Choose Lower Calorie Meals

Have you seen the poster below recently? The Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB) is working with different partners to offer lower-calorie meals as part of the National Healthy Lifestyle Campaign (NHLC) 2010.

Is there a  reason they are doing it?

It's because 1 in every 10 persons in Singapore is OBESE! Obese means you are 'super overweight', or technically having BMI exceeding 25. If you notice there seems to be more plus size people around, you are right! Obesity rates in Singapore had risen from 6.9% in 2004 to 10.8% this year.

We all look for food that's appetizing and delicious to eat. If it's mediocre, why bother right? The F&B operators and HPB knows that. These partners did lots of research and taste testing before offering these lower-calorie meals.

I was skeptical that F&B folks say in the food court knows how to measure the calorie in the meals. So I asked the Health Promotion Board folks how do I know it's really less than 600 kCal? These F&B operators sends their recipe and ingredients to the HPB and HPB calculates for them.



The poster above was taken at the Kopitiam Food Court at VivoCity a few days ago. If you want to know which food courts around are joint partners in this program, you can click here.  It's not only food courts that HPB had partnered. They have also partnered many reputable restaurants in Singapore. You can see the list of restaurants here.



I had a food tasting session organised by the HPB for a few bloggers recently. Surprise, surprise! These innovative folks tweaked their recipes and the food tasted good! It's not that they skimp on ingredients. They just opted for healthier ingredients. Watch out for the post the next few days in my food blog. Imagine, a low calorie laksa actually taste good!


For Facebook addicts:
You can 'like' the HPB page and get informed of how to keep yourself healthy. They also inform their fans about the different activities they have. 'Like' http://www.facebook.com/hpbsg now!

For iPhone, Android phone addicts:
Many of us use smartphones and we download apps non stop. If you have tried to search for Apps that tells you how much calories food and drinks have, they are only application to 'western' food. I have been using CalorieCount for sometime. No Char Kuey Teow inside.

If you are looking for an App that has calories count of our local delicacies, HPB has created an app for us! HPB DietTracker is now available for free! If you are an iPhone user, click here to go to the Apple App Store. If you are using other phones, download the Java App here.

Be Positive

The Singapore Health Promotion Board had a "Be Positive" event recently.
It was health in conjunction with World Mental Health Day which was on 10-10-10.

I think it's a good day to choose 10-10-10.
Whether you are using the US or Singapore way of reading dates, you know which day it is. You won't 'go mental' trying to figure out what day it is. LOL



I took this photo at Marina Square. It is a big jenga like display with lots of positive words on it.
Are you a positive person or are you always having negative thoughts?

I know some people do break down. There was an ex-colleague working in another department which we think has gone 'mental'. She talks to us about things that happened a few years ago as if it just happened a few days ago. I think she went to the doctors and is under medication.

If you think someone you know needs help, there are lots of Mental Health Services contacts in Singapore listed at http://www.depnet.com.sg/uni0/emergencyhelp/