Health Promotion Board shows recipe for sardine fried rice, calls for canned sardines and uses white rice

That's quite a number of canned sodas' worth of sugars in there.

Jeanette Tan | March 13, 2017, 06:59 PM

Now, many of us know by now, courtesy of the Health Promotion Board and The Straits Times, that "a bowl of rice has more than twice the carbohydrate content of a soft drink", and also that each plate of white rice eaten in a day raises a person's risk of diabetes by 11 per cent.

Imagine Singaporeans' surprise, then, when HPB, leading the nation's charge in its war against diabetes, puts up a video teaching people a "simple easy lo-cal" recipe for sardine fried rice:

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If you watched it, you'll notice that in the video, three cups of "cooked rice" are added to a mix of frozen vegetables and chopped onion:

Screen Shot 2017-03-13 at 17.22.09 Screenshot from video

Followed by a can of mashed sardine:

Screenshot from video Screenshot from video

Now, in fairness, the recipe proper calls for brown rice:

Screenshot from HPB website Screenshot from HPB website

... but we're not sure about you — the rice used in the video doesn't look brown.

Also, here's another pretty glaring discrepancy between the video and the actual recipe: the video caption calls for one can (350g) of mashed sardines, while the recipe calls for the same, but this time the weight is almost 200g less — 155g.

All in, it *is* low in calories, relative to the usual 700 - 800 calories a regular meal comes up to (if you were to take 2,200 calories, the regular intake for an adult male, and divide it by three), since it adds up to just 450 calories.

That said, we can't be sure which quantities of ingredients (and also which type of rice) was factored into the caloric calculation.

Singaporeans respond

Interestingly, though, several of the comments on the video noticed these two issues:

1. On the use of rice, for instance —

Screenshot from HPB video post Screenshot from HPB video post

Screenshot from HPB video post Screenshot from HPB video post

2. And the canned sardines, too:

Screenshot from HPB video post Screenshot from HPB video post

Screenshot from HPB video post Screenshot from HPB video post

3. Some even took issue with the use of frozen, as opposed to fresh, vegetables:

Screenshot from HPB video post Screenshot from HPB video post

Although in fairness, research has been inconclusive about whether it's better for you to eat fresh or frozen veggies.

Guess there is one good thing we've learned from this — Singaporeans are healthier and more conscious about food than we might realise.

 

Top photo collage made from screenshots from video

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