Living alone with patchy meals: how can I cover food groups?

If you live alone and feel you are not eating from all the food groups, what to add is the food groups you miss each day. Use the Thai Department of Health's nutrition flag as your guide: build every meal as one-third rice or starch, one-third vegetables and one-third meat, eggs or beans, then add fruit and plain milk. If you mostly buy your food, check which group a meal is missing and top it up from a convenience store or fruit stall. If you cook, choose ingredients you can use up and store food properly.

Why do people who live alone often miss food groups?

Eating alone does not cut food out directly. It changes your eating pattern little by little, without you noticing.

Mostly one-dish meals

With no one to share a meal, most people buy one-dish meals such as chicken rice, stewed pork leg on rice, holy basil stir-fry with a fried egg, or instant noodles. These give you rice or noodles and some meat, but only a few pieces of vegetable or none at all, and hardly ever fruit or milk.

The same dishes again and again

The shop near your condo, the stall in your soi or the dish you always order on a delivery app means you rotate between only a few meals. Foods are not equal in nutritional value, so repeatedly choosing the same foods out of preference or habit may not give you the full variety of foods. That is why the nutrition flag guide suggests rotating different foods within each group.

Fresh food goes to waste

A bunch of vegetables or a pack of meat is often too much for one person. After throwing food away a few times, many people stop buying fresh vegetables and rely more on ready-made food.

Skipped or late meals

On days you finish work late, dinner can become a snack or a cup of noodles at 10 or 11 at night, and breakfast gets skipped because no one is there to eat with. When one meal disappears, you may end up with fewer vegetables or less fruit that day.

What should I eat in a day, and how much?

The Department of Health sums up "eating well" for Thai people in two parts: "eating the right amount", following the nutrition flag, where amounts differ by age, sex and activity level, and "eating well enough", following the 9 dietary guidelines (phochana banyat 9 prakan).

The 9 dietary guidelines

1. Eat from all 5 food groups
2. Make rice your main staple
3. Eat fish, eggs, lean meat and dried beans
4. Eat vegetables and fruit regularly
5. Drink milk in suitable amounts
6. Cut down on sweet, fatty and salty food
7. Eat clean, freshly cooked food
8. Drink enough clean water
9. Stop or cut down on alcohol

How do the 5 food groups differ from the nutrition flag?

The Department of Health uses the "nutrition flag" (thong phochanakan) to show the types and proportions of food to eat in a day so that you get the full range of nutrients. The flag divides food into 6 groups: rice and starch, vegetables, fruit, meat, milk, and oil, sugar and salt. It differs from the familiar 5 food groups by separating milk from meat and grouping fat with sugar and salt as foods to eat only a little of.

Daily amounts by activity level

The Department of Health's nutrition flag guide for working-age adults (19 to 59 years) sets amounts by the energy you use in daily life.

Within the meat, eggs and beans group, the guide includes 1 egg (equal to 2 tablespoons) and 2 tablespoons of roasted or baked dried beans a day, with the rest as meat. If you do not drink cow's milk, calcium-fortified soy milk or plain yoghurt can take its place.

How much is a ladle or a portion?

• 1 ladle of cooked rice is about 60 g, equal to half a ladle of sticky rice, 1 bundle of khanom chin rice noodles or 1 slice of bread.
• 1 ladle of cooked vegetables is about 40 g. For raw vegetables such as salad leaves, about 2 ladles equal 1 ladle of cooked vegetables.
• 1 tablespoon of cooked meat is about 15 g, equal to half a short mackerel (pla tu), half an egg or a quarter of a block of firm yellow tofu.
• 1 portion of fruit is about 70 to 120 g, such as 6 to 8 bite-sized pieces of papaya, pineapple or watermelon, 1 nam wa banana, 1 large tangerine, or 4 rambutans or mangosteens.

Split it into meals with the "balanced plate"

If counting ladles for the whole day feels like too much, think meal by meal with the guide's "balanced plate": divide the plate into three equal parts, one-third rice or starch, one-third vegetables and one-third meat, eggs or beans, then add fruit and plain milk. For a woman with low activity eating 3 meals a day, the guide gives each meal as 2 to 3 ladles of rice or starch, at least 1 ladle of vegetables, 3 tablespoons of meat and 1 portion of fruit, plus 1 egg and 2 tablespoons of beans in one of the meals, and 1 glass of plain milk at 2 meals of the day.

The guide also recommends at least 1 ladle of dark green leafy vegetables a day, such as Chinese kale (kana) or ivy gourd leaves (tamlueng), vegetables and fruit of many colours, brown or hand-pounded rice at least once a day, and at least 8 glasses of clean water a day.

I buy every meal outside. How can I eat from all the food groups?

Most people who live alone mainly buy their food, and that is fine. The key is to see which group each meal is missing and add it.

Example meals from the Department of Health

The working-age nutrition flag guide gives examples of balanced plates you can buy almost anywhere.

Curry-on-rice shops, made-to-order stalls and noodle shops

• If you order two dishes on rice, make one of them vegetables, such as stir-fried mixed vegetables, stir-fried Chinese kale, clear soup with napa cabbage, or kaeng liang vegetable soup.
• When you order a holy basil or red curry paste stir-fry, ask for extra vegetables such as long beans or baby corn. At a noodle shop, ask for extra bean sprouts or morning glory and eat the side vegetables on the table.
• Chicken rice and stewed pork leg on rice have few vegetables, so buy boiled vegetables or a spicy vegetable salad to go with them, or add vegetables at another meal that day.
• Choose boiled, steamed, blanched or grilled dishes more often than fried ones, and do not add extra fish sauce or seasoning sauce to food that is already seasoned.

Convenience stores and fruit stalls

A convenience store near home makes it easy to fill the missing groups without cooking.

Bags of cut fruit are easy to find in Thailand. Buy one to eat after a meal or as a snack instead of sweets. Choose fruit that is not very sweet, and avoid canned fruit and candied or syrup-preserved fruit.

I cook for one. How can I prepare meals ahead and still eat from all the groups?

Cooking several meals at once makes it easier to manage vegetables and protein, but in Thailand's heat you need to store food properly.

Covering all the groups without waste

• Vegetables: choose vegetables that keep longer than leafy greens, such as carrots, cabbage, pumpkin or long beans, or use frozen vegetables, and buy leafy greens only in amounts you will finish in 1 to 2 days.
• Meat: split it into small meal-sized bags before freezing, and take out one bag at a time.
• Eggs and tofu: easy protein for one person. The Department of Health guide says working-age adults can eat 1 egg every day.
• Rice: cook brown or hand-pounded rice in amounts you need, or cook a batch and freeze it in single-meal portions.

How to store food you have cooked

• CDC: put cooked food, meat, dairy and cut fruit in the fridge within 2 hours, or within 1 hour if it is hotter than 32°C, and keep the fridge at about 4°C or below.
• Reheat food that has been kept for more than 2 hours until it is hot all the way through before eating it again, as the Department of Health guide describes.

Wash your hands before and after cooking

• Wash your hands with soap and clean water before, during and after preparing food, and before eating, scrubbing all over for at least 20 seconds, then rinse and dry, following the CDC's steps.
• If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitiser with at least 60% alcohol.
• Use separate chopping boards or plates for raw meat and for vegetables, fruit and bread.
• After taking a delivery from a rider or coming home from outside, wash your hands before opening the box and picking up food.