I Really Need to Detox: Singapore Food and Calories

Why is it such a battle to diet and detox? It used to be so much easier. You know, blogging about food and reading blogs with pictures of yummy food makes it almost impossible to diet. I even find myself trying new things on the menu, when I am actually not that hungry. Do you have the same problem too?

I figure blogging about clear soup or salads can’t be that much fun. I wonder if it’s possible to get healthy while still having 3 unhealthy meals a week. Some days I think we should throw out all the conflicting advice from diet books and just stick to the principle of simple arithmetic. If you put in more than you burn off then you will put on weight. So basically I should try not to exceed 1500 calories a day. They say you shouldn’t dip below 1200 calories as that might put you into starvation mode. Medical professionals say you should also watch sugar and saturated fat content to be healthy.

I checked out how some local Singapore food items fare in terms of calorie count. I used the calculator on the Health Promotion Board Nutrition Page for the local items, and rounded the numbers up for ease of reference.

If you don’t want to clog your arteries, you’re not supposed to have more than 20 grams of saturated fat a day:

Butterfly Fritter: 280 calories, 6 grams of saturated fat
Chicken Curry Puff: 250 calories, 8 grams of saturated fat

Myojo Chicken Instant Noodles: 430 calories and 8 grams of saturated fat (that’s a lot for something that doesn’t really fill you up)
Dry Mee Pok as well as Hong Kong Style Wan Tan Mee: 500 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat. (I thought it would be less, which is bad news for me because I just love wan tan mee and I suspect the Singapore style one has more calories with the char siew/ BBQed pork)
McSpicy Double (I don’t eat this, but placed it here as a comparison – it is 500 calories and 6 grams of saturated fat)
Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice with Egg, Fish and Nuts): 500 calories and 8 grams of saturated fat (I thought it would be more)

Rojak: 600 Calories and 10 grams of saturated fat (And I always thought this was healthier than Nasi Lemak which I don’t fancy that much! – hidden sugar content?)
Mee Siam: 700 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat (this one shocked me as I always thought of this dish as a light meal!)
Laksa (Curried Noodles with Heavy Coconut Base): 600 calories and 18 grams of saturated fat. (I actually thought it would be a lot more, but then again it is high in saturated fat!)

Chicken Nasi Briyani: 900 calories and 15 grams of saturated fat. (just about right)
Curry Chicken: 1000 calories and 27 grams of saturated fat (Avoid this at all costs! This is the worst of the lot and it the bread hasn’t been factored in – scary!)

I should have one of these for lunch instead, but I suspect I will get hungry. I do lose weight when I eat mainly Japanese food or Subway Ham or chicken sandwiches. I just need to avoid Indian and Malay food and go for the Chinese noodles dishes and popiah.

Egg Mayo Sushi: 40 calories and 0.2 grams of saturated fat (I’m happy that the fat content is low and I’m usually quite full after 4 of these)

Inari Sushi: 65 calories and 0.2 grams of saturated fat (I love this with tuna added)
Popiah: 190 calories and 3.6 grams of saturated fat
Chicken Pow: 215 calories and 3.5 grams of saturated fat
Red Bean Bun: 100 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat
Otah Bun: 190 calories and 4 grams of saturated fat
Ramen: 320 calories and 1.5 grams of saturated fat (that’s great, because I love Ramen)

Let’s check out some delicious Fast Food next.


{Image: Think Positive’s Blog}

MacDonald’s Egg McMuffin: 300 calories and 5 grams of saturated fat (this was recommended as an ok breakfast by Bob Greene, Oprah Winfrey’s trainer)
Subway Melt: 380 calories and 5 grams of fat (I wouldn’t mind having this for lunch – it’s pretty tasty)
Macdonald’s Chicken Burger: 370 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat. (Hmmm – better than a subway sandwich?)
Filet O Fish: 380 calories and 3.5 grams of saturated fat (I guess this has more mayo in it and no lettuce)
Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich: 460 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat (it surprises me that burgers are lower in saturated fat than our dry noodles, but that’s good news for me!)
Burger King Chicken Sandwich: 630 calories and 7 grams of saturated fat (I guess this burger is bigger in terms of portion size)

So far I haven’t mentioned exercise at all, as I personally hate it. I do love swimming but don’t like the effect of the chlorine on the skin or hair. I used to swim so religiously that I ended up with water in my ear canal that has to be manually extracted with a needle by an ENT Specialist. Boy was that painful, and scary too. I absolutely can’t run, so I wish my partner would stop asking me to try. I run like an elephant and duck combined. I guess what I can do is walk. I just need to get motivated out of my lazy inertia.

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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5 Responses to I Really Need to Detox: Singapore Food and Calories

  1. Pingback: I Really Need to Detox: Singapore Food and Calories « Tiny Island Eating

  2. orionstar says:

    Hello.. I share the same sentiments with you… Looks like all the yummy Sporean food are laden with fats and high calories! And Macs is the worst… How can they promote their fast food as healthy food choices when they are all so high in fat… urgh..

  3. Dave says:

    How did u get d info about mee Siam having 700 calories? If u google .. Some say mee Siam is around 300 calories.. Sigh dun know which to belief.. D shocker is a plate of wan ton has many calories .. Damn

    • bookjunkie says:

      got them off the health promotion website mostly. Yeah some of the items are quite a shocker and I guess it depends on the portion size or how much sugar is added to the mee siam.

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