Living in Singapore as a corporate professional has its own unique challenges. You may face long working hours, back-to-back meetings, frequent business travel, and may have to take meals at Singapore hawker centers.

In such a challenging lifestyle, if you are affected with Cholesterol or Diabetes issues, managing them with just doctor’s prescribed medication is not sufficient.

This is a case study of a 53 year old Indian working professional living in Singapore who was diagnosed with high cholesterol and HbA1c.

Despite taking prescribed medication by his doctor, the blood sugar & cholesterol were not under control. The case study highlights the full journey of how Online Indian nutritionist for Singapore NRIs helped client achieve manage lipid profile and control other metabolic markers with the help of personalized nutrition program.

The case was fully handled by clinical nutritionist Dt. Foram Modi with online mode of diet consultation.

In this case study, we will walk you through full journey of this NRI diet program execution including the client’s initial situation, the problem he had, initial observation by Dt. Foram Modi before the start of the diet program, and the results we achieved with 3 months of customized online diet program.

We will also showcase various before after pathology lab reports as an evidence of achievement. We will also showcase various meal plate photos that clients in this diet program. So, let’s first understand the client profile.

Disclaimer

At Makes You Eat by Dt. Foram Modi, we follow strict editorial guidelines to write all our health blogs & content. All content is written & reviewed for medical accuracy by our head nutritionist – Dt. Foram Modi. If you in case notice any information misleading or need a change in any statement, you may request for a correction.

Client Profile

Age & Gender: 53 year old male
Location: Singapore, Indian NRI
Occupation: Corporate professional
Dietary Pattern: Mixed diet (vegetarian and non-vegetarian)
Primary Health Concern: Type 2 diabetes with fluctuating blood glucose levels
Cholesterol Concerns: Elevated triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol
Other Health Concerns: Abdominal fat accumulation, acid reflux and chronic gastritis
Work Lifestyle: Long working hours, frequent business meetings and job-related travel
Eating Habits: Frequent restaurant and hawker-centre meals, irregular meal timings and occasional skipped meals
Food Preferences & Challenges: Korean and Singaporean restaurant foods, sweet cravings and limited time for home cooking
Alcohol Consumption: Reported twice weekly in the initial profile

Medical History of the Client

In January 2025, there were endoscopy and biopsy findings, which showed gastroesophageal reflux disease (i.e GERD), esophagitis, a large hiatal hernia, and gastric and colon polyps.

The histopathology reports also mentioned intestinal metaplasia with mild chronic inflammation and benign hyperplastic colon polyps.

These findings were important for Dt. Foram Modi while understanding client’s overall health history.

Understanding the medical history is a part of our proven client onboarding process at Makes You Eat by Dt. Foram Modi. We mandatorily ask you to conduct blood investigations related to the concerns you shared.

These reports are then used as a basis for creating your diet plan. So, at our nutrition clinic, your diet plan is not guessed, but it’s backed by scientific evidence.

Endoscopy Findings Reported by the Client

Below are the findings as per the endoscopic reports shared. The report snapshot is also attached below as evidence (data redacted to preserve privacy).

Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) with Oesophagitis: The client reported a history of acid reflux with inflammation of the oesophagus.
Large Hiatal Hernia: His reported endoscopy findings included a large hiatal hernia, which was an important consideration alongside his reflux history.
Barrett’s Oesophagus Changes: The client informed the dietitian that his previous investigations had identified changes associated with Barrett’s oesophagus.
Gastric Polyp: A gastric polyp was documented in the reported endoscopy findings.
Colon Polyps: The client’s medical history included colon polyps identified during previous investigations.
Mild Gastritis: The reports also documented mild inflammation of the stomach lining.
Gastrointestinal Inflammation: The investigation history indicated inflammatory changes in parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Histopathology and Biopsy Findings Reported by the Client

Below are the findings as per the histopathology & biopsy reports shared. The report snapshot is also attached below as evidence (data redacted to preserve privacy).

