Food Additives

Hello Guys....

How are you.?

Do you know what is food additive?

Food additives are substances that are added in food to serve as  specific technical purposes. The examples are stabilisers, thickeners, gelling agents, anti-caking agents, anti-foaming agents, glazing agents, packaging gases,bulking agents, sweeteners, and propellants.

Food additives are used to enhance flavour, texture, shelf-life and nutritional properties of the food that we eat. For example, they are used to give  colouration, to sweeten or to preserve food.

The chemical that are always used in food additives are acetic acid, citric acid, boric acid, lactic acid that acts as preservative and antioxidant.

On the other hand, more chemicals are used in food that we eat may affect our health. The examples are food allergies, food intolerances or dietary irritants. The good food is when we prepared it by ourselves at home and it comes from a source that is not altered by preservatives or chemicals.

Start the holidays with a healthier you!

Greetings,

 

Still confused about Halal?

Don’t worry, we will discuss about it later.

Now we would like to talk about holidays!

Mid term break is around the corner,and most of the Micet students will return to their hometowns and it is a time to eat their favourite homecook food.
Guys….."please remember your calorie intake!" Eventhough you are missing the homecook but you still need to be responsible to your body!

Don’t worry, we will help you and give some tips for your healthier holidays!

As you know we require energy for our physical activities, calorie is a measure of energy, but if we consume too much calories we will gain the weight. To balance the calories you consume each day is equivalent to the amount activities you do. Use the simple chart below to guide you to burn your excessive calories. Good luck!

E-code

Greetings,

Becomming a very cautious person right now?

Last entry we have discussed about HALAL. Now we would like to share with you about the E-Code.

Everytime you buy any food products, did you read the ingredients?

Did you see any number with alphabets or code?

Did you know what that is?

It is an E-code,

E codes are codes sometimes found on food labels in the European Union (GB, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc.) The code indicates an ingredient which is some type of food additive. The E indicates that it is a "European Union approved" food additive. Some people will be confused about this code, this is because they are not exposed by this code and because of this E-code,Muslims are hesitated to buy the product. Mostly, customers do not care about the number of E-code because they are sure by looking on the HALAL sign on the packaging.

Nowadays, the HALAL sign have been cheated. So, as an educated and intellectual person, we should be more cautious on the ingredients that have been use.

There are many numbers on E-code but we can differ it by refering to E-code book or by surfing on internet to know whether it is HALAL or HARAM. For example, the E-code that are HARAM:-

1. E 120: Cochineal (red color from insect) follows on Hanafi sect.

2. E 441: Gelatin, if the source from pig or other animal that HARAM

3. E 542: Edible Bone Phosphate if the source from pig.

So, after this we should more aware about the E-code present on the ingredients labeling. To be an educated consumer, we should know the source of the food we eat.

     Example E-code in Packaging

HALAL FOOD

Hello again…!!!

We have talked about some of food topics; today we would like to share with you about Halal, as a mentioned by our ex-Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia as a hub of Halal product.

Did you read any information on the labeling??

Did you look any HALAL sign on the packaging…???

Did you know the HALAL sign that proved by JAKIM??

If you found it, it’s good. If not, it is better you to recheck or stop from eating the food until you confirm it is HALAL (for Muslims). Do you know what the HALAL sign means?? HALAL means lawful or legal while according to the Islamic law, HALAL is designating for any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in.

When we talk about HALAL, usually people will think about the ingredient contained in the food such as pork, wine and so on. However, there is not only the factor that we need to examine to certify the HALAL food. The HALAL food can be certify by other factors too such as how food was prepared, slaughtering, processing, handling, storage, transportation, cleaning, disinfection and management practice. As a modern and knowledgeable people, we should examine the food by trying to gain the information about the food without jumping into the conclusion whenever we heard rumours. So, what we need to do is, we can search for the information such as the list of the companies that have been certified by JAKIM's website to have confirmation about the product:

JAKIM

Don’t worry for non-Muslims; you are encouraged to eat HALAL food because it safe and clean. Nowadays, people are educated and very particular in choosing any food products. So as a student, we are also encouraged to be careful with what we buy from outside, since taking HALAL food is good for our health and prevent us from any disease or food poisoning.

