A healthy life begins by building healthy habits. Prevent food poisoning, reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals and eat healthier by making these surprisingly simple tweaks in your kitchen without breaking the bank:
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PREVENT FOOD POISONING
Seeing a written reminder makes you much more likely to wash your hands at important moments when you’re preparing a meal, which can help to prevent food poisoning. But the drying process is just as important to prevent lingering bacteria transferring to other surfaces, so dry your hands thoroughly using a paper towel.
PREVENT FOOD POISONING
This makes it easier to reach for a clean, dry one, which matters because damp tea towels are a breeding ground for germs. It’s one reason why 60 per cent of tea towels fail the hygiene test, with some even “growing” E coli bacteria. Experts recommend replacing tea towels after every use, but 21 per cent of us use the same one for a week or more.
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PREVENT FOOD POISONING
Refrigerators that aren’t cold enough only encourage food poisoning bugs to multiply. And only 25 per cent of people use a thermometer to cook chicken or reheat leftovers, despite that being the most effective way to judge when food is properly cooked – particularly under LED kitchen lights, which make meat appear more well done than it is. Ensure your fridge is 5 C or below, and that chicken and leftovers reach 75 C during cooking or reheating.
EAT A HEALTHIER DIET
People who plan their meals for the days ahead are more likely to meet the healthy eating recommendations by the Health Promotion Board. Leave the plan somewhere visible, and you’ll be more likely to stick to it. Try this 7-day anti-ageing meal plan for starters!
EAT A HEALTHIER DIET
Place produce that omits large amounts of ethylene gas as they ripen (like apricots, avocados, zucchini, pears and stone fruits) away from produce that’s sensitive to the gas (like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach), to preserve nutrients in the ethylene-sensitive produce for as long as possible.
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EAT A HEALTHIER DIET
You’ll eat twice as much of the food you’ve bought in large quantities, because it becomes more visible in your fridge or pantry. And stash that food on the eye-level shelves – we naturally eat more of the foods that are positioned there.
REDUCE YOUR EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS
Load your fridge with organic produce. Stick to an organic diet for just seven days, and your body’s level of pesticides will fall by almost 90 per cent. If going fully organic isn’t practical, focus on buying organic versions of the “dirty dozen” (see ewg.org), the foods identified as being highest in pesticides.
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REDUCE YOUR EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS
They remove traces of chemicals and tiny contaminants from tap water, such as ammonia and copper, which can cause significant health issues. Household plumbing, like taps and pipework, are the main source of the contamination, although tap water in Singapore is generally potable. Check out brands like Novita and StarWellness for high quality crystal water pitchers.
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MANAGE YOUR WEIGHT
A messy kitchen makes you stressed, which can lead you to eat twice as much food as you would in a tidy space. But don’t get rid of the fruit bowl. Since we tend to eat the first thing we see, women who always have fruit in sight weigh nearly six kg less than those who don’t.
MANAGE YOUR WEIGHT
When you’re eating everything from leftovers to cereal, you’ll dish out a smaller portion of food when you’re serving from a smaller container. In fact, using a larger container leads to eating 129 per cent more food, which adds up to 800 kJ (or 190 calories) to a meal. You can get small, airtight containers from Tupperware, IKEA and supermarkets.
Photo: Pixabay
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Text: Bauer / Additional reporting: Elizabeth Liew