| If
you have any questions or comments, please feel
free to email us at fun-in-seven@cuhk.edu.hk |
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Now's
the time to make your New Year's Resolutions for
2004. (Dec 30, 2003)
It's a time you can look back to the past year,
review your achievements, and and use the new
year to make a fresh start to promise yourself
to become a better you and get the most out of
2004!
Make a resolution to eat healthily and get more
physical activity. You don't need a whole diet
or lifestyle change all at once, but think about
how your lifestyle measures up to a healthy lifestyle,
and pick a single action or behavior that you
think you can do better on.
For example,
-
every day I will have two fruits. Or,
-
every day I will have two medium rice bowls
of vegetables. Or,
- every
day, I will walk for at least 1/2 hour. Or,
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I will have breakfast every day. Or,
-
I will drink fruit juice or water instead of
carbonated drinks when I eat out.
See?
It doesn't have to be a drastic change at all,
just something that will help you balance your
diet or lifestyle. By doing so, you will be making
a positive move that will bring you lifelong benefit!
Do this with your family members or your classmates,
and see what different kinds of resolutions each
of you will think of. Maybe their ideas will be
good for you to consider when you make your next
resolution!
Here's wishing you a Happy New Year!
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| Q
1. |
I
would like to know what kind of food should I eat
everyday so as to be healthy. Can I get a set of
menu for it? (23 May 02) |
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| Answer:
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To
be healthy, you should follow the Healthy Diet Pyramid
when choosing your foods and beverages. It is not
practical for Fun-in-Seven to give you a set of
healthy menus because each person has his/her own
food tastes and other preferences with respect to
cooking styles and meal patterns. Also, different
people allocate different amounts of time for meal
preparation and consumption and have different food
budgets. You, therefore, are your own best source
of a healthy menu!
However,
to help guide you and everyone else, the key is
to eat a variety of foods every day in amounts
that generally follow the proportions recommended
by the Healthy
Diet Pyramid. There is a section on this website
explaining the Healthy Diet Pyramid, and it gives
you many suggestions as to how to do choose your
food to be healthy. Other sections on the website
about breakfast, lunch, eating out, and snacking,
introduce how to use the Healthy Diet Pyramid
as your tool to choose your own healthy diet in
these special situations.
We
hope you will visit the different sections and
that you find the information clear enough and
activities helpful to enable you to develop your
own healthy menus!
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| Q
2. |
I
heard that having some sweet or sugary food for
breakfast could raise the blood sugar or glucose
level and boost brainpower for an examination. Is
that true? Also, what amount is appropriate? Will
taking too much sugar lead to tiredness? (23 Jun
04) |
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| Answer: |
The
brain is one of the most active organs in our
body. It needs a steady supply of glucose and
oxygen as fuels to work. Although sweet or sugary
food that quickly raises your blood sugar level
may give you a boost, it's short-lived. As soon
as you eat something with a high sugar content,
its sugar is quickly released into your blood.
Then your pancreas starts to secrete the hormone
insulin to reduce your blood sugar. Insulin triggers
cells throughout your body to take the excess
sugar out of your bloodstream and store it for
later use. Soon, the sugar available from your
blood to your brain has dropped. Nerve cells,
or neurons, unable to store the sugar, experience
an energy crisis. You will feel tired, weak, and
maybe confused, less able to concentrate and nervous.
The
best way to better your performance is to eat
a healthy balanced breakfast with some grain foods
(such as bread or oats or noodles or rice, preferably
whole grains that are not to sweet). These less
sweet grain foods will result in a steadier release
of sugars into your bloodstream. Therefore your
brainpower can be sustained and you can concentrate
more, have a better memory and get higher marks
in examinations. If you want to know more about
a better breakfast, you can visit the Healthy
Breakfast section in this website.
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| Q
3. |
I
would like to know how much exercise teenagers (aged
10 - 18) should do every day so as to stay healthy?
(17 Aug 04) |
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| Answer: |
The
most beneficial exercise recommendation for teenagers
is to (1) do 30 minutes or more of moderate to
vigorous? physical activity daily or (2) at least
1 hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity
on every other day.
And
similar to healthy eating, we should engage in
a variety of physical activities to stay healthy.
In the secondary student section of this website,
the Physical
Activity Pyramid can guide you to what activities
you should do more and what activities (like watching
television!) you should do less often. In another
section you will find tips on increasing your
daily physical activities.
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| Q
4. |
What
is a salt substitute? (17 Aug 04) |
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| Answer: |
Salt
is the naturally occurring chemical compound sodium
chloride, composed of the elements sodium and
chloride. It goes into our blood and other bodily
fluids and helps retain water in our body. Some
people may have hypertension or heart disease
and be asked by a doctor or dietitian to choose
a "salt substitute" instead of using ordinary
salt to make foods taste salty.
Salt
substitutes are usually made with potassium instead
of sodium, and they can also give food a salty
taste. Because of their low sodium content, replacing
salt with salt substitute in the diet may help
reduce hypertension. However, too much potassium
may also be harmful if you have kidney problems
or you are taking certain medications to treat
high blood pressure or heart failure. So, please
remember to use salt substitutes according to
instructions and don't overuse it as too much
potassium can build up in your body.
Generally,
we can get adequate amount of salt from many foods
without adding salt. Some people, the aborigines
of Australia, eat only the sodium from the blood
in the meat they eat, and they have very low rates
of hypertension! Salt and salty foods are at the
top of the Healthy
Diet Pyramid, remember, so we should all be
careful aim for a low salt diet. The best and
wisest way to achieve a low salt diet is to avoid
adding extra salt, whether it is common salt or
salt substitute, to your food!
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| Note: |
The
information and answers in this FAQ section is aim
at the general 'healthy' population and is not intended
to influence individuals who are following special
diets (or medical advice) or have special dietary
needs. This website aims to promote health through
healthy eating and active lifestyles. We are not
engaged in giving medical advice. For advice in
individual cases or a specific health condition,
seek the advice of a health professional. |
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