In my course of Nutrition and Exercise Science_Part 3: Nutrition Adequacy

I was reading The Straits Times when I came across this headline – “Take steps to prevent falls“, dated 1 April 2019.

This reminded me of an assignment given to us on the topic of Nutrition Adequacy.  Similar to the article, it was targeting the elderly’s health.

It was stated in the article that the number of hip fractures in Singapore is around 2500 per year.  And 20% from this group dies within a year 🙁  This is quite a high percentage…

Due to their immobility, their muscles get wasted and they also get complications such as bed sores, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, constipation and many more; all which threaten their lives.

Other than preventing osteoporosis to avoid fractures and higher chance, hip fractures, it is also important to prevent falls.  Why do the elderly fall?  

Poor vision, muscle weakness are some reasons and chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases with high or low blood pressure can cause dizziness.

Sarcopenia is a disease associated with muscle-loss with ageing.  With the loss of muscles, it is easy for them to fall.  To lower the rate of muscle-loss, strength (resistance) exercise, as well as sufficient protein intake is important.

“Protein is the king of muscle food. The body breaks it down into amino acids, which it uses to build muscle.” – https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/preserve-your-muscle-mass

However, again due to ageing, some begin to encounter difficulties chewing and/or swallowing of their food.  They tend to avoid fruits and vegetables, go for refined food such as white bread, rice, noodles that are easier to chew, but clearly in lack of vitamins and protein found in vegetables and legumes.

As one gets older, the calories needed is also less due to a drop in basal metabolism and lean muscle mass.  Their diet thus needs to be nutrient-rich.  Plant-based over animal-based are preferred as the former has no cholesterol, lesser calories and saturated fat.

Nutritional Immunology products such as Nutrifresh, Aromantic, Vegecolor become a very good wholefood beverages to supplement their diet for protein, vitamins, phytochemicals, fiber, antioxidants and calcium.

One can also refer to the Health Promotion Board – Dietary Guidelines for Elderly to understand more about elderly nutrition.

Last but not least, the elderly regard food as a family; the togetherness that equates to quality of life and eating well.

5 April 2019

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Vegecolor & Freeze Drying

An ingenious product that has 28 different vegetables in a serving!  So convenient..just add the powder in your food or stir it as a drink!!

The following shows the ingredients in one sachet.

I attempted tang yuan using Vegecolor and they are nice! I mixed the vegecolor with the flour, formed the dough and boiled them. It’s not too difficult. I didn’t take any photos of the process. The following was what I captured when it was done by another independent distributor. The tang yuan can be added as toppings over red bean soup.

You can be as creative as you want with Vegecolor, especially when your little ones are picky with vegetables. Add them to your recipes!

Over your dishes
Bake with your muffins
Bake with your bread
Over porridge
With rice in sushi and as toppings

Note: The consumption of different colors of vegetables are important as they contain different types of phytochemicals.  Phytochemicals found in plants possess anticancer capabilities.  Each type of phytochemical can block one of the processes that leads to cancer. 

Many people have the impression that all health supplements contain preservatives.  They are not totally wrong.  Majority of the retail health supplements do contain preservatives, as indicated on their bottles/boxes.  It is rare to find preservatives-free supplements.

Nutritional Immunology products are without preservatives and additives. How is that so?

The company uses – Freeze-drying technique to eliminate the use of preservatives. Not only preservatives are not needed, freeze-drying allows the freshness of a harvest to be conserved.

Freeze-drying is not a new technology and has been around for decades.  One may do an Internet search to understand how this technique works.  Rare to find a health supplement manufacturer using this technology. After all, it is a time-consuming and expensive process.

Some extracts from wikipedia 
“The primary purpose of freeze drying within the food industry to extend the shelf-life of the food while maintaining the quality.  Freeze-drying is known to result in the highest quality of foods amongst all drying techniques because structural integrity is maintained along with preservation of flavors.  Because freeze drying is expensive, it is used mainly with high-value products.  Examples of high-value freeze-dried products are seasonal fruits and vegetables because of their limited availability…”

“The primary purpose of freeze drying within the food industry to extend the shelf-life of the food while maintaining the quality. Freeze-drying is known to result in the highest quality of foods amongst all drying techniques because structural integrity is maintained along with preservation of flavors. Because freeze drying is expensive, it is used mainly with high-value products. 

“Shelf-life extension is a result from low processing temperatures in conjunction with rapid transition of water through sublimation. With these processing conditions, deterioration reactions, including nonenzymatic browning, enzymatic browning, and protein denaturation, are minimized. When the product is successfully dried, packaged properly, and placed in ideal storage conditions the foods have a shelf life of greater than 12 months.”

我家宝宝的辅食品 – 多蔬彩 Vegecolor

25 September 2018.

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我家宝宝的辅食品 – 多蔬彩 Vegecolor

Photo credit: Regine Tan

做为新手妈妈,对于孩子的营养是所有妈妈不能忽视的,所以在准备我家宝宝的辅食品我也尽量给于新鲜的食材。 可是一天里没办法让宝宝吃到那么多种蔬菜水果,多蔬彩 Vegecolor 就能让我轻松做到这点,精心配比制成,保留了多种蔬菜的植物性营养,小包设计,轻巧便捷,可巧手应用于生活各处,随时随地为您补充植物性营养所以我都会添加在宝宝的粥让他能有跟均衡的营养。

新加坡工厂制造

Article contributed by Regine Tan. 11 June 2018.

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