Dieticians Mary Easaw-John and Foong Pui Hing of the National Heart Institute share their findings with JENNIFER GOMEZ on the diet of 12 families after four weeks of Ringgit & Sense

MALAY families tend to have higher salt and fat content in their food compared with Chinese and Indian families. This is cause for concern.

Malays like salted fish and sambal cooked in oil. This type of eating habits can lead to hypertension and weight gain.

What they could do is reduce the amount of oil to make sambal and cut down on eating salted fish.

But a good eating habit among the Malays is the consumption of ulam. Fresh vegetables have lots of vitamins and antioxidants.

The Ganesa and Ayappan families are too "stereotyped", with rasam and dhall alternated daily. We recommend that they expand their menus and cooking style.

Ganesa's budget of about RM100 a week on food may not buy them sufficient nutrition, especially for the growing kids. The Kasab family could also be undernourished.

The Chinese families participating in the programme have balanced meals, with enough focus on vegetables.

But some of the families should reduce their salt intake by cutting down on the use of sauces and canned products.

On the whole, most of the 12 families do not take enough fruits and vegetables, falling short of the five servings a day.

If you do not like to have fruits during lunch or dinner, try them for breakfast. Add bananas to oats or putu. For nasi lemak lovers, eat more kangkung and cucumber.

You could add vegetables like tomatoes and ladies finger into lunch and dinner dishes such as fish curry, or add peas and carrots in stir-fried chicken.

Deep-frying is common among Malay and Indian families and they need to "expand" their cooking style to include grilling, baking, steaming and micro-waving.

They could also consume more assam or turmeric dishes and soup.

Another "fat-reducing" me-thod is to remove the fat from meat and the skin from chicken before cooking.

Intake of squid should be limited to twice a month as it is high in cholesterol while prawns can be eaten once a week, provided the head and entrails are removed.

Cockles and shellfish should be limited to once a month or not at all as they may be contaminated.

Poor families can still have good protein intake by eating soya products such as tofu, tempe and fuchok.

Those with high cholesterol levels should not take more than four eggs per week, but it is also important to evaluate this from the point of total fat and types of fat intake.

Red beans, green peas, kidney beans, kacang kuda and dhall are also nutritious and a cheap source of protein.

Affordable vegetables like spinach, kangkung and ulam, and local fruits should be included in the daily diet of low-income families like the Kasab family.

The higher-income Malay families tend to have two sources of protein in their daily diet, which is not necessary.

Families should also learn to enjoy the natural flavour of vegetables and not add chicken, pork, prawns or even anchovies to them too often.