Nutrition and Metabolism

Hokkien mee is a type of Malaysia local foods which is cooked with thick yellow noodles fried in thick black soy sauce and with lots of crunchy deep fried pork lard. Other ingredients such as fish balls, prawns, chicken slices, fish cake, and cabbages are added to improve the taste and appearance of Hokkien mee.

These are the major ingredients and seasonings of Hokkien mee:

Ingredients

500g fresh thick yellow noodles
50-100g chicken - thinly sliced
Fried pork lard
6 prawns
1 bunch of cabbage
Fish balls (optional)

(Epicurean., 2008)

Seasonings

8 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp thick soy sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups water
½ tsp ground white pepper
2 tbsp peanut oil

(Epicurean., 2008)

Methods

Mix thick soy sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and salt with water.

Heat oil in a wok or large frying pan and brown the garlic.

Add the chicken slices and fry for a minute till it is slightly cooked, then add the fish balls, and shrimp.

Fry for another minute until shrimp is partially cooked.

Add the soy sauce mixture and bring to boil.

Add cabbages and cover pan to wilt the vegetable.

As soon as the greens have turned bright green, loosen noodles and add to the wok.

Toss noodles around the sauce to coat noodles with sauce.

Continue to turn noodles around until most of the sauce has been absorbed and noodles are looking dark and sauce has thickened. Add the white pepper and adjust seasonings.

(Epicurean., 2008)

Nutrition value

Table 1.1 Nutrient information of 1 serving of Hokkien Mee

Ingredients	Energy (kcal)	Carbohydrate (g)	Protein (g)	Fat (g)
Thick yellow noodles	281.00	40.60	9.40	9.00
Chicken	76.75	2.75	8.05	3.75
Fried pork lard	120.00	0.00	0.00	13.00
Prawns	24.00	0.30	5.59	0.10
Cabbage	30.00	4.60	2.20	0.20
Fish balls	47.00	0.10	7.34	1.90
Garlic, minced	13.00	2.90	0.40	0.00
Thick soy sauce	72.00	15.00	2.60	0.10
Soy sauce	26.00	3.20	3.20	0.00
Oyster sauce	17.00	3.40	0.66	0.10
Sugar	59.00	14.80	0.00	0.00
Peanut oil	242.00	0.00	0.00	26.80
Total	1007.75	87.65	39.44	54.95

(Nutrition Society of Malaysia, 2001)

Therefore, 1 serving of hokkien mee equal to:

41.30% of total energy required daily

20.53% of total carbohydrate required daily

63.61% of total protein required daily

67.01% of total fat required daily

Metabolism involved:

Glycolysis

Since there is flour contains in thick yellow noodles, there is definitely carbohydrate metabolism involved. At first, the carbohydrate undergoes degradation and being absorbed in the small intestine. The simplest unit of carbohydrate is glucose.

Diagram 1: D-Glucose

Diagram sources: http://img.tfd.com/mgh/ceb/thumb/Structural-formula-for-x3b1-D-glucose.jpg

D-Glucose will undergo glycolysis. This reaction is an anaerobic catabolism which occurs to produce energy in the form of ATP.

Basically, glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm in the absence of O₂. It is the pathway that converts glucose, C₆H₁₂O₆, into pyruvate, C₃H₅O₃^-. In overall, glycolysis yields two molecules of ATP two molecules of pyruvic acid and two "high energy" electron carrying molecules of NADH. There are 10 steps of glycolysis which is separated into 2 phases which are preparatory phase and pay-off phase.

The preparatory phase involves converting D-glucose using 2 molecule of ATP into 2 molecules of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate. The payoff phase involves converting G-3-P into 2 molecules of pyruvate, generating in the process 4 molecules of ATP, and transferring some of the energy into the electron carrier NAD⁺ to generate 2 molecules of NADH.

