Diet during Ramadan month (cont)

I might be late to post it as Raya festival for Muslim is approaching. Anyway, it is an extra to share about all of it. You should avoid taking salty foods for your "sahur" as these food make you thirstier as more water tends to dilute blood stream.

After the fasting of about 14 hours, you are encouraged to take a light snack before having a fruit named "Kurma". The light snack could be biscuit or bread as taking "Kurma" directly after fasting will trigger the natural sugar of "Kurma" (fructose) to be absorbed faster under empty stomach. Dinner is expected to be a balance meal with carbohydrate, vegetables and protein sources.

In additional, some dinner meal contains excessive sweetened drinks and food, the sugary beverages are believed to relieve from thirsty sensation. However, this indirectly cause you consume addition calories. The correct way I suggested would be take 2 to 3 cups of plain water first before your light snack as mentioned. I have no doubt having plain water is better than sugary drinks to get rid of your thirst. My last advice is take as much as 6 cups of water from dinner till the end of your night.

Lastly, I would like to take this post to send my best wishes to all Muslim friends, Happy Raya festival.

我建议穆斯林朋友们尽量减少摄入过咸的食物。这包括咸鱼，咸蔬菜，咸蛋，罐头食品或加工食品。咸的食物，往往使我们口渴，应尝试限制那些咸的食物摄入量。

之后，他们将禁食14至16小时。当接近傍晚开斋时分，可先吃小吃，如3块饼干，1片面包，然后才能吃kurma，栆子类。 Kurma实际上是属于水果组。因此，有必要采取其他食品之前，避免先吃水果，因为水果中含有天然糖-果糖。果糖往往饿着肚子时会吸收得更快。当做完祈祷后，他们可以像往常一样开始享受晚餐。晚餐也应以碳水化合物，蔬菜和蛋白质等达致平衡。然而，鼓励尽早吃完晚餐，最好是9时之前。  

在吃饭的时候，特别开斋时期往往摄取大量的含糖饮料，以减轻口渴的感觉。因此，没有意识到他们实际上摄取了过多的热量，是因为饮料中含糖量高。正确的方法是开斋时先尝试饮用2至3杯白开水，然后开始时只能食用1至2件的糕点/饼干小食。 从开斋直到睡觉期间，尽量采取高达6杯的水。然后在早餐期间另一外摄取2杯水，以防止发生禁食期间发生脱水现象。

Diet during Ramadan month (fasting)

This month is a fasting month for all Muslim friends. Diet during this fasting period is important and therefore I am taking this post to discuss about it. Although fasting period ends next week, the diet advice can be a good reference in future.


For early breakfast (or name as "sahur" in Malay, Malaysian often treat it as lunch too), I suggest to make a simple sandwich, 2 to 3 slices of wholemeal or wholegrain bread with a cup of salad (tomato/cucumber), and half boil egg or 2 tablespoon of tuna/sardine. This can provide you adequate amount of carbohydrate, vegetables and protein sources. Vegetable is a need due to its fiber content to slow down the absorption of glucose into blood stream. However, Malaysian usually take heavier set of breakfast such as rice/noodles with vegetables and chicken as an alternative choice.


I would take this opportunity to remind people with diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus patient is allowed fasting but under supervision of a physician by adjusting your medicine time and insulin injection. If he/she needs to take an insulin injection around 10 o' clock, it is necessary to take a light supper after that. It can be few pieces of high fiber biscuit or a cup of milk with 2 tablespoon of milk powder. This is a step to avoid hypoglycemia. Whenever hypoglycemia occurs (blood glucose level<3 mmol/L), there is a need to break fasting. The best time to check for you blood glucose level is before "sahur" and after 2 hours meal time. Hope my post did give you hints of diet plan during fasting period. I will explain further on another post tomorrow. Cheers.