  Example of a HALAL Logo In Food Packaging

Water For Good Health

Hello again.....

Having a good time?

Did you know that a good source of minerals is water! It is important for us to prevent our body from dehydration. As you know that our last entry is about consuming enough nutrition and perform physical activities, we would like to remind you that water is important to our body beside the food taken.

 

Nearly three-quarters of our Earth is covered with water, our body consists of about 60% water. Most fresh fruits and vegetables store up to 95% and meats 50%. Water is a major component in all living matter as it is needed for food digestion and for the absorption and transportation of nutrients in the body. It also cleanses our body system by its waste products through urine and keeps us cool by regulating our body temperature. It’s also a natural moisturiser for youthful-looking skin! We can survive without food for several weeks but will only live a few days without water. In fact, a 20% loss of body water is fatal. Our body loses about 2.5 litres of water daily through urine, faeces, sweat and breath. To stay healthy, we need to maintain this delicate balance of water consumption. We are encouraged to consume 6-8 glasses of water daily.

So drink a lot of plain water and avoid from drinking any carbonated water.

Drink Mineral Water!

Avoid Carbonated Drink!

Good Eating With Exercise!

Hello…

How's your life..???

Hope you are in a good condition ….

Have you already eaten..??? Are you following the food pyramid guide that we had post earlier..?? I guess you are. Did you consume more than the suggestion…?? Please eat in moderation. Actually, we should take the food depending on the calorie. Every gram of food contain a calorie such as 1gram of fat is equal to 9kcal, 1gram carbohydrate is 4kcal, 1gram of oil is 8kcal, 1gram of protein is 4kcal, and 1gram of fiber is 2kcal. The calorie should be taken by a man in a day is around 2000kcal and for a woman is 1500kcal a day. If we take more than the suggestion, it will leads to fatness. It is because the calorie from the food we eat produce an energy for our body.

1 gram Fat = 9 Kcal

1 gram Carbohydrate = 4 Kcal

1 gram Protein = 4 Kcal

1 Gram Fiber = 2 kcal
*1kcal = 4.2kJ

Nevertheless, it may be overcome by exercising such as jogging, playing badminton, tennis, football, rugby and etc. An evening on weekdays, majority of MICET students will perform physical activities to train the body (exercise). It is an activity that will reduce the percentage of fatness among students. On others, it produces a healthy lifestyle. It is differ for weekends because just a minority of students will perform exercise in the evening. Others, they preferred to hang out with their friends, shopping and so on. As a result, there is no MICET student jogging on the jogging track in the weekends compare to weekdays. There is some pictures taken:

On weekends

Food Guide to Healthy Eating

How's your life today?

Getting good diet?

We hope you will choose a balance diet as in the food pyramid ;)

You must be wondering what exactly food pyramid or maybe some of you know about it and yet do nothing about it (We guess) and some feel satisfied that they are already following the majority of these guidelines. Don’t worry; we are here to guide you for a better life. Just like we said before, food pyramid is a guide for you to consume healthy diet and show you the right amount of food should you consume daily. This dietary guideline encourages you to choose variety of healthy food; it also recommends eating a variety of fruits and vegetables each day. In the food pyramid, you are suggested to consume from each group, in right proportion, example, the number of servings for each section of  a food pyramid is determined based on your recommended calorie level.

Example of a Food Pyramid

Now that you have read about the food pyramid and digest the information given(to get a knowledge, we shouldn’t just read but it must be digest) the information from the figure above. According to it, we will realised which groups of food that should we take in moderation. If we follow the guidelines, we will get a healthy diet and we will not be like this

No matter who you are (a doctor, gardener, lawyer, teacher, fishermen and etc), how old are you (2months, 1years, 7years, 15years, 22years, 40years or 60years), and where do you live (village or town), if you are not following the guidelines of food pyramid you also will get affected with any diseases. An obesity person not only suffer from obesity but also will affected with other diseases such as heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney failure. Furthermore, if we look to our eating style, we just eat anything without thinking about the consequences. So, if we don’t want to be like the picture above, we need to change our life and eating styles. Think about it, and take action…. :) good luck.