Healthy Hawker Food?? Really?

I was asked to do a presentation on this topic yesterday to a company. Actually it’s not an easy topic to cover – Healthy Hawker Food – personally I do not think it exists.

Hawker food actually originated from the street hawkers serving ready to eat food to the ‘coolies’ or labourers from the ‘old economy’. The dock workers, warehouse labourers, boat men; hence you’ll find that most of these hawkers began their trade along the river or wharfs.

The food was high in carbohydrates and fat, strong tasting and was prepared quickly. Hence they were either fried or flash boiled, served with oils or seasoning.

They were fine and actually quite appropriate for the workers then – the hard bodies needed the fat and quick energy from the carbohydrates to lift, pull and push the loaded bags and crates.

But eating these foods today may not be a good idea. Face it we’re mostly working with computers and in the office, sheltered from the sun and the only pushing done is with a pen. All that fat and carbohydrate goes into storage as body fat – with little or no hope of ever being used.

So is it surprising that you are fat?

No matter how you choose, it’s a challenge. How does one avoid the salt and fat in Hawker food? Most hawkers especially the ones in the Central Business District, will not accede to any request to cut the oils or the salt as they have to prepare the food in bulk for the sake of speed and profit.

The Food Pyramid – how it came about.

A census was done in the USA in the early 70’s. What it revealed was alarming – that more than 22% of Americans were obese. Logically it was thought, the only reason was that the American diet consisted of high fat and if that was reduced, then America could become a slim, healthy nation again.

Low fat gurus, and aerobics divas in leotards started to spring up together with their low fat diet program. America was on a warpath again and this time they were damn sure that they would win (after having to pull out of Vietnam around that time as well).

The Surgeon General (or the equivalent of the HSA) introduced the magic Food Pyramid – the panacea to its obesity woes – Complex carbohydrates forming the base – the highly recommended food group, followed by fruits and vegetables, then the proteins and lastly the least recommended, fats.

Products like margarine and non-diary creamer were touted as ‘healthy’ alternatives to the high fat stuff like butter and milk. They were included in everything - from cereals to ice-cream.

The marketing was swift and furious with almost every country adopting it. Even till today the Food Pyramid is taught in our schools and nutritionists still swear by it.

Hurray! We can now enjoy our food like our pastries and breads and pasta loaded with artificially made fats (trans fats) and we’ll still be slim. Or at least that was what the manufacturers wanted us to believe – and for a long time we did.

Ironically in that almost 40 years of adopting the Food Pyramid and a high Carbohydrate/ low fat diet as the best was to stay healthy, the percentage of fat Americans have more than doubled the 1970 figures! Today more than 50% of Americans are obese or heading that way.

We in Singapore have dutifully adopted much of the American diets - convenient, quick, processed stuff that's full of very little actually.

It’s time for change…again.

How do you prevent fatigue and depression?

Eat well balanced nutritious foods (see 35 year old Chicken Rice and sea salt anyone?)

Do Aerobic exercises – 3 to 5 times a week (see Aerobic and Anaerobic). Exercise releases endorphins, which is our body’s natural feel good drug. Studies have shown that it is as potent and addictive as any other artificial or illegal drug. It helps create a good addiction – to exercise.

One thing I’ve found is that I tend to be more cautious about my food and I control my alcohol intake the moment I began exercising and saw the results. So it has multiple effects.

Take a broad spectrum, nutritional supplement,
One I highly recommend is Essentials by USANA Health Sciences. It is a broad spectrum supplement i.e. it contains all the necessary vitamins, anti-oxidants and trace minerals necessary to maintain good health; it is also Potency Guaranteed and is a Pharmaceutical Grade supplement.

Spend time in the sun
Vitamin D is necessary for the body to produce Calcium, for our bones and helps us relax. Sun exposure will also help alleviate depression. The Swedes for example are given 3 months vacation in summer, to go spend time in the sun.

Sleep and Rest
At least 7 hours; as our bodies need time for to complete the repair process. Even the machines in the office need down time for servicing and repair and that’s what sleep is. Sleep depravation increases blood pressure and (as new research seem to indicate) even diabetes.

Reduce Mental Stress
Focus on a hobby or read a good book or listen to healing music. Meditate or do something that allows you to be in your own space away from your work, spouse and children. Learn to be in the present. Check out Steven Halpern’s music. It’s extremely soothing and will help you relax.

Increase your self esteem
Learn to accept and love yourself. Join a gym to get fit and feel good. Pamper yourself by rewarding yourself with a good massage or spa treatment every month. Buy a new dress or tie, get a good haircut. Do something that you’ve always wanted to do but never got down to doing. Feel the pleasure of and joy being yourself or finding yourself again.

Minimize watching or listening to the daily news; it’s full of same bad news and advertisements that seem to imply you’re bald, fat and ugly, need credit, bigger breast and a firmer butt.

One caution about spending however – Budget and use cash. Leave your Credit Cards at home. Depressed people can go overboard giving themselves ‘retail therapy’ sometimes and end up in greater depression when the banks come a-calling at the end of the month.

Fatigue and Depression

Stress is a natural occurrence that actually keeps us alive.

At the onset of stress our body immediately releases adrenaline, for ‘flight or fight’ reflexes, and switches our body from burning fat to leaching the ready but limited supply of glycogen in our muscles.

This allows us to be extremely alert, full of energy to defend our lives (or lives of our children) and not feel pain long enough either to win the fight or get to a safe distance before we feel the pain from our injuries.

