Don’t be picky about New Year’s dishes! Weight may increase by 2 kg after the new year

This pork trotter with dried bamboo shoots is shiny and greasy, and looks delicious! However, the National Health Administration reminds that traditional New Year dishes such as pork knuckles, Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, rice cakes and eight-treasure desserts are mostly high-fat and high-sugar foods, with a calorie count of about 3,474 calories per meal. If you eat them once a day for six consecutive days, your weight may increase by 2.1 kilograms. An adult would need to walk quickly from Taipei to Tainan to consume them. The administration urges the public to develop a "picky eating" habit during the New Year to avoid obesity and harm to the body.

Traditional New Year dishes are high in calories, and one meal may consume more than 3,000 calories, which is almost the total calorie intake of an adult for two days. (Photography by Luo Huiwen)

Traditional New Year dishes are full of fat. 30% of people gained 1.7 kg last year

According to the results of the National Health Administration's 2014 "Telephone Survey on Weight Control during the Spring Festival," more than 30% of the public gained an average of 1.7 kilograms during the Spring Festival last year. Chiu Shu-ti, director of the National Health Administration, believes that the reason is the high-calorie New Year's Eve meals and the constant eating of melon seeds, candies and biscuits while sitting for long periods of time. It is difficult not to gain weight when people eat more and move less.

The shiny and elastic pork trotters are a favorite of many people, but behind the delicious taste lies a high-calorie obesity mine. (Photography by Luo Huiwen)

Traditional New Year dishes are high in calories. The National Health Administration analyzed that dishes such as Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, pig's trotters, soups, and eight-treasure desserts are mostly high in fat, fried in flour, thickened, and have added sugar and sauces. In one meal, each person may consume 3,474 calories, which is almost the total calorie intake of a 60-kilogram adult in two days, which is equivalent to one meal for two days.

A healthy 60-kg adult needs about 1,800 calories per day. If we calculate that lunch or dinner requires 700 calories, eating one traditional New Year meal a day for six consecutive days during the Chinese New Year will cause an increase of 2.1 kilograms in weight. You need to walk at a speed of 6 kilometers per hour, and walk about 295 kilometers (about the distance from Taipei to Tainan) to burn off the calories.

Chiu Shu-ti, director of the National Health Administration, recommends that people adhere to the four principles of "not being picky about food," "substitutions," "refusing sugar," and "clearing the food" when eating New Year's Eve meals. (Photography by Luo Huiwen)

Stay away from Chinese New Year fat! Four principles for being picky about New Year dishes

In order to avoid gaining weight during the Chinese New Year, Director-General Chiu Shu-ti suggested that in addition to exercising more, people should give priority to preparing their own Chinese New Year dishes, choose low-calorie healthy ingredients, abandon traditional cooking methods such as frying, and replace them with steaming, braising, blanching, and cold dishes, and reduce the use of sugar and desserts. If you need to buy takeout New Year's dishes or dine at a restaurant, you must adhere to the four principles of "being picky about food", "substitution", "refusing sugar", and "clearing the room".

1. Be picky about food: Pick out the fried chicken skin, fat and chicken skin to reduce fat intake. Don't drink thickened or concentrated vegetable juices. Increasing vegetable intake can supplement vitamins and dietary fiber, and also increase satiety.

2. Substitution: Replace fried dishes with steaming, braising, blanching, and cold dishes, for example, replace sweet and sour fish with dry-fried fish, and replace oil-rich rice with Shanghainese rice; replace high-fat ingredients with low-fat ingredients, for example, replace pork knuckle, Dongpo pork, bacon, and sausage with fresh shrimp, sea cucumber, and beef tendon; replace processed ingredients that are usually high in calories with natural ingredients, and avoid consuming improper additives that increase the risk of colorectal cancer; replace desserts with fresh seasonal fruits; drink more boiled water or sugar-free tea to replace sugary drinks.

3. Say no to sugar: Excessive intake of New Year desserts and sugary drinks such as eight-treasure taro paste, glutinous rice sweet lotus root, eight-treasure porridge, sesame paste, etc. will not only cause obesity, metabolic abnormalities and tooth decay, but sugar will also stimulate the rapid secretion of insulin, causing blood sugar and mood instability, and increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Sugar is also addictive, so eating less is healthier.

4. Clear the table: Do not continue to sit at the table and chat after the meal, to avoid spending too much time at the table and unknowingly eating more food, which will make it difficult not to gain weight.