ASK!

ASK! about Health & Fitness

Do you take note of what you eat? If you are concerned about eating healthy foods, here are some websites offering nutrition advice and basic nutrition information to keep you updated:

Food & Nutrition
As many of us are aware, with changing social habits, like increasingly sendatry livestyles, and preferance for taking outside food, health problems like obesity and heart disease are on the rise. If you are concerned about whether what you eat is healthy, her are some nutrition websites you may like to refer ot for more information:

Health Promotion Board
Singapore’s HPB website contains updates and information about nutrition, mental health, exercise and smoking.

Ministry of Health
You can find latest general health updates here. Health statistics of Singapore are compiled by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and can be accessed here.

Nutrition.gov
This website offers links to US government websites that contain health and nutrition related information.

MedlinePlus
The MedlinePlus website brings together information from the National Library of Medicine (NLM, US), the National Institutes of Health (NIH, US) and other government agencies and health bodies. Apart of nutrition information, the directory of drug and supplement information is user-friendly and helpful. The Medical Encyclopaedia also simplifies cchecking up on medical facts and jargon. The website also contains charts and images for you to better understand the biology of the issues described.

British Nutrition Foundation
The BNF is “charitable organisation which raises funds from the food industry, government and a variety of other sources”. It works with the academic insititues, food industry and the government, and strives to provide scienticially sound nutrition information and advice.

National Health Services
The National Health Service (NHS) is the health agency of UK. While the website offers information and recommendations of typical health problems. While there is no nutrition category, the website is categorised by demograph and common health issues. Nutrition information can be derived from there.

World Health Organisation
The WHO website contains the information on the international statistics, research and government health initiatives, statements and guidelines released by WHO agencies.

To read about food and nutrition, look for books with call numbers 613.2 and 641.1, in the health and Young People (YP) sections of the libraries. Some books you may find are:

Basic nutrition by Lori A. Smolin, Mary B. Grosvenor
Call No.: Y q613.2 SMO

Encyclopedia of foods : a guide to healthy nutrition prepared by medical and nutrition experts from Mayo Clinic
Call No.: q613.2 ENC -[HEA]

American Dietetic Association complete food and nutrition guide by Roberta Larson Duyff
Call No.: 613.2 DUY -[HEA]

Fats, sugars, and empty calories : the fast food habit / by Autumn Libal
Call No.: Y 616.398 LIB

Posted by Ms Ang Mei Jun

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ASK! about Anything & Everything

Where can you find food reviews? Many many places, such as internet, newspapers, and even books, not to forget TV programmes.

Local Food Blogs:
Sparklette.net
The ‘princess’ of the blog is Veron, or Wanting (Chinese Pinyin). She is a working executive and web designer, but her busy schedule does not keep her away from sharing her food experiences with others. Her posts are personal and the vivid photos are themselves enough to leave your mouth watering. She even rates the food (with cute food icons to indicate the points) and list the address so that you can try it yourself. Her blog is also updated regularly so you can be sure of ‘fresh ingredients’ every week!

Veron dosen’t just eat, she reads too. She was spotted by HighBrowse for her thoughts on Mitch Albom’s ‘ For one more day’.

She bakes and she cooks
Dose’nt Doesn’t (ed: sorry for the typo) the name of the blog remind you vaguely of Ricky Martin’s music? Somehow it did for me. Another blog by a pretty young lady, Cheryl’s has put her love for writing into food. She’s certainly not your average air-headed girl, for she appreciates the many different food cultures and stories that she got to hear, and writes them out in detail for you. Cheryl is a baker herself, (Read ‘The day I baked 800 cookies’), and her blog contains useful links to her very own baking recipes.

If you like baking or enjoy baked foods, read her blog.

ieat-ishoot-ipost
Yes, the author here, Leslie Tay, eats his food, shoots them on his lens, and posts the pictures on his blog. He is (believe it!) actually a family doctor in Singapore. He puts his recommendations online so that you wouldn’t need to ‘waste your calories on yucky food’. Tay also has a rating out of 5 for the food he’s tried.

Local TV Food Programmes
Check out what food programmes MediaCorp offers on its websites:
- Suria (Malay)
- Channel 8 (Chinese)
- Channel U (Chinese)
- Channel 5 (English)

Food Guidebooks
There are travel guides, and there are food guides as well! What’s so good about reading? The guides are often handy to carry and concise. Rather than surf the website blindly, these little ‘encyclopedias’ could possibly be a faster source of information. If you are worried that they are not updated, most of them print regular publications. Also, some contain a brief history of the food they introduce. Here’s some local food guides you may be interested at the library:

Life!eats : a guide to Singapore’s best food places (Call No.: SING 647.955957 LIF)
A compilation of food and rrestaurant recommendations by the writers of the Life section of Straits Times Singapore.

Makansutra : eating lessons : the five star guide to no frills hawker food in Singapore (Call No.: SING English 647.955957 MEL)
A guide to the best eats in ISngapore, recommended by Makanmatrans, people who from all walks of life who wrote to Makansutra with their recommendations.

Eat out! : the guide to great food in central Singapore (Call No.: SING 647.955957 EAT)
Not just a good food guide, this book contains a brief description of the origins of the dish, and each recommendation comes is accompanied by the contact, payment and cost of the food. The layout is also user-friendly.

Wine & dine : Singapore`s top restaurants (Call No.: SING 647.955957 WD)
A guide for fine dining.

Enough of eating, the increasing rates of health problems like heart disease and obesity are making it important to check what we eat. Find out more about food and health.

Posted by Ms Ang Mei Jun

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to mailto:ask@nlb.gov.sginstead of sending a comment.