vegetable oil

i learned something new from the dietitian last evening when i visited mum at the hospital. she was there attending to my mum and spoke to me about controlling cholesterol and sodium for elderly people through diet. two things that she said that i found interesting were:

• plant-based oil is healthier than animal-based oil with one except - vegetable oil. apparently, vegetable contains many other types of oil (i think i she said palm oil) that is contributes to hdl. and that increases that body cholesterol. she offered other alternatives such as canola oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, etc. 

• she also spoke about the control of sodium-intake. all yellow noodles are rich in sodium and should be avoided. all white noodles, such as kuay tiao and bee hoon, contains less sodium. the only exception to this is mee sua. accordingly, mee sua contains a rather high amount of sodium thus elderly people should not eat it cos it could possibly contribute to health complications.

the second point was rather amusing (and rather ironic too) cos for chinese, it is quite a common and traditional practice to eat mee sua during birthdays cos the long nature of the noodle symbolizes long life.

:-)