Below is the link of an animation of glycolysis reaction:

http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/Bio231/glycolysis.html

Aerobic metabolism

When oxygen is present, the pyruvate will enter mitochondria to be fully oxidized by the Krebs cycle. Acetyl-CoA is produced from the pyruvate molecules. Krebs cycle begins with the acetyl-CoA and end with oxaloacetate. Krebs cycle produces in total of two GTP, six NADH, two QH₂, and four CO_2.The Krebs cycle is always followed by oxidative phosphorylation. This process extracts the energy from NADH and QH₂, oxidizing them to NAD⁺ and Q, respectively, so that the cycle can continue. In overall, the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation produce equals about 30 ATP molecules.

Below is the link of an animation of Krebs cycle:

http://www.wiley.com/legacy/college/boyer/0470003790/animations/tca/tca.htm

The other fates of glucose

The excess glucose is stored as glycogen and converts back to glucose when it is needed. Gluconeogenesis is the process whereby glycogen is converted back to glucose.

Diagram 2: Gluconeogenesis

Diagram sources: http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/images/gluconeogenesis.jpg

Besides that, when glucose intake exceeds the body's energy needs (and after saturation of glycogen stores) the acetyl CoA can be used for fatty acid synthesis (in the liver) and storage as triglyceride in adipose tissue. This is occurs in the cytoplasm of cells.

Diagram 3: Fatty acid synthesis

Diagram sources: http://www.wormbook.org/chapters/www_obesity/obesfatfig5.jpg

Lipid metabolism

Hokkien mee contains different type of oil and especially the fried pork lard. These few ingredients contain high amount of fat. The fat digestion mostly takes place in the small intestine. This is done by mixing the fat with the enzyme, lipase. Bile, secreted by the gall bladder, emulsifies large fat particles and breaks them into a smaller size so that pancreatic and intestinal lipases can digest the fats. Lipase would breakdown the fat into fatty acid molecules and glycerol molecules. The fatty acids that has been breakdown thus will transport via the bloodstream to the membranes of adipose cells or muscle cells, where they are either stored or oxidized for energy ( Whitney et.al pg 147-150).

The pathways that involved in lipid metabolism are biolysis, beta-oxidation, and ketosis and lip genesis. Biolysis and beta-oxidation are the process where the oxidative degradation of fatty acids in which two-carbon units are sequentially removed from the fatty acid molecule with each turn of the cycle in the form of acetyl-Coal, which can eventually enter the TCA cycle (Wikipedia Fatty acid metabolism 2009). Ketosis is the process when our body is converting fats into energy; ketones are produced as a by-product. This happen when our body does not consume enough carbohydrate or experiencing starving, it will begin ketosis to obtain energy from its stored fats (Laura Dolson, 2008). Hokkien mee contain more fat than carbohydrate thus ketosis might happen if we consume too much. Lipogenesis is the fat synthesis in the body. This includes the synthetic in the body. This includes the synthetic processes of fatty acids and subsequent triglycerides in the liver and the adipose tissue ( Lipogenesis 2009).

Protein metabolism

Hokkien mee contain high amount of protein which mainly come from chicken and mee. Prawns and fish ball only contribute few protein compound in overall. The protein will breakdown into amino acid. The digestion of protein mainly occurs at stomach, chiefly with the action of the hydrochloric acid that is produced there, and by the enzyme called pepsin. Digestion continues in the upper portion of the small intestine under the action of the pancreatic protein enzymes, trypsin. The amino acids are absorbed by the blood capillaries of the small intestines, carried through the liver, and then go into the blood of the general circulation. Excess amino acid will be metabolized into glycogen and used for energy.

What are the benefits of HOKKIEN MEE ????

As the dish name is shown, noodles are the main ingredient for this food. From the RNI table, we can see that noodles contain high amount of carbohydrate and protein. This is why when we consume Hokkien mee; we feel satiety as carbohydrate will provide energy for us. Proteins are very important in the contribution to our body cells. They are involved in virtually all cell functions. Some proteins are involved in structural support, while others are involved in bodily movement, or in defense against germs.

