If you eat too many mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, you may suffer from "Mid-Autumn Festival sequelae". Be careful of soaring blood sugar and gastroenteritis!

When eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoying the delicious food, it is best to learn to read the calorie label first to see how many calories there are. However, some people often eat too happily and ignore the moderation in their intake, and accidentally take in too much starch, sugar, and fat. Nutritionist Lai Yu-han from the Department of Nutrition at the Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare reminds that every year around the Mid-Autumn Festival, some people will experience post-Mid-Autumn Festival symptoms, such as high blood sugar, indigestion, and gastroenteritis. Diabetic patients in particular should pay special attention to blood sugar control.

Nutritionist Lai Yuhan explained that the main ingredients of mooncakes are starch, sugar, fat and a small amount of protein, and consuming large amounts of the first two will cause blood sugar to rise rapidly. There are more than 2.5 million people suffering from diabetes in Taiwan, and the trend continues to be younger. In addition, there are no obvious symptoms in the early stages of diabetes. This is why some people do not know they have diabetes and start controlling their sugar intake until their bodies show disease reactions, such as high blood sugar leading to stroke, retinopathy, aggravated cardiovascular disease, or abnormal health check reports. In fact, whether you have diabetes or not, you should pay attention to controlling sugar and consuming mooncakes in moderation during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

There are many types of Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes. The types of mooncakes widely circulated on the market are roughly divided into Cantonese, Suzhou, and Taiwanese mooncakes. Nutritionist Lai Yuhan said that Cantonese mooncakes have the highest calories because a large amount of oil needs to be added to the crust of Cantonese mooncakes when they are made in order to achieve the required taste. Therefore, even if there is only one layer of crust, the fat content is still the champion among all mooncakes. The second is Suzhou and Taiwanese mooncakes. The more layers of crust, the higher the fat content. In addition, a large amount of sugar is added when making the mooncake filling, so you should also pay attention to the amount of sugar to avoid consuming a lot of calories and fat without realizing it.

How can we eat mooncakes without overeating? Nutritionist Lai Yuhan suggested that to control calories, one must first reduce the amount of food consumed. One should give priority to eating low-calorie snow skin mooncakes, share mooncakes with family and friends, and reduce the amount of food eaten by half on the day of eating mooncakes. (Photo courtesy of Taipei Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare)

How can we eat mooncakes without overeating? Nutritionist Lai Yuhan recommends that to control calories, one must first reduce the amount of food consumed. One should give priority to eating low-calorie snow skin mooncakes, share mooncakes with friends and family, reduce the amount of food eaten on the day of eating mooncakes by half, and eat no more than one mooncake a day. But don't think it's okay to eat one mooncake every day.

Nutritionist Lai Yuhan reminds that eating a mooncake every day is still too much of a burden of fat and sugar for the elderly and diabetic patients. Try not to eat mooncakes continuously every day. The three meals must be balanced. To prevent the fat, sugar and carbohydrates in mooncakes, you should reduce the intake of whole grains, oils and sugary drinks, and increase the intake of vegetables, beans, fish, eggs and meat. Also, you should exercise more, such as taking a 30-minute walk after a meal, to help improve the body's metabolism.