Don’t eat fatty food during the Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue, antioxidant foods are essential! 3 tips to make barbecue healthier

Barbecue is the highlight of the Mid-Autumn Festival. When preparing barbecue ingredients, how can you make it delicious and healthy and nutritious? Director Hou Wenyi of the Nutrition Department of St. Martin's Hospital teaches you how to choose ingredients and how to make simple and quick homemade sauces so that the whole family can enjoy the benefits and not get fat or accumulate while eating meat. Nutritionist Cai Yuqi also shares 3 tips to make barbecue healthier.

Smart Choices for Mid-Autumn Barbecue Ingredients

1. Staple Food

You can choose whole grains, such as whole wheat toast, sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and pumpkin as your staple food.

2. Beans, fish, eggs, meat

Get high-quality protein from dried tofu and lower-fat foods such as lean meat, fish, clams, chicken legs, etc., and prevent excessive intake of animal fat.

3. Vegetables and mushrooms

Use bell peppers, cucumbers, wild rice shoots, king oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, konjac, corn shoots, etc. to make vegetable skewers or use them with dried tofu and meat to make barbecue skewers.

4. Fruits

Encourage the use of fresh seasonal fruits as a substitute for beverages.

5. Oils and sauces

Avoid commercial barbecue sauces to reduce sodium intake; it is recommended to make your own umami sauce (see below) to ensure deliciousness.

(Photo provided by nutritionist Hou Wenyi from St. Martin's Hospital)

Homemade umami sauce (10 servings)

Ingredients: 40cc commercially available soy sauce, 1 fresh ripe tomato, 100g fresh white radish, 10g sesame seeds, 10g sesame oil.

Homemade umami sauce

practice:

Dice tomatoes and white radish, add a little boiling water and blend with a juicer. Add sesame seeds and blend into a paste. Then add soy sauce and sesame oil and mix well. You can add green onions, garlic, celery, coriander, onion, miso and other ingredients to season according to your preference.

(Photo and text provided by Nutritionist You Weiming from St. Martin’s Hospital)

Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue is less burdensome and you can also eat a balanced diet

You can eat barbecue healthily without any burden! Director Hou Wenyi suggested that tin foil can be laid on the food during baking to ensure even heating, avoid excessive temperatures and prevent the production of carcinogens. The chicken legs are first marinated and then steamed with staple foods such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, pumpkin, etc. and then baked. The texture is soft and the sweet taste is easier to retain, making it suitable for the elderly. Vegetable skewers are rich in vitamin C, dietary fiber that helps with bowel movements, and antioxidant nutrients. Adding mushrooms also contains immune polysaccharides, which effectively protect health. In terms of sauce preparation, adding sauce made from white radish and fresh tomatoes can greatly reduce salt intake, allowing patients with diabetes and high blood pressure to enjoy the natural and fresh barbecue flavor.

Don't eat fat during the Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue, drink tea with vegetables

I enjoy eating barbecue every year, but later I gradually realized that I really can't eat barbecue to my heart's content. Nutritionist You Weiming from St. Martin's Hospital shared a rhyme for Mid-Autumn barbecue: Eat barbecue smartly during the Mid-Autumn Festival, pair it with sugar-free drinks, reduce oil consumption in a healthy way without any burden, and get a slim figure easily.

The purpose of Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue is to make it delicious and healthy. During the barbecue process, the burnt material on the food must be removed. Meat slices grilled on a high-temperature surface or gravy dripping into the fire will form carcinogens. It is recommended to keep the food away from the coals and grill it for a shorter time.

Nutritionists teach 3 tips to make barbecue healthier

After learning the Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue guide, nutritionist Cai Yuqi from St. Martin's Hospital will share some tips to help people upgrade their barbecue health and can also be applied to their daily diet.

1. Eat some antioxidant foods when eating barbecue

High-temperature grilling is one of the main factors that increase the risk of cancer. Therefore, in addition to lowering the grilling temperature to reduce the production of heterocyclic amines, we can also add a little garlic slices and vegetables (comb zucchini, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, onions) to enhance the body's antioxidant capacity and balance the greasy feeling of grilling.

2. Get up and move around more when grilling

Many activities can be enjoyed during the barbecue, such as taking a walk to enjoy the moon, painting, singing and chatting, playing board games, playing Switch games, and setting off fireworks. These activities not only help to create a pleasant atmosphere, but also help promote gastrointestinal motility, aid digestion, and control blood sugar after the meal.

3. Control the calories of the next day’s main meal

Don’t worry if you ate too much barbecue the day before and the calories are off the charts. The next day, you can avoid high-fat, high-refined starch, and high-sugar foods, and choose refreshing vegetables and fruits with low-fat, high-quality protein (tofu, chicken breast) to balance it out. This is an effective way to control calories, reduce hunger, and balance nutrition.

Nutritionist's Private BBQ Menu

Salt and Scallion Dipping Sauce: Prepare scallions, salt and sesame oil and mix well. Use it as a dipping sauce or marinade.

Refreshing vegetable wrapped meat: prepare lettuce, grapefruit juice, and grilled meat slices, then wrap them together to enjoy the refreshing flavor.

Grilled meat and vegetable skewers: prepare bell pepper slices, green beans, king oyster mushrooms, and meat chunks, skewer them on bamboo skewers and grill them.

Shrimp and pineapple skewers: prepare shrimp and pineapple pieces, alternately thread them on bamboo skewers and fry them.

Meat slices and corn shoots rolls: prepare thin slices of meat, put corn shoots on them, roll them up, put them on bamboo skewers and fry them.

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