Eating Hot Pot in Winter, Do You Know These 7 Little Tips?
Among the four seasons, winter is arguably the best time for hot pot. Watching the ingredients roll in the broth, thinking about the delicious and scalding taste, even on a cold winter day, it's a steaming affair. However, although hot pot is delicious, you should also pay attention. Many hot pot lovers easily suffer from indigestion symptoms like diarrhea and abdominal pain due to improper eating. Some seemingly "healthy" hot pots can actually pose great harm to your health. How to enjoy hot pot to your heart's content while staying healthy, let me give you a few tips—
Tips 1: Be Cautious When Choosing a Chinese Medicine Broth
A while ago, several of my friends were dining at a hot pot restaurant. According to the owner, their broth was specially simmered with more than 20 kinds of Chinese herbs, which was both fragrant and very nourishing. However, half an hour after the meal, all my friends felt dizzy and their vision blurred. Soon after, the symptoms worsened, and they could not see clearly. Worried, my friends went to a nearby hospital for a check-up. It was found that his systolic blood pressure had reached 150 mmHg, whereas it was normally only 120 mmHg, and his pulse was more than 30 beats per minute faster than usual. After treatment, their discomfort disappeared, and the false alarm was over.
It is now very common for hot pot restaurants to add Chinese herbs to the broth, stews, and nourishing soups, but most operators are unwilling to disclose the names and properties of these herbs. Are all people suitable to eat food with added Chinese herbs? The operators' answers are surprisingly consistent: these foods only have nourishing effects, no side effects, and anyone can eat them.
However, as far as I know, not everyone is suitable for eating Chinese medicine hot pot. The so-called medicinal diet is not a simple addition of food and Chinese medicine, but a refined product of medicine, food, and condiments, guided by the theory of syndrome differentiation and dietetic therapy in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Hot pot restaurants usually put raw medicinal herbs such as cardamom, cinnamon, and amomum seeds directly into the soup. These herbs have not been decocted specifically and can only serve to remove the gamey taste, eliminate the fishy smell, and season the food. Their medicinal or nourishing effects are not significant. At the same time, this method cannot avoid the taboos of certain groups, thus there is a risk of side effects.
Tips 2: Seafood Should Be Eaten First
When eating hot pot, many people like to choose seafood. Various fish, shrimp, and shellfish certainly add a lot of flavor to the hot pot, but it's best to eat seafood first. Seafood is often not easy to digest, so you should choose seafood before other foods to let the stomach acid digest it. In addition, you should choose fresh seafood. If you are worried about not getting fresh seafood at an outside restaurant, you can also buy it online, such as from Ju Xian Fang, which is delivered fresh within two days of ordering, which is very convenient. Of course, like other foods, seafood should not be consumed in excess because seafood is rich in protein, and excessive intake can also burden the kidneys.
Tips 3: Don't Eat Too Many Fish and Meat Balls
Some people say that eating hot pot is all about meat—no complicated cooking process, it's cooked as soon as it's dipped in the hot pot, with the sweetness of the broth and the tenderness of the meat, "that's the real taste of meat in a hot pot." So usually, when eating hot pot, people order a table full of all kinds of meats, never feeling it's too much, only fearing it's not enough.
But everyone should pay attention that the way of eating by dipping and eating while cooking the most easily leads to overeating. Excessive meat intake not only easily leads to weight gain but can also easily cause constipation due to the lack of dietary fiber intake. Therefore, when facing meat at a hot pot, you should control your "mouth" and know when to stop.
In addition, some people feel that lamb and fatty beef have too much fat, and fish and meat balls have less oil, so they can be eaten without worry. Regarding this, I consulted an expert who said: "All kinds of meat balls contain a large amount of oil and salt. Patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, and high blood lipids should eat less." It is recommended that when choosing hot pot ingredients, you should focus on lean meat and low-fat seafood. You can choose more low-fat foods like chicken slices, tenderloin slices, seafood, and omasum. You can also add some tofu or skin to replace meat and supplement plant protein. Even if you want to eat meat, you should also blanch more vegetables and pair it with potatoes and other starchy foods. Pay attention to the combination of meat, vegetables, and bean products.
Tips 4: Be Careful of Paras When "Eating Tender and Fresh"
For some people who blindly pursue texture and like to "eat tender and fresh," experts say this is also not advisable: "If not cooked through, bacteria or parasite eggs in raw meat and raw fish are usually not killed and directly enter the human digestive tract, which can easily cause gastrointestinal infections or even clonorchiasis. Experts remind that especially animal livers and lungs have the highest residues of pathogenic microorganisms and must be thoroughly cooked before eating.Tips 5: The Duration of a Hot Pot Meal Should Not Be Too Long
One issue that people easily overlook when eating hot pot is that the meal time is too long, which will also affect the rhythm of the digestive system. Under normal conditions, the gastrointestinal motility is very regular. During a meal, the stomach performs mechanical digestion, mechanically grinding the food to form chyme for further digestion. "If you keep eating without stopping, the rhythm of mechanical and chemical digestion will be disrupted, leading to gastrointestinal rhythm disorders and gastrointestinal dysfunction, which are common causes of indigestion."
Tips 6: Insisting on Being Too Spicy is Harmful to Health
Spicy Sichuan-style hot pot has many "fans." The spicy taste can stimulate the esophagus, stomach, and small intestine. In severe cases, it can even cause excessive stomach acid and bloating. Excessive spicy food will continuously aggravate the stimulation of the gastrointestinal tract, easily leading to digestive tract diseases such as gastric ulcers, gastritis, and diarrhea. Patients with digestive diseases (such as stomach problems, constipation, or diarrhea) should especially avoid eating spicy hot pot.
In addition, you should also pay attention to the problem of too much salt in the dipping sauces. No matter what kind of sauce, you should not eat too much. Since it's a dipping sauce, just a little is enough to enhance the flavor. In addition, adding a little vinegar to the sauce can also help cut the grease and relieve the greasiness.
Tips 7: Hot Pot Utensils Must Be Clean
Cleanliness is the most important aspect of utensils. A common copper hot pot, after being unused, is prone to forming a thin layer of green copper rust. This is formed by a chemical reaction between copper and residual water or moisture, the acetic acid from condiments left on the pot, and carbon dioxide in the air, creating basic copper carbonate or copper acetate, both of which are toxic. Therefore, cleaning must be done well, otherwise, it can cause copper poisoning, with symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. At the same time, hot pot is mainly about blanching, so the selected ingredients must be fresh, clean, and hygienic.