Fruits and vegetables are essential for the New Year's hot pot. Nutritionists teach you how to make high-fiber soup base to keep your intestines healthy and stay young.

It has become a social custom for every family to gather around the stove and eat hot pot during the Spring Festival. Although the types of ingredients in hot pot seem diverse and rich, after eating one meal, there are often problems of too much calories and insufficient dietary fiber. The nutritionist said that it is not difficult to eat hot pot in a healthy way without burden, have a happy New Year and not gain weight. As long as you spend some time and effort to use high-fiber ingredients in your dishes, you can effectively reduce calorie intake and increase satiety. She specially made her own private hot pot recipe public for everyone's reference.

If you want to eat healthy and burden-free during Chinese New Year, reduce calorie intake and increase satiety, you might as well follow the nutritionist's recommendations and make a high-fiber healthy hot pot. (Photo/Provided by Taipei Municipal United Hospital)

How to avoid gaining weight or getting rounder after the Chinese New Year? The key is to eat enough fresh fruits and vegetables and take in enough dietary fiber every day

Nutritionist Xu Peili from the Department of Nutrition at the Zhongxing Branch of Taipei Municipal United Hospital said that during the Chinese New Year, it is really a happy thing for relatives and friends to gather together, enjoy delicious food and drink. But it is worth noting that traditional New Year dishes are mostly fish and meat with little vegetables; plus various snacks and drinks often contain high levels of oil, salt and sugar. If people eat excessively and without restraint, the resulting weight gain problem after the New Year is often distressing.

What should we do to avoid the above dilemma? Nutritionist Xu Peili pointed out that consuming enough fresh fruits and vegetables every day and supplementing dietary fiber (25-30 grams/day) is a good way to effectively help stabilize blood sugar, regulate cholesterol, control weight, and promote intestinal health.

What's more, unrefined whole grains, vegetables and fruits that are rich in dietary fiber also contain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, polyphenol compounds, phytochemicals and other essential nutrients for the human body; eating them in moderation can help eliminate free radicals in the body, increase immunity, and delay the aging of physiological functions. Therefore, both the general healthy population and those with risk factors for chronic diseases are advised to include unrefined whole grains, vegetables and fruits in their New Year diet.

Nutritionist Xu Peili recommends that everyone gather around the fire during Chinese New Year this year and make a high-fiber healthy hot pot together. (Photo/Provided by Taipei Municipal United Hospital)

There are some tips to increase dietary fiber intake in hot pot. Add these ingredients to make it more delicious.

Nutritionist Xu Peili pointed out that taking the Chinese people's favorite gathering around the fire during the Chinese New Year as an example, the average calorie intake per person for hot pot (excluding dipping sauce, rice and noodles) is about 500 to 800 calories and 2 to 3 grams of dietary fiber. If you include staple foods, dipping sauces and other ingredients, each person can consume about 1500 to 2600 calories and about 3 to 6 grams of dietary fiber in the meal around the fire on New Year's Eve. There is obviously a problem of excessive calorie intake and insufficient fiber! Therefore, if you want to enjoy your meals during the Chinese New Year and not gain weight, you may want to try using the following high-fiber ingredients in your dishes to increase your sense of fullness, which is a good way to help reduce your calorie intake:

Whole grains: Replace white rice and noodles with whole grain rice and flour products, taro (unfried), pumpkin (with skin), yam, water chestnuts, etc.

Vegetables: Increase the intake of various fresh vegetables. For example, mushrooms, seaweed and kelp are good choices.

Fruits: Eat seasonal fresh fruits in moderation after meals (the recommended intake per meal is limited to the size of a woman’s fist).

Nutritionist’s private hotpot recipe revealed! Make high-fiber soup base like this, and you can sit at the stove without any worries

In addition, nutritionist Xu Peili specifically shares her own private hot pot recipes and methods for people who want to prepare hot pot around the stove, providing them for everyone's reference. At the same time, we also remind people to add a whole vegetable or half-vegetarian dish to each meal during the New Year holidays, and have a serving of fresh fruit after the meal. This is an effective way to help people get enough dietary fiber during the Spring Festival holiday.

The ingredients for healthy hot pot include white radish, dried kelp, onion, chicken tenderloin, wet tofu skin, corn shoots, mushrooms, etc. (Photo/Provided by Taipei Municipal United Hospital)

【Healthy Hot Pot】Recipe (4 servings)

Nutritional analysis (1 serving):

Nutritional analysis for 1 serving of healthy hotpot. (Information provided by nutritionist Xu Peili)

Soup base (raw weight): one white radish (530 grams), one piece of dried kelp (about 5*10 cm) (or 100 grams of kelp), half an onion (100 grams), 240 grams of chicken tenderloin, 15 grams of oil.

Pot ingredients (raw weight): 4 pieces of wet bean curd (about 120 grams), 60 grams of clams, 8 white shrimps, 120 grams of bird eggs (about 12 pieces), 400 grams of cabbage, 100 grams of raw shiitake mushrooms, 100 grams of white mushrooms, 100 grams of corn shoots, and 110 grams of pumpkin.

practice:

1. Peel the white radish and cut it into large pieces. Soak the clams in water to spit out the sand and set aside.

2. Remove the seeds from the pumpkin and cut into pieces. Wash and cut the cabbage. Wash the raw mushrooms, corn shoots and bird eggs and set aside.

3. Add 1500CC of water into the pot, put the kelp and chopped white radish into the pot and bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat until it becomes broth.

4. Cut the onion into shreds and slice the chicken meat for later use.

5. Add oil to the hot pan, stir-fry the onion shreds first, then add the chicken tenderloin slices and stir-fry until half cooked.

6. Pour the broth from step 2 into the pot and continue cooking over low heat. Add cabbage, raw mushrooms, corn shoots, bird eggs, pumpkin, wet bean curd, white shrimps and fried chicken slices in order and cook until done. Add a little salt to taste and serve.

[Nutritionist's Tips]:

Many friends now receive constant invitations to annual parties and year-end dinners, not to mention the New Year’s Eve gathering that cannot be missed when the Spring Festival officially arrives. Nutritionist Xu Peili reminds people that in order to avoid gaining weight after the Chinese New Year, they must remember to eat more high-fiber foods, drink enough boiled water (2000-3000cc/day), and do appropriate physical activities (for example, going on outings in the suburbs, visiting friends and relatives during the spring festival, etc.), etc., in order to effectively prevent weight gain after the holidays and stay healthy and energetic.