These days, many people choose hot pot for gatherings, not only because they can select their favorite ingredients, but also because it's satisfying. But did you know that because the ingredients in hot pot bases vary from one restaurant to another, people don't actually know what's in them, and whether eating them could be harmful to the body? What should you eat after hot pot to help with detoxification?
Logically speaking, some components in hot pot cannot be metabolized and will remain in the body. Over time, this accumulation can cause harm. This is when it becomes necessary to eat certain foods to aid in detoxification.
Traditional hot pot base recipes often include the following ingredients: ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, chili powder, white cardamom, black cardamom, sand ginger, cloves, amomum, nutmeg, cumin, cassia bark, lemongrass, star anise, bay leaves, thousand-mile fragrance, and fennel. The broth made from these recipes is pungent, warm, aromatic, and drying, which can easily generate heat, damage yin, and harm the spleen and stomach. Eating hot pot long-term is detrimental to your health. For individuals with excess yang or yin deficiency with blazing fire, eating it can exacerbate heat and damage fluids, leading to a dominant state of heat. This can manifest as dizziness, a heavy head, headache, sores in the mouth and on the tongue, and swollen lips. The heat damages fluids, causing thirst and irritability. Hot pot foods often require soaking in caustic soda, which is highly irritating to the gastrointestinal tract, affecting the spleen and stomach's ability to transport and transform food. This can lead to the stomach failing to ripen food and the spleen failing to transport it properly, resulting in poor intestinal function, abdominal bloating, and diarrhea. When the flow of qi is obstructed, pain occurs, hence the epigastric and abdominal pain.
As a foodie, I want to enjoy delicious food without harming my body. I'm a foodie too, but I don't want to break out in acne after eating hot pot! The hot pot broth is high in temperature, and the seasonings are salty and spicy, which is very irritating to the gastrointestinal tract. If you can drink some yogurt after eating hot pot, it can effectively protect the gastrointestinal mucosa.
Moreover, yogurt contains certain lactic acid bacteria that can inhibit the growth of spoilage bacteria. Experts also say that drinking yogurt after a meal not only helps with fat digestion but also helps the liver, kidneys, and gallbladder better metabolize and detoxify the body. In a way, doesn't this also have a beautifying effect? Everyone knows that eating hot pot can indeed lead to various adverse effects on the body, but if you eat wisely afterward, you can protect your body's functions.
What else can you eat after hot pot to protect your stomach?
1. Drink a glass of warm water
Drinking a glass of warm water after hot pot can promote the secretion of digestive juices, enhance the digestive and absorptive functions of the gastrointestinal tract, and also help to counteract the salt intake.
2. Eat some garlic appropriately
If you have a good stomach, eating some garlic after hot pot is very beneficial. Because when you eat hot pot, you consume a lot of meat, such as fatty beef and fatty lamb. Eating garlic afterward can kill bacteria in the food.
3. Eat some fresh fruit
Fruits are rich in various vitamins and are very suitable for eating after hot pot to replenish vitamins and prevent the body from becoming too acidic from eating too much meat.
4. Drink a cup of green tea half an hour after the meal
Green tea is rich in natural nutrients and has special effects like sterilization and reducing inflammation. It can aid digestion, resolve phlegm, eliminate grease, promote weight loss, reduce internal heat, and improve eyesight, making it very suitable for drinking after hot pot.
What to pay attention to when eating hot pot
Most people are used to putting meat in the pot first and only adding vegetables when they are almost full. This is actually not advisable. Before eating hot pot, it's better to drink some fresh juice first, then eat vegetables, and have the meat last. This order has two benefits: on one hand, it facilitates the digestion and absorption of nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract; on the other, it ensures that the low-calorie vegetables make you feel full, preventing excessive calorie intake from too much meat.
1. When choosing ingredients for hot pot, follow the principle of less meat and more vegetables.
A meat-to-vegetable ratio of 1:3 is most suitable.
2. The choice of hot pot dipping sauce is also very important.
Common dipping sauces in northern China include sesame paste, seafood sauce, and sesame oil dipping sauce. If you order a lot of seafood dishes for your hot pot, try to avoid seafood-flavored sauces, as this can easily lead to high purine levels, increasing the risk of gout. Sesame oil dipping sauce has a high fat content and is not suitable for people with high blood lipids. Sesame paste, on the other hand, is more suitable for people with poor digestion.
3. You should also eat starchy foods when eating hot pot.
Just like with regular meals, the basic principle of eating hot pot is balanced and moderate nutrition. However, when eating hot pot, almost no one has room left for rice, resulting in excessive protein and fat but insufficient starchy foods.
What should pregnant women eat after hot pot?
When eating hot pot, expectant mothers should use an extra pair of chopsticks to avoid using the same ones for raw food and eating, as this can easily transfer bacteria from the raw food into your body, causing diarrhea and other illnesses. If possible, it's best to prepare hot pot at home. Besides arranging the broth and ingredients yourself, food hygiene is the most important thing. Remember, whether at a restaurant or at home, any food must be thoroughly cooked before being eaten.
1. The order of cooking in hot pot is very important, especially for pregnant women.
Before the meal, it's best to drink a small glass of fresh juice first, followed by vegetables, and then meat. This way, you can make rational use of the food's nutrients, reduce the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, and achieve the goal of healthy eating.
2. It is recommended that pregnant women add more green vegetables to their hot pot.
Vegetables are rich in vitamins and chlorophyll and tend to be cool in nature. They can not only eliminate greasiness and supplement the body's vitamins but also have a cooling, detoxifying, and heat-clearing effect. However, the vegetables should not be boiled for too long to maintain this heat-clearing effect. Adding an appropriate amount of tofu to the hot pot is also a good choice. Tofu is a bean product containing gypsum. Adding tofu to the hot pot can not only supplement the intake of various trace elements but also utilize gypsum's effects of clearing heat, purging fire, relieving restlessness, and quenching thirst.