Mild Chronic Inflammation at the Gastro-Oesophageal Junction: The biopsy documented ongoing mild inflammation in the area where the oesophagus meets the stomach.
Intestinal Metaplasia: This finding was recorded in the biopsy report and needed to remain part of the client’s documented medical history.
Mild Chronic Antral Gastritis: The biopsy identified mild chronic inflammation in the antrum, the lower portion of the stomach.
Benign Fundic Gland Polyp: The histopathology report identified a benign polyp in the stomach.
Benign Hyperplastic Colon Polyps: Two hyperplastic colon polyps were documented in the case records and described as benign.
Background Colorectal Biopsies Within Normal Limits: The report stated that the background colorectal tissue samples were within normal limits.
No Dysplasia or Malignancy Detected: The available histopathology report stated that no dysplasia or malignancy was detected in the examined samples.

Problems faced by Client (Before Starting the Diet Plan)

The client was struggling to manage his diabetes and cholesterol while doing his demanding corporate job in Singapore.

Even after taking prescribed medication, his blood glucose control levels were not normal. His blood reports showed elevated HbA1c and triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol and raised liver enzymes (reports photos attached below).

He was looking for practical nutrition strategy which can address his health concerns but also is able to follow with his real-life work commitments, food preferences and frequent dependence on meals eaten at Singapore hawker centers.

Below are various problems client mentioned before he starts the 3 month of online diet program with Dt. Foram Modi.

Worsening Diabetes Control: Blood glucose levels had increased despite prescribed diabetes medication.
Elevated HbA1c: Later-2025 records showed substantially poorer long-term blood glucose control than earlier records.
High Triglycerides: His lipid profile showed significantly elevated triglycerides.
Low HDL Cholesterol: His protective HDL cholesterol was below the desired level.
Abdominal Fat: He wanted to reduce abdominal fat and improve his overall metabolic health.
Irregular Meal Timings: Corporate meetings and work commitments frequently disrupted his eating schedule.
Skipped Meals: Long meetings sometimes caused him to miss meals, making consistency difficult.

The First Online Consultation with Dt. Foram Modi in Dec-2025

The client had his first online dietitian consultation with Dt. Foram Modi in December 2025.

Dt. Foram Modi reviewed client health concerns, medical reports, and understood his daily routine and diabetes and cholesterol profile.

Client has also shared his existing blood investigations reports of cholesterol and glucose levels. Dt. Foram Modi noted that there is a deteriorating blood glucose control.

The triglycerides were elevated with low HDL cholesterol. At this point, we recognized that a simple advice to avoid sugar will not address the challenges faced by the client.

The initial consultation session provided the foundation to analyze the client profile in detail and create the customized diet program that can fit in client’s lifestyle (with Singapore food culture habits).

The Diet Plan Starts - Jan 2026 to Mar 2026 (3 Months)

Diet Program Started – Jan 2026
Diet Program completed – Mar 2026
Diet Program Review happened in – Apr 2026
Mode – Online

The client started with the personalized diet program from January 2025. However, after starting, we faced some challenges.

The client’s diet journey was not consistent. During the program, he experienced a major job change with increased workload. The client continued to eat outside approximately four times a week and often eat at Singapore hawker centers, Korean restaurants, and other Asian eateries.

During the diet program, Dt. Foram Modi found that he continued to have strong sweet cravings and reduced availability of home-cooked meals. At several points, client mentioned that he could follow the plan only partially because of work and lifestyle disruption.

At this moment, Dt. Foram Modi adapted the diet plan so that he can follow it sustainably. She adjusted the diet plan as per his restaurant choices, available menu options at Singapore’s Hawker centers, business travel, and helped him not abandon the program.

Below are the lab reports which are conducted just during start phase of the diet plan on 5th Jan 2026. In this, you can see, HBA1C is 8.5 on 5th Jan 2026 & 9.5 on 4th Dec 2025.

After the end of 3 months of personalized NRI centric diet program, the results were encouraging. Let’s have a look.

Just 1 Month of Diet & Rewards are on the way

In just 1 month of starting the online diet program with NRI Dietitian – Dt. Foram Modi, the client showed encouraging changes in his glucose results.

On 22nd Jan 2026, the doctor reviewed his glucose response and reduced his prescribed Diamicron MR dose from 60 mg to 30 mg without introducing additional diabetes medication.

This was the very first encouraging breakthrough. Below is the WhatsApp chat conversation between Doctor & the client related to this change.

