanted to see if I would be able to get something healthy at a hawker centre.
After circling the two-storey hawker centre twice, I found wholegrains only at the mixed-rice and the vegetarian stall. Disappointingly, the vegetarian stall was sold out, and there were no more lean protein options at the mixed-rice stall.
I thought it would be a stroke of genius to mix-and-match my meal by ordering brown rice and vegetables from the mixed-rice stall and chicken breast from the chicken rice stall. But alas, there was a minimum order, and I ended up having to pay for a $6 portion of chicken breast - which could last me two meals. I decided to save a portion for my dinner.
Dietician’s rating: 4.5/5
Dietician’s comments: Overall, a well-balanced meal. It was a smart move to mix and match dishes from various stalls at the hawker centre to try to hit the proportions recommended by Health Promotion Board’s My Healthy Plate. Alternatively, for those who eat with colleagues, friends, or family members, this could be applied when sharing food.
=====
BRAISED CHICKEN IN CHONGQING-STYLE BROTH, WITH SPINACH AND KAILAN, AND SWEET POTATO NOODLES
Price (Dec 2023): $14.30 in total - $9.80 for small chicken hotpot, $1.50 each for two portions of vegetables and one portion of sweet potato noodles
From: Jing Chicken Pot at Kopitiam @ Plaza Singapura
Reporter’s comments: I had a busy day and felt quite grouchy at the thought of having to hunt for wholegrains at a foodcourt. The only stall that had brown rice was, as usual, the mixed-rice stall, but again, only deep-fried options were left. I tried to buy just a serving of rice itself, but they would not sell it to me!
At this point my stomach was rumbling loudly in protest - and I caved to the delicious scent of herbal soup that wafted over from the chicken pot stall. It is not the healthiest choice, but my willpower has been weakened. Instead of rice, I opted for sweet potato noodles because a quick Google search told me that it was a low-calorie option. I also added toppings of vegetables.
The dish turned out more gravy-like than soupy, and I honestly felt a little guilty for ordering such a sodium-laden dish and avoided drinking the gravy.
Dietician’s rating: 3.5/5
Dietician’s comments: Considering that the previous meals were mainly rice with dishes, I understand why you opted for a more exciting dish. Kudos for making a conscious effort to limit consuming all the gravy due to the sodium content and adding more vegetables.
There are always small tweaks that we can make to our meals to make them healthier and to ensure more fibre, less sodium, less fat, or less sugar. Over time, this can become a habit and one would no longer have to struggle with negative emotions like guilt.
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Produced by:
Carlos Marin
Ernest Ong
Hannah Ong
Sandy Ng
Methodology
===========
For the data-driven part of the story, we restricted our selection of hawker food to a list of 18 dishes based on the Institute of Policy Studies’ Makan Index 2.0 from 2023. The study analyses 13 meals, but we included variants for some dishes, such as nasi lemak and beehoon.
We then gathered the nutritional facts for those meals using the Health Promotion Board’s Energy and Nutrient Composition of Food database.
For the data analysis, we considered that a person would eat a combination of three meals during the day – for 18 dishes, this results in 1,140 possibilities.
The healthy score is calculated by discarding those combinations that exceeded the daily intake. These are the values we used for the 2,000 kcal diet:
• PROTEIN: 15% of calories (4 calories per gram)
• TOTAL FAT: 30% of calories (9 calories per gram)
• SATURATED FAT: 10% of calories (9 calories per gram)
• CARBOHYDRATE: 52.5% of calories (4 calories per gram)
• DIETARY FIBRE: 23g
• SUGAR: 10% of calories (4 calories per gram)
• SODIUM: 2,000mg
When we took age and gender into consideration, we changed some of the parameters:
• PROTEIN: 0.8 of body weight if age is between 18 and 49 years, and 1.2 of body weight if 50 years or older. We also added a 15% tolerance to make the values compatible with the average limit.
• DIETARY FIBRE: 20g (women) and 26g (men)
To calculate the calories for our personas, we used the Mifflin St Jeor formula factored to the light activity level:
1. Determine the basal metabolic rate (BMR):
BMR(women) = 10 X weight (kg) + 6.25 X height (cm) - 5 x age (years) - 161
BMR(men) = 10 X weight (kg) + 6.25 X height (cm) - 5 x age (years) + 5
2. Multiply the BMR by the activity factor:
BMR × 1.2 : SEDENTARY – little to no exercise or desk job
BMR × 1.375: LIGHT ACTIVITY – exercise 1 to 3 days per week
BMR × 1.55 : MODERATE ACTIVITY – exercise 3 to 5 days per week
BMR × 1.725: VERY ACTIVE – exercise 6 to 7 days per week
BMR × 1.9 : EXTRA ACTIVE – exercise at least 2 times per day
Source: Institute of Policy Studies’ Makan Index 2.0
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