Local Dish- Nasi Lemak

NASI LEMAK (by HOE CHIN YEW and LAU KAH MING)

If there is a dish to represent a place, then in Kuala Lumpur it has to be nasi lemak. It is enjoy by the Malay yet throughly the Chinese, Indian and all other races. Despite Malaysia's different ethics dietary rules, practices and preferences, nasi lemak is still the spiced up food that nobody want to miss!

We have been wondering where does "nasi lemak" come from? Is it really as local as claimed by us, Malaysian. Or it is "imported" in the early days? As a Malaysian, definitely curious about the origin of nasi lemak.
This is a dish that as old as our country, maybe even longer. Because it is a Malay food, it must have started in the kampungs, or Malay farming villages, which is what Kuala Lumpur itself was before tin mining helped transform it into the center of British colonial administration.

“To understand how nasi lemak evolved is to understand where we came from,” says Malaysian TV food personality Redzuawan Ismail, widely known as Chef Wan, host of popular shows including “Seafood Odyssey” and his own late-night talk show.

The origin of nasi lemak basically during old times when industrial is not so advanced. Nasi lemak started with the cooking of "leftovers". Don't believe? Even we also shocked.

“A poor family could always bring down a coconut from a tree to flavor the morning rice, make a chili paste with leftovers, (and) add a heap of dried anchovies, which were a main source of protein.” Presumably, this was all wrapped in a banana leaf to take out into the fields and consume during work breaks. Wow! Today it becomes the most famous dishes.

Ingredients: rice, santan, water, ginger, pandan leaves, anchovies, salt, cooking oil, red chillies, garlic.

Nutritional Values:

Metabolism and Physiological Benefits?

Main source of energy is carbohydrate. Carbohydrate breaks down into glucose for energy intake. It contribute for 40-80% of energy intake. Dietary carbohydrate improtant to maintain glycaemic homeostatis and for gastrointestinal integrity and function.

Dietary fibre is not categorised as an essential nutrient. Over the years, it has become recognised as an important component of a diet and plays important roles in health and disease. It is known to be an important moderator of digestion in the small bowel. Insufficient intake from the diet can result in inadequate faecal bulk and may affect overall health.

Proteins are large molecules made up of amino acids bonded together by peptide linkages. Breakdown of proteins provide essential amino acids, which are the initial materials for tissue synthesis and constituent of tissue protein. Thus, it was often referred to as the “currency” of protein nutrition and metabolism (Young, 2001). The maintenance of body tissue is essential because the body is constantly undergoing wear and tear, and proteins and amino acids provide continuous repairs.

In order to get to know more about good or bad of nasi lemak, an interview was arranged with the Assistant Director (Nutrition) of the Division of Family Health Development, Department of Public Health, Ministry Of Health Malaysia at Putrajaya. His name is Muhammad Annur B. Roslan, with creditation of Bsc. Sc (Hons) Nutrition, same like us. @@

From the interview that spent about 30 minutes roughly, the major disease due to nasi lemak is cardiovascular disease, the silent killer. It is the disease of heart and blood vessels. The most common cause which cause death is the heart attack, which is the sudden tissue death caused by blockages of vessels that feed the heart muscle. Another common disease lead to it is hypertension, which is higher than normal blood pressure. Stroke also is a major event in which blood flow to a part of brain is cutted off. When we wrote on this blog, this diseases seem like normal, but from his mouth seem like scary to us.

So? Is it good to consume nasi lemak? In our opinion is keep to seldom consume will be better, by this we can try the tasty local dishes without hesitating of health problems.

But if someone really like nasi lemak and cannot resist it everyday, what should he/she do?

Cholesterol screening to determine an individual risk of heart diseases.

Encouraged to increase physical activity, lose weight, implement dietary changes with more fruits and veges, quit smoking.

References:

Harper AE and Yoshimura NN (1997). Protein Quality, amino acid balance, utilization,
and evaluation of diets containing amino acids as therapeutic agents. pg460-469.

Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fibre, Fat, Fatty
Acids, Cholesterol, Protein and Aamino Acids. Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of
Medicine. National Academy Press, Washington DC. Chapters 6 and 7.

Malaysian Dietary Guidelines. National Coordinating Committee on
Food and Nutrition, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

Ellie Whitney and Sharon Rady Rolfes(2008). Understanding Nutrition. pg626-635.