You’ve probably heard of women and mothers who are able to lift cars many times their weight to free their trapped children; the result of adrenaline and glycogen.

After a certain time the body releases another set of chemicals (serotonin, endorphins and anti-oxidants) to help the body ‘calm down’ and recover – stress creates free radical that damage our cells.

But prolonged stress (work, spousal and financial challenges) leaves no room for our body to recover. To make things worse it creates a vicious cycle that ultimately leads to fatigue and depression and inadvertently, mental and physical diseases.

How do you know that you’re depressed?

Well see if you suffer from a series of these, then you probably are:

• Mood Swings


• Weight gain – Excessive appetite


• Weight loss or anorexia


• Unexplained exhaustion


• Lack of physical and mental energy


• Agitation


• Excessive sensitivity to rejection


• Insomnia
• Daytime sleepiness or grogginess

What’s Aerobic and what’s Anaerobic?

There are basically 2 sources of energy that the body utilises.

Under normal circumstances your body will burn fat. In fact that is what the body prefers to do – burn fat. Fat takes a longer time to covert into usable energy for the body. It provides prolonged, sustainable and clean energy, coming from the liver and the fat cells in our body. It’s also less stressful for the body.

If you are exercising somewhat hard, where you can speak 5 words – My name is Vasu Dev – before having you gasp for air again, then you’re probably exercising at an aerobic rate. Your heart is beating between 60% and 70% of your maximum heart rate and your body is using oxygen to burn fat for energy.

Under stressful circumstances however, the body requires instant energy. For example, when you are being pursued by a lion. You need instant energy to get away from the threat. The body will shut down the fat burning process and use the glycogen (stored sugar) in your muscles. It shifts to what’s called an anaerobic rate. Your heart is beating between 80% and 100% of your maximum heart rate and does not use oxygen.

In this state, the body shuts down the fat burning process. It converts glycogen into energy and produces, as a by-product, lactic acid, which creates the painful ‘burn’ in muscles. So when you’re running real hard, and are panting like mad, YOU ARE NOT BURNING FAT and NOT USING OXYGEN! You are stressing your body and producing lots painful lactic acid and a lot more free radicals in the process. Result – no immediate fat loss and free radical damage.

(I shall write about the importance of nutritional supplements soon)

Getting Started

Yes, how do you start on an exercise program without feeling overwhelmed with the ‘what to’ and ‘how to’?

Let’s assume you want to lose weight. So here’s what you can do.

Begin an aerobic program.
Exercise at a pace that makes you work at a somewhat hard rate but not until you are panting, producing painful lactic acid and 3 minutes away from a heart attack.

Do the following 3 to 4 times a week at an aerobic rate:
1. Start with brisk walking or jogging (not running, yet) ideally on a treadmill where you can monitor your heart rate, your pace and the difficulty factor
2. For 20 to 25 minutes
3. You could near the end of the session exercise slightly harder and push your heart rate into the anaerobic range, but jus for a minute or so.
4. Cool down and end the session with light stretches.

Go Aerobic, and you’ll end up looking real good and feeling real great in a real short time.

NOTE:
Err... please do not give yourself the excuse to eat any more than what you normally eat, just because you exercised.

Why lose weight?

Well yeah, there’s lots of stuff that’ll run thru your mind with this one. How fast can I lose these kilos, for how long will I have to sacrifice my favourite lontong, mee siam or char kuay teow; “You mean I’ll have to exercise? Really?”

Well here’s the low down.

If you’re losing weight for cosmetic sake alone, forget it. You’ll put it all back on after that party. I suspect you know what I mean.

You buy this beautiful, slinky, black dress for next week’s dinner and dance, one size smaller. Then you starve yourself for the week so that you’ll fit into the dress, just in time for the party.

Note: if you’re a guy you may want to get the biggest dress size. All that beer will cause your waistline to expand during the party.

If you’ve done this before, you’d probably have also experienced putting all the weight back on – and MORE.

If you can understand the health benefits of losing weight, you’ll have a better chance of keeping it off. And the sacrifices you make by way of your food and life style change will be worth your efforts.

And the benefits of long term weight loss??

Lifelong HEALTH! – Errrr HALO!

Longevity. Being able to see your sons or daughters get married and holding your grand child in your arms! If that’s not as important, then think about being able to live long enough to cash out your CPF and actually touching the cash, finally!

Freedom. Being able to enjoy something as basic as strolling along the beach with a loved one or playing golf – without labouring under all that weight. The last thing the next flight needs is someone clutching his chest and rolling around on the 9th hole.

Make sure that your doctor would only be able to afford to drive a Geely. You’ll not have pay hefty hospital bills or pop handfuls of expensive medicine daily to control your blood pressure or blood sugar.

Look and feel great. The fitter you are the better you carry yourself, the greater your self esteem – you’ll even look more attractive to your spouse.

You smell better too really. I know that it’s a mean thing, to say but the fatter you are the greater the chance for bacteria to have a party and multiply in the many folds of your skin.

Ensure that you get that promotion at work. Studies have shown that to a great extent, employers tend to associate fitness with being able to handle greater responsibilities – hence the promotion.

Lower life insurance premiums. If the insurance companies charge you more for being overweight don’t be mad or feel offended. It’s your fault in the first place.

Better Sex. Hey all your plumbing will be in good working order anyway, so might as well make good use of it, right?