Page 18 - Cook with Ease: Tips and Recipes for Small Families - Serving 1-2

The Principles of Meal Planning

1. Increase Food Varieties and Avoid Picky Eating
• For vegetables, choices include leafy greens (e.g. Chinese flowering
cabbages, Chinese amaranths), gourds (e.g. hairy gourds, winter
melons) or root vegetables (e.g. carrots, lotus roots).
• For fruits, choices include the all-year-round species (e.g. oranges,
apples, bananas) or the seasonal ones (e.g. papayas, pears).

• For meat, fish, egg and alternatives, you can choose pork, chicken, fish,
beef, eggs or their alternatives (e.g. soybeans, black beans, black-eyed
peas), tofu and dried tofu.

• For milk and alternatives, low-fat or skimmed products (e.g. milk,
cheese, calcium fortified soy milk) are some of the choices.

2. Go for Low-Fat Ingredients and Cooking Methods
The dietary principle for preventing high blood cholesterol is mainly
by having a balanced diet, avoiding the intake of food high in saturated
fats and trans fats, and consuming high-cholesterol food as little as possible.
• Cholesterol only exists in foods of animal origins. Cholesterol-rich food
includes eggs, seafood and offal.
• High-saturated-fat-containing foods include animal fats and skin, whole
milk and all kinds of products made with animal fats like butter and lard.

• Avoid those foods high in both cholesterol and saturated fats, for
example, pork neck meat, bacon and some offal (e.g. pig intestines)
and ox tongue.

• Cut down on foods that are high in trans fats, such as French fries, puff
pastries, croissants, cocktail bun, butter pound cake and cookies.

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