SEEING A DIETITIAN AT THE HOSPITAL

I went to see a dietitian at Sultanah Aminah Hospital so as to get her advice for the appropriate diet I should be on so as to avoid the formation of renal stones again. I have been hearing all sorts of things that should not be eaten from other people but the dietitian was not telling the same story. Basically, there is NO specific type of food that has to be avoided and she was just showing what a healthy diet should be like, in a more detailed manner which I found I do not practise some of the time. At the same time, I have to make sure that I do not gain weight but I am having an ideal BMI (body mass index) for now. So here are some tips that I think I can share with you:

(1) Have a consistent time for each meal. This is quite difficult because I eat when I feel like eating, or when the time permits to do so.

(2) Have breakfast in the morning, as early as 7:00-8:00 a.m. I always take breakfast late, like at 9:oo or 10:00 and sometimes when there are events to attend early in the morning and breakfast is ignored, or replaced during tea break.

(3) Try to avoid tea or coffee - but I just love tea (with flavours and Nescafe). I have to drink more milk and if I am tired of milk, I can switch to soy bean milk, yogurt and yogurt drinks. Milk should be taken twice a day and choose low fat milk. Milk is not fattening, except powdered milk.

(4) 3-in-1 sachet drinks are not good. Creamer is also not good. Even though creamer is produced from vegetable fat, it is still fattening. How scary! I always like to have my Nescafe or Milo milkier, by adding more creamer in my drinks.

(5) Noodles, the big and yellow in colour (Malay: mee kuning), is not good for health. It has high cholesterol and high content of boric acid. Eat vermacelli noodles (Malay: mee hoon) instead.

(6) Dinner cannot be eaten too late because it is not good for your digestion. A good time for dinner will be about at 8:00 p.m. and considering the fact how late I arrive home from school every day, this is quite impossible.

(7) When extracting the fruit juice, you will find that the juice will be separated from the pulp and we will simply throw the pulp away. Nevertheless, the pulp is actually the part that contains higher vitamins rather than the juice itself. So next time, mix the pulp with the juice and drink it.

Truth is stranger than fiction. I will add more information if I can remember what the dietitian had told me.