The Success of Food Fair

Well, finally the Food Fair was finished! It was a great success event with the helps and contributions by each of the group members. I am surprise that we can make the Food Fair the best one. I give this Food Fair a mark of 95% and the remaining 5% was due to the lacking of food products available for selling. All the products were sold out before the Food Fair was to be ended, unbelievable!! Some people were not able to get one of our Food product!!



our food product - Dra-gurt (Dragon fruit + yogurt)



RM 4 per cup



Dra-gurt description



Dra-gurt food label



Our Booth...



"yummy, nice!!" our customers' comment



I'm happily selling the food product!!



I'm explaining the benefits of Dra-gurt to Dr Hon



Joyce and I are providing service..



Today was a hectic day to all of us, we were not only have to sell the food products but also have to do the poster and oral presentations.



poster presentation on 'High Risk Food'


My group's oral presentation was on the food combination between persimmons and crabs during the Food Fair. The whole slides preparation was such a challenging and exciting process to us! It was so difficult to search on the effect of crabs and persimmons to our human body.I was at first heard some hearsays that these two when combined together can cause diarrhea effect. This made me curious and I searched on the information from some reliable websites and it showed that there were quite a number of people did experience diarrhea after consuming this crab and persimmons combination. Since I know this crab and persimmons combination does really affect the human body health, I decided to search for more information regarding this food combination with my other two group members.


It was a hard task for us as we had no knowledge about food combination before, we searched from many sources that do not explain the reaction between crabs and persimmons, so we decided to search on the reaction between the compounds contain in the crab and persimmon. We did find the interaction between protein and tannic acid which combine give the diarrhea effect. Food combination is actually about the interaction of foods in our digestive tract. We can actually know the good or bad effect when one food is combined with another food once we know how the disgestive system works.


Through two weeks research, we were finally complete our task by knowing the interaction between crabs and persimmons. We thought the tasks would be over just by submitting the research works we did. We never expect that our lecturer would ask us to do either poster or oral presentation during the Food Fair. My first thought was "OH MY GOD.!! we had plenty of works to do for the Food Fair now comes another one again...killing man..."
But after some times, I aware that this is actually a good oppurtunity for us as students to explore ourselves, to experience new things besides studies, so I made up my mind and decided to do oral presentation instead of poster presentation.

The video below is the slide presentation about food combination between crabs and persimmons that presented by me in the Food Fair.






At first, I had fear in doing presentation in front of public as I'd never done public speaking in my whole life before. However, my lecturer let me did the rehersal in front of my coursemates before presenting it during the Food Fair. The rehersal explored me to various possible questions which would be asked during the Food Fair, this gave me an idea on how to handle questions during presentation. I really feel thankful to have my coursemates and my lecturer that helped me up on the presentation with all their sincere comments and ideas. I modified my slides and arranged it in a better sequence to make the presentation flow better without any stoppage. This is the technique my lecturer taught me in order to produce a good presentation.


To my surprise, my fear was totally gone when I was presenting in front of public during the Food Fair. Maybe this is what people always said 'Practice makes perfect!' This presentation was so appealing as some lecturers from UCSI University wanted to know more about the physiology of our human body towards the food combination. They even encourgaed me to do further research on food combination. Finally,this presentation brought us an award by being the first prize winner of the oral presentation!! This is an acknowledgement of our hard works!! Bravo!!




I'm receiving the trophy from Dr. Hon



cert of Food Fair participation from UCSI University



snapping at the end of the Food Fair with some group members..



Yeah...~~



Big Group photo at the end of the Food Fair!!

Crabs and Persimmons

The ancient medical book recorded:" If eat crab with perimmons together, it can make people suffer from diarrhea." The reason is that the crab includes the abundent protein, and persimmons contain a lot of tannic acid, the two eat together, will solidify and harden. In addition, the crab and persimmons all belong to the cold and cool things, at the same time can easily cause to uncomfortable if take it excessively (Da Zha, 2004).



Factors cause the crab and persimmons combination choice:



1. Taking persimmons before or after crab meal, especially during Chinese New Year.

2. Taking persimmon as appetizer and follow by a meal with crab.

3. Drink persimmon juice with crab meal.

4. Taking persimmon salad with crab soup.

5. Taking persimmon cake follow by a chili crab meal.

Crab contains the abundent protein and persimmons contain a lot of tannic acid. The tannic acid from persimmons inhibits the secretion of the digestive acids required for protein digestion. One tannin molecules binds two or more peptide groups, by formation of cross-link between the protein chains. The level of cross-linkage depends upon the number and accessibility of protein carbonyl groups per protein molecule and the relative concentration of the tannin. Tannin reacts with protein will form turbidity and a medium, coagulate the protein. The protein-tannin coagulate form will accumulate in stomach (D.K.Salunkhe, 1990).

