sometimes whenever SAF cardiac arrest deaths occur, i have a
feeling it is the cookhouse food we eat.
Cookhouse food if you notice are very unhealthy...
1) gravy will have a THICK layer of oil,
2) chicken skin are not removed, (saturated fats)
3) fats of meat are not removed
4) Cordial drinks EVERYDAY (sugar and colouring)
5) cooking oil is vegetable oil and cheapest around (more saturated
fats)
6) french fries are unhealthy enough, but cookhouse french fries
are soaked with oil
This concern of your is actuallynot founded if u ponder deeper
into the system. On the contrary, the SAF cookhouses operated by
Singapore Food Industries and NTUC Foodfare have have to comform to
strict dietry standards in the meals that they prepare as
stapulated in their terms of contract. To govern this system, the
are mechanisms in place to check the the quality of food which is
prepared.
a) Firstly, individuals soldiers perform weeky surveys of the food
that is prepared.
b) Secondly, DSTA performs surprise sport checks on the cook house
from time to time to collect food samples to sent to the
laboratories for analysis to ensure that the dietry requirements
are met (with some degree ofdiscrepancises built in of
course)
While, it is undeniable that deep fried foofs are unhealty, but
they are only served once a week ( another term in their contract
). From what i also understand and observe at my ex cook house,
they are also not allowed to serve more than 1 type of processed
food (sardines, fishballs, fish cake etc) item in the menu for each
meal.
In fact, for the typical SAF soldiers, if he were to just stick to
the cookhouse diet and not eat other canteen foods and maintain a
level of physical activity they is no reason for him to gain too
much weight. Of course not everyone abide by this and some will
even skip their meals at the cookhouse just to patronise the
canteen.......
Besides, if the cookhouse were only to serve all the healthy foods,
do u think all the soldiers would really like it? On the other
hand, to applease the typical 19-20 yr old enlistee the cookhouses
just have to prepare fried food every meal to please them.....but
they do it? The answer is obviously no too. So the system is
balance by serving them a variety of foods in the weekly menu to
balance the 2 issues of variety and nutritional contents.
Lastly, if u really doubt what i am saying, just visit your
cookhouse for every meal in any given week and draw yr own
observations and conclusions.......