这一次，我会谈谈斋戒月期间的饮食。这个月是所有穆斯林朋友的斋戒月。空腹的时间是从黎明开始到日落的晚上7时30分左右才享受晚餐。


首先，他们是必须吃早餐的。这时候的早餐是必须均衡和适量的。例如，他们可以自制三文治，放入2至3片的麦面包，加上1杯沙拉，西红柿，黄瓜和一颗熟蛋或2汤匙金枪鱼/沙丁鱼。摄取足够的碳水化合物，蔬菜和蛋白质是非常重要的。您可以准备饭菜肉类成为一餐。这包含一杯蔬菜，一条鱼或2片鸡肉，在加上碳水化合物食物如1碗饭/面/ 米粉/ 粿条。在这个斋戒月期间，早餐是一定要吃的，不可不吃，以防止长时间禁食引起低血糖。

如果有糖尿病病患在10时左右再注射胰岛素，那么是建议食用宵夜的。这宵夜可以是3片饼干或高纤维饼干或2汤匙奶。这样可避免午夜或清晨时低血糖发生。每当有低血糖发生（血糖水平<3 mmol / L的），就不可禁食了。检查你的血糖水平的最佳时间是还未进食前（早餐前）或开斋前（空腹）和进食后的2小时。 

Simple knowledge on prebiotic and probiotic

As mentioned on previous post, prebiotic is a type of non living things (special form of dietary) that act as food sources for good bacteria (pro-biotic). Then, what is probiotic? Probiotic is a type of good bacteria that intend to protect gut system. Further, probiotic is a living bacteria that can’t survive in heat/acidic environment. 


Prebiotics are nondigestible substances that pass through the stomach and small intestine unchanged. Prebiotics enter the colon where they promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. On the other hand, Probiotics are supplements that contain living bacteria. Take note that if these living bacteria dead before entering your gut system, they cannot provide your body any benefit.

If you are parents who are taking care an infant or young child, you will realize there is a lot of infant formula that mention the importance of prebiotic and probiotic and why they are included in formula. Infants and young children tend to have immature gut system, thus these prebiotic and probiotic can help improve their immunity of gut to prevent sickness.

如果你是照顾婴儿或幼童的父母，你会发现目前很多婴幼儿配方奶粉会提到益生元和益生菌被包括在内。婴儿或幼童往往有不成熟的肠道系统，因此这些益生元和益生菌，可以帮助提高免疫力，防止肠道疾病。

Why do we need Prebiotic & Probiotic?

Even through Littlediet isn't updated for 2 weeks but I have no doubt many readers are still accessing my site and search for information. Thanks for all. It is due to I was over-busy involving in a research project that I personally felt is beneficial for community. I definitely will share my experience with you all in future.


Recently, some of my friends facing health issue like stomachache or constipation during vacation or during their travel to another places for work. Most of them face this problem when they are eating different kind of foods and different habits in a new place. Of course, if only for two days, it won't be a big problem. However, if you are continuously face constipation during the whole week of outstation, I think this will not only make yourself suffer but influence your work performance as well.


What does the above situation means? It means that vegetables and fruits consumption is very important in keeping your gut healthy. Constipation is related with bowel irregularity which I have mentioned in previous post. If you need further information about this topic, you can find it in my blog. But, prebiotic and probiotic is the key to maintain your gut function well. Let's study prebiotic before probiotic, prebiotic is defined as  "non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth and/or activity of bacteria in the digestive system in ways claimed to be beneficial to health". But, what is it actually?


When you are lack of good bacteria in your gut system, your body is unable to fight against pathogen (bad bacteria) and this causes either stomachache or constipation. Thus, we need prebiotic to help us prevent from pathogen attack. Speaking from my view, prebiotic is a type of non living things (special form of dietary) that act as food sources for good bacteria (pro-biotic). It helps in increasing numbers of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. The example of prebiotic are oligosaccharides and inulin. Therefore, if your health product claims to contain prebiotic, please read if any several terms of prebiotic are mentioned. The full list of example of prebiotic is availble from here. I don't want post this article long, I will explain prebiotic and probiotic in details for next post.


很多时候你到另一个地方时（旅行，工作），迫使你改变饮食习惯，你仍然需要保持平衡和健康的一餐。这意味着，蔬菜和水果的食用对保持肠道的健康是非常重要的。便秘与排便的问题在以前的帖子提到。这一次，我将会讲解益生元和益生菌。实际上，它们可以保持你的良好肠道功能。


当有些人的肠道没有足够的益菌时，是无法对抗坏细菌病原体，将导致肠道问题。因此，增加益菌是非常重要的，以帮助我们防止病原体攻击。益生元是一种非生活的东西，益菌的食物来源。它能够帮助双歧杆菌和乳酸菌的数量增加。益生元的例子是寡糖和菊粉。如果你的健康产品有益生元，请注意是否有真确的益生元的例子。