In summer, many people lose their appetite and find it hard to eat, so they often choose cool or light-looking foods to combat the heat. But is this eating habit scientific? Nutrition experts have listed common summer eating habits for us. What are the misconceptions in each? How can we make smarter choices?
Having a cold drink or ice cream after a meal
Because of the heat, people often have a drink or an ice cream after a meal. However, a can of milk tea has 180 calories, a cup of iced coffee has 115 calories, and an ice cream bar has at least 280 calories.
When people drink beverages, they only feel they are quenching their thirst and not absorbing calories. But trouble follows, because to burn 100 calories, the body needs to climb stairs for 15 minutes or walk for half an hour. Have you done that? So, to prevent excess calories, what should we do?
Smart choice: Drink plain water or mineral water. It might seem tasteless and unappealing at first, but habits are formed gradually. Once you get used to a light taste, sugary drinks will even feel strange. (For example, most canned teas from Japan are sugar-free, and when Japanese people drink local sugary tea, they find it strange and unpalatable.)
Eating Japanese food
On hot summer days, some single women like to buy what seems to be lighter Japanese food from the supermarket. In fact, not all Japanese food is light. Furthermore, some people think grilled foods have fewer calories than fried foods, so they frequent them, unaware that the marinade contains a lot of soy sauce, sugar, and oil, which increases the calories.
Smart choice: You can opt for sushi. When eating barbecue, choose more cold salads.
Drinking a lot of mung bean soup
Most people believe that poor appetite in summer is due to "heatiness" or "internal heat," so they often drink mung bean soup to cool down. However, mung beans are a type of carbohydrate, and eating too much can lead to weight gain.
Smart choice: Learn to substitute. If you plan to have a bowl of mung bean soup after a meal, remember to reduce your rice portion by a quarter. If you treat the mung bean soup as a meal (eating the soup and then the beans), you can use less sugar, add some low-fat milk, and toss in some fruit to get nutrition similar to a full meal.
Eating cold noodles
Many people are particularly fond of Sichuan-style cold noodles, believing they are light and dry, suitable for summer. In fact, a bowl of cold noodles can have as many as 520 calories, which is more than a regular meal. This is because the sesame paste in cold noodles is oil, and the chili oil is also oil, so the calorie count is certainly not low.
Smart choice: To consume fewer calories, you need to specifically ask the vendor not to add chili oil. Of course, half the amount of sesame paste is enough.
Eating more fruit
Summer is the peak season for fruit, and people, letting their guard down, tend to eat them in large quantities. In fact, overeating fruit can also raise the fat content in your blood due to the natural sugars.
Smart choice: Summer is also the peak season for vegetables. Eating a vegetable and fruit salad is a good idea, just keep the fruit portion smaller.
Drinking milk like water
When the weather is hot in summer and appetite is poor, but sufficient nutrition is still needed, some people start drinking more milk, several glasses a day. However, research has indicated that high protein can hinder calcium absorption.
Smart choice: Experts point out that you should only drink two to three glasses of milk a day.
Eating hamburgers
Eating a hamburger or a sandwich might make you feel like you're eating very little, but in fact, the calorie count is not low. A chicken burger from a fast-food kiosk can have 300 calories.
Smart choice: Among the burgers and sandwiches sold at kiosks, seafood and ham burgers have lower calorie counts.