Today, let's discuss whether it's necessary to add sugar when roasting chestnuts:
First, the reason people love sugar-roasted chestnuts is for their unique sweet and delicious flavor. So, does adding sugar make the chestnuts sweeter and more fragrant? I believe any reader with a bit of common sense can judge that a chestnut's skin is very tough. Whether it's solid white sugar or heated syrup, it's difficult for it to penetrate the inside of the chestnut; instead, it sticks to the shell. Moreover, in many places in our country, chestnuts are roasted without sugar, and they are just as sweet and delicious. Therefore, from a taste perspective, adding sugar to "sugar-roasted" chestnuts is meaningless.
Three major harms of eating sugar-roasted chestnuts
Secondly, from a hygiene perspective, chestnuts roasted without sugar have a dry exterior, similar to roasted sunflower seeds, so your hands won't get dirty after eating them. However, after eating sugar-roasted chestnuts, you'll find your hands are black and sticky. Not only do you have to clean the "sugar" off your hands every time, but due to the stickiness of the sugar after roasting, it's highly likely that dust and dirt from the outside will adhere to the chestnut flesh and eventually end up in our stomachs.
Furthermore, from a food safety standpoint, the "sugar" used for roasting chestnuts undergoes repeated high-temperature heating. We cannot yet confirm whether it will produce harmful substances, but it certainly offers no benefits. Now, when it comes to the sugar-roasted chestnuts sold on the market, it's difficult to distinguish whether the beautiful color on their surface comes from "sugar" or from "paraffin." This creates an opportunity for unscrupulous vendors. To make the roasted chestnuts look more appealing and whet consumers' appetites, adding paraffin to sugar-roasted chestnuts has now become a well-known practice.