The chicken slices do contains proteins, B vitamin, niacin, and selenium. Niacin is contributing in helping us to protect individuals from age-related deterioration of mental skills and Alzheimer’s disease. Vitamin B6 has many good qualities, one of which is to assist enzymes in completing metabolism reaction. Besides that, it also helps our bodies in the processing of carbohydrates--breaking down glycogen, sugar stored in muscle cells that is needed to fuel our bodies. Selenium play roles as an anti-oxidant enzyme which helps prevent damage to the cells by free radicals. Lastly, chicken contains large amount of phosphorus which aid in maintaining and formulation of bones and teeth (Food nutrition facts 2007).

As for information, prawns contain cholesterol. Some of you might think prawns contain high level of cholesterol. Instead, research has shown that the cholesterol level is significantly lower than previous thought. An average 3 ¸ ounce (100 gram) shrimp portion contains about 150 milligrams of cholesterol, or about half the cholesterol found in one chicken egg. Therefore, it’s unnecessary to worry in consuming prawns as it is not a health problem as long we consume in balance. By the way, prawns is low fat with a rich content of highly unsaturated fatty acid which lead to the formation of high density lipids known as good cholesterol (HDL). HDL is the lipoprotein that helps to lower blood cholesterol level. Other than that, prawns is also a good source for calcium and phosphorus (Delicia Sea 2007)

How to make Hokkien mee healthier??

The easiest way to reduce the total energy of hokkien mee is reduce the portion size of every ingredients especially pork lard as pork lard contains very high amount of fat. 1 tsp of pork lard contributes to 120 calories (Nutrition Society of Malaysia, 2001). High intake of fat might be lead to cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, stroke and others. Therefore, small amount of pork lard are recommended to enhance the flavour. All the quantity of ingredients and seasonings should be cut down in order to promote a balanced diet.

Beside that, sunflower oil is suggested instead of peanut oil to cook hokkien mee can improve the health benefits of hokkien mee. This is because sunflower oil contains high amount of linoleic and oleic acid. Both of the fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids which are better for our body (National Sunflower Association, 2009). As when the fats are broken down or oxidized to produce energy, thus an unsaturated fat molecule contains somewhat less energy and fewer calories than saturated fatty acids. Furthermore, sunflower oil is light in taste and appearance and it has a high Vitamin E content. It is a combination of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats with low saturated fat levels as it is produced from oil type sunflower seeds (Wikimedia, 2009).

Do not reuse the cooking oil because when the same pot of oil is repeatedly reheated, the oils will begin to degrade and release some substances known as polymers and polar compounds that can become absorbed by foods. If we consume the particular foods, it might be increased our blood pressure (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2003).

In the other hand, varies types of vegetables can be added to hokkien mee such as Chinese pak-coy, carrots, bean sprout and others. Vegetables with high fiber content are most often associated with protecting against heart disease and diabetes by lowering blood cholesterol and glucose level. Beside that, fibers also promote bowel movements and alleviate constipation (Whitney et.al pg 106).

The amount of salt and sugar can be reduced eventually. High amount of salt and sugar will contribute to high blood pressure and diabetes. Besides, oyster sauce actually can be eliminated because oyster sauce contents high amount of sodium, 2933mg per 100g (Whitney et.al pg H-36).

References:

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 2003. [Online]. Available from:

http://preventdisease.com/news/articles/reusing_cooking_oil_ups_bp.shtml [Accessed on 25 February 2009]

Delicia Sea 2007. The Health Benefits of Shrimp [Online]. Available from:

http://www.delicasea.us/health.html [Accessed on 25 February 2009]

Epicurean., 2008. Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee Recipe. [Online]. Available from:

http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/102/fried-hokkien-prawn-mee.html [Accessed on 25 February 2009]

Food nutrition facts 2007. Chicken nutrition [Online]. Available from:

http://www.food-nutrition-facts.net/chicken_nutrition/chicken_nutrition.html [Accessed on 25 February 2009]

Laura Dolson, 2008. What is Ketosis? [Online]. Available from:

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/faq/f/whatisketosis.htm [Accessed on 25February 2009]

National Library of Medicine 2009. Lipogenesis [Online]. Available from: