Drop Those Fatty Foods

Today, life has become very easy for the modern man. At this day and age, there are a lot of instant, packed, processed and preserved food. For people-on-the-go, they find it very convenient to simply pass by a convenience store and grab something.

I love it when I shop for staples at our local supermarket. I recall my friends yelling "What are you looking at? Don't be so picky!". I find it very interesting to compare fat, sodium and sugar contents of certain foods, I sometimes wonder if these measurements are even accurate! I'm very particular about the fat content. So, when can we say we are consuming too much of it before we could notice symptoms of heart disease? First of all, let's take a closer look at the world of fat.


There are two main types of fat - saturated and unsaturated. Together, the two are called, Total Fat. Saturated fat raises blood cholesterol the most. Over time,this extra cholesterol can clog your arteries. You are then at risk for having a heart attack or stroke. This kind of fat is present in fatty cuts of beef, lamb, pork, poultry skin and dairy products like butter, cheese and lard. Some certain oils like palm kernel oil, palm oil, coconut oil and cocoa butter contains high amounts of this kind of fat. Unsaturated fat, on the other hand is a form of fat that is liquid at ordinary temperatures. Common unsaturated fats are derived from oily fish such as herring, tuna, sardines, and salmon; as well as from vegetable oils and nuts. While fats have a bad reputation among the general public (they could pose serious heart disease), they are in fact essential to bodily health, providing protection for vulnerable parts of the body, maintaining warmth in the system, disseminating vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K, helping to keep the hair and skin healthy, and acting as storehouses of energy. These fats are high in calories so they should be consumed in moderation. Thank goodness there are foods that can lower cholesterol levels.

1. Have some fiber for breakfast. Try that oatmeal pack sitting in your pantry for 3 weeks. Eat whole wheat bread products and whole grain waffles and pancakes.
2. Eat Beans! Don't throw them out the window and wait for a beanstalk to pierce the sky. Soy protein in soy products like tofu is very healthful. Try having beansprout soup or a hummus sandwich for lunch.
3. Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Don't substitute fruit juices to whole fruits. Juices are fruits minus most of the fiber!
4. Befriend garlic. Raw or cooked, garlic contains compounds that hinders cholesterol production in the liver. Hah! Good thing I overdose my fried rice with garlic.

These tips are just some of a few,so simple yet I find it really hard to follow. Sometimes being hungry is like having an amnesia. Most of the time I forget all about this and if I do remind myself, I tend to bypass 'firewall' and 'security protection', haha. Well, anyway the bottom line is - you need self discipline if you want to have a low fat, low cholesterol diet.

Korean Food Craze!

I met a Korean girl while I was playing an online game. We started chatting about each others' country and I can't recall how the conversation went on but we eventually found ourselves talking about food! I just discovered that Koreans also use blood in most of their dishes like that of our very own dinuguan. Here it is:

This dish is called Soondae. This is a Korean pork blood sausage, it is stuffed with rice and sweet potato noodles. It is sliced and served with a dry dipping mix of salt, pepper, and ground chili pepper flakes. There are also other versions of this treat. This is often seen in Koreanovelas served by pojangmacha or street vendors. It is a very popular street food.

There's only one thing that kept me licking this picture off my computer screen...

The mere fact that kimchi is spicy and I hate anything spicy but this one looked so good, reminds me of tapsilog. This is Korean Fried Kimchi Rice. The name says it all - it's Korean, it's fried, there's kimchi and there's rice! Ahaha! There are a lot of interesting Korean dishes, try them out at your local Korean resto!

Bananas for Breakfast?

There's a new diet craze booming in Japan. It's called the "Morning Banana Diet".


A Japanese opera singer named Kumiko Mori revealed she lost 15 pounds in just 6 weeks!

The whole concept of this diet is to eat a banana in the morning for breakfast and for the rest of the day, you could eat normally. Note, the term used here is "normally". Cut your rice intake in half and find a substitute for fried foods. The only liquid you can drink is water at room temperature (not hot or cold). You should eat dinner between 6-8pm, go to bed before midnight and have enough sleep. There was a study that lack of sleep could actually contribute in weight gain! So people, count your Zzz's and befriend atleast one sheep. Haha. These are just some of a few reminders in doing the diet.

So, what's with the banana you ask? Actually you could substitute a banana with another fruit, but then again, you can't call it "Banana Diet" would you? Haha. Well anyway, Bananas contain resistant starch, which ferments in your large intestine, creating by-products that block conversion of some carbohydrates into fuel. A University of Colorado study found that an increase in the amount of resistant starch contained in a meal "significantly increased post-prandial lipid oxidation and therefore could decrease fat accumulation in the long run." Replacing 5.4% of ordinary carbs with resistant starch could boost fat burning by up to 30% Practically speaking that means eating two bananas in the morning could enhance fat burning for hours.

This kind of diet is proven effective based on scientific findings. The good thing about this diet is it doesn't require exercise. Well, you could exercise if you want to, I think it would be better. This diet is also good for chronic breakfast-skippers for it provide metabolic boosts. I'm really interested in this kind of diet, if I won't go for vegetarianism I might consider this.