Three principles of winter soup to avoid obesity

In the damp and cold winter, many people will make appointments to eat tonic food. Ginger duck, mutton hotpot, sesame oil chicken and medicinal stewed spare ribs are the four most popular tonic soups. However, if you want to nourish your body but don’t want to gain weight, you must have skills in eating. It is recommended to master the three principles of "selecting ingredients and soup", "less sauce and less soup", and "don't eat it as a midnight snack".

Eating ginger duck or mutton hotpot as hotpot can easily lead to excessive calorie intake. In addition to the high oil content, the soup is also high in phosphorus, sodium and potassium. Patients with chronic diseases should be careful when eating it. (Photography by Huang Zhiwen)

Zhang Jiaen, a personal trainer at the Chinese and Western Weight Loss Clinic at Wan Fang Hospital, said that the amount of calorie intake is most closely related to how you eat. He reminded those who want to supplement and control their weight that they should first remember that 7700 calories is approximately 1 kilogram, so if you eat 260 more calories a day, you will gain at least 1 kilogram in a month.

On the other hand, if you aim to lose 1 kg in a month, you need to eat 260 calories less per day, or 90 calories less per meal. Therefore, you should first define your weight control goal, and then follow the following three principles for eating:

• Choose the ingredients and soup

The main dish of the tonic soup is still mainly meat. In principle, white meat has lower calories than red meat, and duck and chicken have lower calories than mutton. Ginger duck or mutton hotpot is often eaten as hotpot. If other fried bean curd skin and hotpot ingredients are added, it will easily lead to excessive calorie intake. In addition to the problem of high oil content, the soup is also high in phosphorus, sodium and potassium. Patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and kidney disease should be especially restrained.

For sesame oil chicken, it is recommended to reduce the amount of sesame oil used and use skinless bone-in chicken to reduce the intake of saturated fat and meat. In addition, mushrooms can be added to help increase the dietary fiber content and satiety. As for the medicinal stewed spareribs, although the calories are lower than those of ginger duck, the main reason is that the spareribs are mostly used for gnawing. However, if it is served with noodles, the calories consumed will reach the amount of a meal, so it cannot be eaten as a snack.

• Less sauce and less soup

In addition to sesame oil chicken, the basic ingredients of other tonic soups are almost all sweet noodle sauce and fermented bean curd. 100 grams of sweet noodle sauce is equal to 259 calories, and 100 grams of fermented bean curd is about 105 to 130 calories. These will not only have high calories, but also high sodium problems. Therefore, they must be used in limited amounts and do not develop the habit of dipping them in every bite.

Many people believe that the key to nourishing soup is to drink the soup. However, from the perspective of avoiding obesity, soup is actually a high-calorie trap. To control weight, you should remind yourself to "drink less soup." Take sesame oil chicken as an example. 1 tablespoon of soup contains about 3 to 5 grams of oil, and each gram of oil contains about 9 calories. Therefore, drinking 1 tablespoon less will reduce your calorie intake by 27 to 45 calories.

• Don't have it as a midnight snack

In winter, many people often eat hot pot for lunch or dinner. Although it is high in calories, if you can reduce the calorie intake in other meals and in the days before and after, you will not gain weight all of a sudden. The most worrying thing is that you still eat hot pot and take tonic soup as an additional tonic. Many people choose to eat it at midnight snacks and go to sleep after eating, which of course makes them gain weight easily.

Therefore, it is recommended to eat ginger duck, mutton hotpot, sesame oil chicken and medicinal stewed spare ribs as a full meal, and plan it just like eating a big meal such as hotpot. For example, you can eat only salad for one meal on the same day, or eat lighter the next day to balance it. This way, obesity is less likely to come to you.