What to do with leftovers from the New Year holidays? Dr. Liu Boen: Reheating and eating in the wrong way can lead to weight gain

The Chinese New Year holiday is coming soon. During the holidays, there are always sumptuous New Year dishes at home, but what should we do with the leftovers? Many people are accustomed to reheating leftovers and eating them again, but doing so will actually cause the loss of nutrients and increase weight, which should not be underestimated. So, what should we do with the leftovers from the New Year?

Liu Bowen, a weight loss specialist, pointed out that during the Chinese New Year and other festivals, families will inevitably have a lot of fish and meat dishes. Generally, they are afraid of wasting them if they cannot be finished. So mothers are accustomed to cooking these "leftovers" repeatedly, but the nutrients are lost bit by bit, and the result of repeated heating is that the food becomes more and more salty and over-oiled.

New Year dishes are too salty and oily, be careful of obesity

There is a Mrs. Song who is in her 40s. Because she loves beauty and pays great attention to her figure, she pays attention to her diet. She will download an APP to calculate and control her food intake, and she will not exceed the range every day and for every meal. Over the years, she has maintained a good figure.

However, whenever she went back to her husband's family's home in the south for the Chinese New Year, her weight would suddenly increase by 2 to 3 kilograms in just a few days. At the end of each New Year holiday, when she returned home and stood on the scale, she almost collapsed and kept shouting, "How could this happen?" After careful questioning, she found out that it was because she repeatedly heated up leftovers during the Chinese New Year holidays, which caused her weight to increase rapidly.

If the cooking method of reheating food is not correct, it will still cause weight gain, so it should not be underestimated.

Repeated heating of leftovers and cooking errors can easily lead to obesity

Dr. Liu Bowen emphasized that the reason why Mrs. Song became obese was not the calories she ate, but the cooking method. Because food loses moisture and increases saltiness after multiple cooking, the GI value (glycemic index) also increases. Once the GI value increases and the density decreases, hunger will increase. Even if the amount and calories of the food eaten are not high, the risk of obesity will increase again due to changes in density and GI value.

It is also worth noting that repeated heating of leftovers will produce nitrates and nitrites after metabolism in the gastrointestinal tract, which will synthesize nitrosamines in the gastrointestinal tract. Nitrosamines can destroy the hemoglobin in the human body. If absorbed in large quantities, there may be a risk of poisoning. This situation means that the food is no longer fresh. It is recommended that mothers-in-law remove the floating oil on the top when taking the soup out of the refrigerator before heating it to avoid excessive oil.

After food is cooked multiple times, it loses moisture, becomes more salty, and its GI value (glycemic index) also increases.

Tips for cooking New Year's dishes

1. Cut the boiled chicken into pieces and season it, or cook it by blanching or stewing, such as white-cut chicken, three-cup chicken, four-ingredient chicken soup, bitter melon chicken soup, bamboo fungus chicken soup, etc., or tear it into shreds and make a cold dish, add cucumber, shredded carrots or white fungus. It is not only delicious but also can provide fiber and other nutrients.

2. Remove the fat and skin from the pork before cooking. It can be made into garlic pork slices, twice-cooked pork slices, or shredded for stir-frying or porridge. As for seasonal bacon, it is best to steam it and then slice it for consumption, or add it to vegetables and stir-fry.

3. To avoid excessive oil in fish, cut the fish meat into slices and cook it into soup.

4. Rice cake itself is high in calories, so it is best to avoid frying it. You can add wolfberry and white fungus, cook it into a health-preserving sweet soup or bake it, and then eat it with seasoning powder.

【Doctor's Tips】:

Liu Bowen, a weight loss specialist, said that when handling Chinese New Year leftovers, do not reheat them; people with high uric acid levels should avoid drinking broth or stewed meat soup to avoid triggering severe gout attacks; patients with chronic cardiovascular disease, diabetes or hypertension should be more careful not to consume dishes that are too salty or too oily.

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