Winter is cold, and nothing is more pleasant than gathering around a steaming hot pot. Hot pot offers a rich variety of foods, and how to eat it is a matter of etiquette. Experts suggest choosing more green leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes, potatoes, bean products, and wood ear mushrooms, while reducing meat intake. Let's take a look!
High-energy dishes.
These mainly include fatty beef, fatty lamb, and lamb tail. These meats are high in saturated fat and calories, and excessive consumption can easily lead to an energy surplus, increasing the risk of obesity. It is recommended to choose leaner cuts of beef and mutton when possible, as marbled beef and mutton are particularly high in fat. Additionally, you can substitute some beef and mutton with fish, shellfish, and bean products to enjoy delicious food while ensuring protein intake and reducing energy and saturated fat consumption.
High-cholesterol dishes.
These mainly include pork brain, chitterlings, and other offal. Although these dishes have a good texture, their cholesterol content is surprisingly high, and excessive consumption can increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Furthermore, animal offal often contains more residual harmful substances that are difficult to remove. People with hyperlipidemia and high cholesterol should avoid eating them, and even generally healthy people should consume them in moderation.
High-sodium dishes.
These mainly include processed meat products like luncheon meat, sausages, fish balls, and beef balls. These dishes have already added a significant amount of salt and food additives during their production. When eating hot pot, the broth and dipping sauces also contain a considerable amount of salt. If you then consume processed meat products, it is easy to lead to excessive sodium intake.
Water-soaked products such as tripe, omasum, and aorta.
These foods are often reported to be treated with toxic chemicals like "formaldehyde" and "caustic soda." Long-term consumption can damage the nervous and digestive systems, harming human health. Generally, foods treated with caustic soda and formaldehyde appear larger and whiter, have a crispier texture, and their shelf life can be extended. It is recommended to choose well-known hot pot restaurants, as their product safety is more guaranteed.
Easily dyed foods.
Dishes that have been exposed by the media for being dyed mainly include duck blood, kelp, enoki mushrooms, fresh bamboo shoots, and duck intestines. Some workshops use industrial chemicals to "color" their products to make them look vibrant. Consumers should be vigilant if they find that fresh duck blood, fresh duck intestines, etc., are overly bright in color, or if the kelp has a bluish tint.
In addition, although fresh bean curd skin and fresh tofu skin are delicious, they are perishable and attract flies. Some merchants may soak them in formaldehyde to keep them fresh and colorful. Therefore, it is best to buy the dried versions of these foods.
So, what is the healthiest way to eat hot pot with a baby? Here are 6 tips for a healthy hot pot meal.
1. Add more vegetables. In addition to meat, fish, and animal offal, the hot pot must include a generous amount of vegetables.
2. Add an appropriate amount of tofu. Tofu is a bean product containing gypsum, which has the effects of clearing heat, relieving vexation, and quenching thirst.
3. Add some white lotus seeds. Adding an appropriate amount of white lotus seeds to the hot pot helps balance nutrition and health with a combination of meat and vegetables. It is best not to remove the lotus hearts from the white lotus seeds, as they have the effect of clearing the heart and purging fire.
4. You can add some ginger. Ginger can season food and fight off the cold. You can add some ginger with its skin to the hot pot, as the ginger skin is pungent and cool, and has the effect of dispelling fire and removing heat.
5. Use light condiments. Condiments like chili sauce can be irritating to the stomach. Using lighter seasonings like soy sauce and sesame oil can avoid irritating the stomach and reduce "internal heat".
6. Eat more fruit after the meal. Fruits are cooling and have a good effect of reducing internal heat. Eating one or two fruits after the meal can prevent "getting heaty".