And below is the doctor’s formal prescription to reduce the Diamicron tablet to 30mg after seeing the HBA1C results on 22nd Jan 2026.

And here is transcript of this hard to read cursive style prescription. 🙂

I would be grateful if you could provide [3/2?] Diamicron MR 30 mg daily.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Doctor: Dr. Poh Choo Hean
Clinic: Poh Digestive & Liver Clinic Pte. Ltd.
38 Irrawaddy Road, #09-46 Mount Elizabeth Novena, Singapore 329563.

Results of 3 Month of Online Indian Diet Plan for Singapore NRI

At the end of 3 months, we documented encouraging improvement in glucose levels as well as cholesterol levels.

The initial HbA1c was 9.5 % and later CGM estimated value was 6.4% after the end of diet plan.

These improvements in HbA1c were encouraging for a client who has a demanding corporate lifestyle with frequent restaurant meals and business travel.

This case also provided improvement in the cholesterol levels. Below are key results that are documented after 3 months of online Indian diet plan.

HbA1c / Estimated Glucose Marker: The case summary records an initial HbA1c of 9.5% and a later CGM-estimated value of 6.4%. The 6.4% figure should not be described as a confirmed laboratory HbA1c result.
Average Glucose: The final summary records an average glucose value of 7.6 mmol/L.
Time in Range: The final monitoring summary records 88.2% Time in Range.
Diabetes Medication Reduction: The treating doctor reduced Diamicron MR from 60 mg to 30 mg following review of the client’s glucose response.
No Medication Escalation: The case records state that no additional diabetes medication was introduced during this period.
Total Cholesterol: 143 mg/dL
LDL Cholesterol: 82 mg/dL
Triglycerides: 129 mg/dL

The client became more aware of hidden sugar in restaurant sauce and meal, and from that day he started making informed decision when eating outside and planning his meal better during business travels.

The client also developed greater confidence in managing his diabetes-related food independently. These all were practical changes that happened even with frequent meeting, travel and restaurant meal, and consistent eating habits.

After the diet plan ended, the client shared his progress report on how he continued follow the habits taught by Dt. Foram Modi. Below are the HBA1C and Cholesterol lab reports conducted at several intervals after the end of diet plan. For HBA1C, the client also made use of CGM Machine.

Results on 2nd Jun 2026:

Below is the CGM report results captured on 2nd Jun 2026.

CGM Summary

Measurement	Result	Report's Goal
Average glucose	7.5 mmol/L	Below 8.5 mmol/L
CV (coefficient of variation)	29.3%	Below 33%
eHbA1c (estimated HbA1c)	6.3%	Below 7.0%
TITR (time in tight range)	64.2%	3.9–7.8 mmol/L

Time in Range

Category	Glucose Range	Percentage / Duration
Very high	Above 13.9 mmol/L	3 hours 15 minutes
High	10.1–13.9 mmol/L	1 day, 12 hours 25 minutes
Target range	3.9–10 mmol/L	86.0% — 12 days, 1 hour 50 minutes
Low	3–3.8 mmol/L	4 hours 55 minutes
Very low	Below 3 mmol/L	2 hours 20 minutes

Below is the CGM report photo taken on 2nd June 2026.

Results on 8th June 2026:

Test	Result
Total cholesterol	4.41 mmol/L
HDL (good cholesterol)	0.99 mmol/L
Triglycerides	2.89 mmol/L
LDL (bad cholesterol)	2.8 mmol/L
Glucose	6.9 mmol/L
HbA1c	6.0%
MCV	87.4 fL

Below is the lab report on 8th June 2026 for reference.

Results on 18th Aug 2026:

Test	Result	Reference Range
HbA1c (NGSP)	6.4%	4.5–6.4%
HbA1c (IFCC)	46 mmol/mol	26–47 mmol/mol

And below is the lab report on 18th Aug 2026 for your reference.

Here's how our Meal Plates looked like !

Below are the exact meal plate photos shared by the client during the course of this Singapore NRI Diabetes & cholesterol control diet plan by Indian Nutritionist – Dt. Foram Modi.

As you can see, most of the meal plates are Singapore culture specific. The client had to take meals at Singapore hawkers stalls.