Undigested protein then putrefies owing to the constant presence of bacteria in the digestive tract, the bacteria in the alimentary canal get all the nutrients release waste product as toxins to the body. The bloodstream picks up toxins from the putrefied mess as it passes slowly through the intestines, and these toxins in turn cause rashes, hives, headaches, nause and other symptoms commonly branded as allergies. This putrefaction is the primary cause of all sorts of digestive stress, including gas, heartburn, cramps, bloating, constipation, foul stools, bleeding piles, colitis, stomachache and diarrhea (Daniel Reid, 2006).

Suggestions on how to prepare the food to enable safety consumption:

1. Peel the persimmon before eat with crab, because most of the tannic acid comes from the peel.

2. Since the property of crab is cold, it should be eaten with dipping vinegar or drinking wine to warm the stomach and eliminate the cold, to disinfect and eliminate the poison.

cold is refer to the yin in tradition chinese medicine, please click Food combining guidlines to have more details about yin/yang balance in food combination which is similar to the acid/alkaline in chemistry aspect.

3. When suffer crab toxin occasionally, drink fry purple perilla juice or smash wax juice to diminish the effect.

4. It is better to eat one to two pared persimmons after a meal, so it will not produce any chemical effect in the stomach (Donald, 2004).

5. Crabs should be dipped in ginger vinegar before eating to kill the bacteria (Donald, 2004).

Food Combination

Everyone of us know that while eating Mentos and drinking cola can result in people regurgitating the foamy result. The figure below shows a Diet Coca-cola bottle, shortly after Mentos were dropped into it.

A second common diet myth we have normally heard is eating durian while drinking alcohol can make people to be nausea, increase the heartbeat of that person and it can be lethal. The above two examples are totally due to bad combination of food.

We always eat foods without knowing the effect of the food to our body. It is well known that many illneses are due to deficiencies of certain essential food factors-vitamins and minerals. These deficeincies produce degeneration of certain tissues, and this degeneration results in loss of resistance. Infections then invade us and produce disease. However, it is possible to eat large quantities of nutritious foods and get no benefit at all from them if we eat other foods at the same time that interfere with the proper digestion of vitamin and mineral bearing foods. When we eat what we eat has a lot to do with how much good we get from it.

We all at one time or anohter, have tried, read about or heard about food combining. Food combination was introduced in 1911 by Dr.William Howard Hay. Proper food combinations are important for proper digestion, utilization, and assimilation of the nutrients in our diet. Poor food combinations while can cause toxicity in the body because certain food groups do not digest well together. Combining foods improperly also led to indigestion, fermentation, putrefaction, poor nutrient absorption, and gas formation.

Below are some of the examples of healthy food combination and unhealthy food combination.

Healthy Food Combination:

1. Spinach with orange - Vitamin C in orange can enhance the iron absorption in spinach (Hallberg L et al, 1989).

2. Sardines with cod liver oil- Vitamin D in cod liver oil is good for optimal calcium absorption (Office of Dietary Supplement, 2008).

3. Oil with Vitamin A (carrot), vitamin E (nuts), Vitamin K (Green vegetables) food- these are fat soluble vitamins that dissolve in oil and absorb by body (Kiran B.Misra, 2008).

4. Meat and leafy green vegetables (Matthew S, 2005).

Unhealthy Food Combination:

1. Durian with alcohol - causes ill effect (C.W.Ogle and Y.F.Teh, 1969).

2. Tea and iron rich food (spinach, meat)- tannin in tea inhibit iron absorption (Cathy Wong, 2007).

3. Coffee and calcium rich food (tofu, sesame seeds)- coffee leads to excretion of calcium in the urine (Kathleen Goodwin, 2006).

4. Banana with milk- this combination can change the intestinal flora, produce toxins and cause sinus congestion, cold cough, and allergies (Dr. C Davis, 2007).

5. Acid fruits (orange, pineapple) with sweet fruits (banana,papaya)- these fruits cannot digest well together (Vasant Lad et al, 1997).

6. Coke with mentos

7. Crab and Persimmons