Northern Mariana Islands

2. Ideal body weight (e.g. eat smaller portions of food and limit second servings of food that are high in fat and calories)

3. Balanced diet e.g. grains at every meal; fruits three times a day; vegetables three different kinds each day; low-fat milk or calcium-dense alternative (tofu, green leafy vegetable kankung) two times each day; low fat meals such as fish, lean meats two times each day; include local traditional foods in the daily diet (banana blossom, cooking banana, pumpkin tips, kangkung, yam, taro, young coconut, bamboo shoots, leaves from sweet potato/taro/tapioca/malungai); when in season eat more local fruits (mangoes, guava, sour sop, sweet sop, star fruit)

4. Fibre (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, tapioca top leaves, kangkung, soy beans are especially valuable in preventing disease).

5. Fat (eating a lot of fritada and organ meats may increase the chances of getting heart disease or gout, eat small servings less often; limit intake of coconut milk/cream, pork belly, pig skin, turkey tail, which can increase the chances of getting heart disease).

6. Salt (if at risk of developing high blood pressure eat less soy sauce, less than two tablespoons a day, and less ajinomoto and salty foods such as finadeni, koko, salted fish, soba seasoning.

7. Limit sugar intake

8. Fluids (drink water and or fresh juices such as young coconut juice, soursop juice, mango/papaya/tomato/guava juice)

9. Alcohol (one drink a day for women and two drinks per day for men)

10. Encourage breast feeding

 

Last Updated: February 19, 2001.