This includes meals like Cheese Pesto Sausage Bread, Seasoned Seaweed Salad, Napa Cabbage Kimchi, Korean Fish Cake, Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken or Pork etc.

This is another evidence of how we at Makes You Eat by Dt. Foram Modi customize our diet programs for international clients.

Veg Sandwich Dish for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

Vegetable Chela Meal Plate Dish for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

Steamed or sauted vegetables plate Dish for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken with Kimchi Dish for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

Gim-muchim + Miyeok-julgi muchim Dish for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

Cream of Pumpkin Soup for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

Chia Seed Oatmeal Pudding Dish for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

Chia Seed Oatmeal Pudding + Hard Boiled Eggs Dish for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

Cheese Pesto Sausage Bread with Hard Boiled Eggs Dish for Singapore Diabetes Diet Plan

What Dt. Foram Modi has to say about this Singapore NRI Case of Diabetes & Cholesterol Diet Plan?

This case highlighted why personalized nutrition is very important for NRI people living in Singapore and other countries like UAE and Qatar.

Due to fast office life, you cannot always depend on home-cooked Indian food, and you may have to eat at Singapore hawker center meals. For this client, we focused on practical meal planning and understanding hidden sugars in sauces and helping client improve restaurant choices.

We improved meal timing, and with the help of continuous glucose monitoring, we learned how our improved habits are helping to improve glucose readings.

This case highlights an important message, even though client was unable to follow the prescribed diet 100% because of his office challenges, the client did not abandon the diet program and continued with us.

This case reinforces the message that diabetes and cholesterol management does not require perfection. It requires a strategy as per your lifestyle.

Conclusion

Many Indians who are a working professional in Singapore struggle to manage diabetes and cholesterol while balancing their office lives.

Long working hours, business lunch and dinner, with frequent travel and having lunch at hawker centers leads to challenging routine. As highlighted in this case study of Singapore NRI diet, the client improved his glucose monitoring results, and the doctor has reduced his prescribed dosage of Diamicron MR from 60 mg to 30 mg.

This case also highlighted that practical meal planning with travel-friendly nutrition guidelines helps you support diabetes and cholesterol management along with your appropriate medical treatment.

At our nutrition clinic in Mumbai, Makes You Eat by Dt. Foram Modi, we provide diet plans that works along side your medical treatment. Diet is not a replacement to your medication.

Medically Reviewed

Page Written & Medically Reviewed by – Dt. Foram Modi (PGDND, Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Certified Child Nutritionist)

Page Last Updated On – 21st Oct 2026

About the author

Dt. Foram Modi - Indian Nutritionist for NRIs in Singapore

Dt. Foram Modi is Indian nutritionist for NRIs in Singapore, who offer online nutrition consultations for various health needs of men, women & children.

She provides online diet programs for managing concerns such as diabetes, cholesterol, weight, PCOS, pregnancy, fertility, and gut health for Indian people in Singapore.

Dt. Foram Modi is a founder of her nutrition clinic in Borivali, Mumbai, called Makes You Eat by Dt. Foram Modi. She provides personalized diet plans ranging from 1 month to 3 month of duration, which are based on Indian home-cooked meals and are adjusted as per your lifestyle and profession.

Dt. Foram Modi approach is not about unnecessary restriction and asking you to stop eating your favorite food, she focuses on building sustainable eating habits along with suggesting necessary lifestyle changes.

She provides online diet consultation for NRIs working in countries like UAE, Dubai, Qatar, European countries like Germany, France, and Ireland etc. She provides the diet plan to NRIs with time zone flexibility, weekend availability and adaptability as per grocery availability in the region.

Dt. Foram Modi is highly reviewed dietitian in Mumbai who takes full accountability of her diet program execution and help you stay on track. If you are looking for a nutrition plan for busy professional, homemaker, family, or child who is living outside of India, then look no further than Dt. Foram Modi from Mumbai.

Visit us in Mumbai

Visit Our Nutrition Clinic in Borivali, Mumbai, India

Makes You Eat by Dt. Foram Modi, Mumbai

Makes You Eat by Dt. Foram Modi, B102, 1st Floor,
Gurukul Navkar Pearl, Natakwala Ln, Near Registration office,
Behind Platform No. 1, Borivali West,
Mumbai 400092, Maharashtra