Embracing Clean And Green

From the bastions of haute cuisine to casual restaurants and hawker stalls, eateries in Singapore are now offering healthier dining options

- Michelle Yee

Just a little over a decade ago, Singapore wasn’t the health-loving city you see today. There weren’t many cafes or eateries serving healthy fare, and if one wanted to eat clean in a restaurant, the options were often boring and limited—think monastic salads of leaves and sprouts.

Gone are those days. Walk into any mall today, and you are bound to find a handful of health-centric eateries offering healthy, tasty menus including vegetarian options that are creative and delicious, hearty whole grain alternatives and smoothie bowls packed with tons of superfoods like raw organic cacao nibs, goji berries, hemp seeds and more.

Indeed, the ‘eat cleaner and greener’ movement has gained momentum in our country, sparked perhaps by rising obesity among Singaporeans. According to the World Obesity Federation, the percentages of adult Singaporeans who were overweight were 31.7 per cent for men and 21.2 per cent for women in 2014, but by 2025, the numbers are expected to increase to 36.5 per cent for men and 21.7 per cent for women. Beyond our sunny island, obesity has become a global epidemic. The World Health Organisation says that obesity has more than doubled since 1980 worldwide. In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults (18 years and older) and 41 million children (under the age of 5) were overweight or obese.

But what does it mean to eat clean? While different people may have different ideas on what constitutes as eating ‘clean’, the general consensus among nutritionists is that “clean eating” at its simplest, is consuming whole foods that are unprocessed or minimally processed.