As the weather gradually turns cooler, steaming hot pot once again becomes a favorite for foodies. The hot pot you gave up during the hot summer can be enjoyed again, which is exciting! But how can you eat hot pot in a healthy way? What are the best pairings? And what should you pay attention to when eating hot pot? Let's take a look at the article below!
Nourishing Copper Hot Pot
Six Healthy Dishes for Hot Pot
First: Order a plate of sweet potatoes when eating hot pot.
We all know that meat is acidic food, while sweet potatoes are alkaline. When they enter the stomach, they can neutralize acids and bases, trying to maintain the acid-base balance in our bodies.
Second: Add more vegetables to the pot.
Vegetables contain a lot of vitamins and chlorophyll, and their nature is mostly cool. They can not only eliminate greasiness and supplement the body's vitamin deficiency in winter, but also have the effects of cooling, detoxifying, and reducing internal heat. However, do not cook vegetables for too long, otherwise most of their nutritional value and fire-quenching effects will be lost.
Tip: Vegetables suitable for pairing with lamb.
When eating lamb, pair it with cool and neutral vegetables to play a cooling, detoxifying, and fire-reducing role.
Cool vegetables generally include winter melon, loofah, rapeseed, spinach, cabbage, enoki mushrooms, mushrooms, lotus root, water bamboo shoots, bamboo shoots, and bok choy; while sweet potatoes, potatoes, and shiitake mushrooms are neutral vegetables.
Third: Add some tofu in moderation.
Some tofu contains gypsum. Adding an appropriate amount of tofu to the hot pot can not only supplement the intake of various trace elements but also exert the effect of gypsum in clearing heat, reducing fire, relieving restlessness, and quenching thirst.
Fourth: You can add some white lotus seeds.
White lotus seeds are not only rich in various nutrients but also a good medicine for the body's conditioning. The added white lotus seeds should not have the lotus hearts removed, because the lotus hearts have the effect of clearing heat and reducing fire.
Fifth: Add some ginger.
Ginger can season and resist cold. It is recommended to add some ginger with the skin on to the hot pot, because ginger peel is pungent and cool, which has the effect of dispersing fire and removing heat.
Six: Yogurt
In addition, you can drink some fermented yogurt after eating hot pot. Yogurt can not only protect the gastric mucosa to a certain extent but also promote digestion.
How to Eat Hot Pot for the Best Health Benefits
Cook meat thoroughly.
The hot pot base is steaming hot. Think about it: sliced meat, fish balls, large shrimp, bean curd skin, seafood, lettuce, noodles... It's mouth-watering. A pot of raw and cooked food, meat and vegetables, all swished together. This is hot pot. Chen Gaiyun says, when cooking raw and cooked food together, the heat must be controlled. Some people focus on texture, and they scoop the meat out of the pot after just a quick swish and put it in their mouths. The mouth is satisfied, but germs and parasite eggs might have entered as well.
When eating hot pot, meat must be cooked thoroughly. It is best not to eat meat with blood. The bacteria and parasite eggs carried on raw meat can only be killed through thorough heating; otherwise, it can cause stomach infections and other diseases. Whether the mouth is more important or health is more important, I believe everyone understands.
In addition, chopsticks and bowls used for picking up and serving raw food should be separated from tableware that goes directly into the mouth. Do not mix raw and cooked to avoid contamination with germs, as diseases enter through the mouth.
Don't pair with cold drinks. Many people love to pair hot pot with refreshing cold drinks. Ladies and children have a big bucket of orange juice, while men have ice-cold beer. Taking a bite of hot, swished vegetables and then a gulp of ice-cold beer, that kind of stimulation is indeed a wonderful feeling.
However, this way of eating can easily injure the mouth and esophagus. "The dishes scooped from the hot pot are very hot, and they can easily scald the oral and esophageal mucosa if you're not careful. And many people, fearing being burned, will take a big gulp of ice-cold beer or frozen drink. But this alternation of hot and cold can easily cause indigestion, leading to diarrhea or constipation." Overly cold drinks can also irritate the stomach and even cause intestinal cramps.
Therefore, it is recommended not to be too impatient when eating hot pot. Let the swished food cool on a plate for a while, dip it in some cold condiments, and the temperature of the drinks should not be too cold either.
Be moderate with spicy food.
Spicy Sichuan-style hot pot is very satisfying. Large, bright red chili peppers are boiling in the soup, and in a short while, it becomes a red, spicy soup. No matter what dish it is, it becomes spicy after a quick swish. Even for people who usually eat spicy food, they don't make every dish spicy. Therefore, a spicy hot pot is truly a stimulating journey for spicy food lovers. Expert Chen Gaiyun warns: excessive eating of spicy food will continuously aggravate the stimulation to the throat and gastrointestinal tract, which can cause esophagitis, gastritis, and can also promote intestinal peristalsis, directly causing diarrhea. After satisfying your craving for spicy food, you'll have to deal with these lingering problems!
It is recommended that patients with digestive tract diseases and respiratory diseases choose a light broth base and mild seasonings.
Balanced pairing.
The usual routine for many people when eating hot pot is to start with a large plate of meat, and only when they get tired of it do they think of eating some vegetables to balance it out. Chen Gaiyun says that actually, a meal of hot pot should be the same as usual, emphasizing a reasonable combination and balanced nutrition. You should eat some meat, bean products, vegetables, and staple food. Meat should be moderate; generally, two to three taels per person is enough.
Three to forty minutes after eating hot pot, you can eat some fruit. Fruit is cool and has a good effect of reducing internal heat. Eating one or two fruits after a meal can effectively prevent "getting heaty".
Don't drink the broth.
Many people love to drink the hot pot broth, which contains meat, fish, tofu, and mushrooms—all of it is nutritious, and in the end, it becomes incredibly rich and tempting. However, experts suggest that it is best not to drink this highly concentrated, long-cooked hot pot broth.
From a nutritional perspective, the long-cooked hot pot broth is indeed very rich in nutrients. In the cooked food, various soluble nutrients are retained in the broth. Especially, the protein, fat, and cholesterol content are very high. It's simply a great tonic for malnourished people.
In fact, the old broth contains many carcinogens and a large amount of purines, so it is not a good choice for supplementing nutrition. Especially for patients with gout, hyperuricemia, and people with high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and high blood sugar, it should not be consumed.
Control the total amount.
Eating hot pot is different from a normal meal. The ingredients are piled high on the table, and everyone serves themselves, taking a chopstick here and there. It's easy to eat a lot without realizing it, and the total amount can easily exceed the limit. Coupled with the fact that hot pot itself contains meat and fish, which are high in calories, the total amount must be controlled. Otherwise, gastrointestinal discomfort from overeating will soon follow.
The copper pot