Introduction: The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and with it comes the tradition of eating mooncakes. So, how can you enjoy mooncakes in a healthier way? Let's take a look at some warm tips on eating mooncakes.
Mooncakes are high in oil and sugar, and eating too many is not good for your health. So, how can you eat mooncakes healthily? What are the things to keep in mind? The editor from the Liangzhiyun brand has listed the following points for everyone, hoping that everyone can enjoy mooncakes healthily and have a healthy Mid-Autumn Festival.
1. Choose fresh mooncakes
There is a wide variety of mooncakes, so it's impossible to try them all. If you buy a few types of mooncakes that your family likes, you can cut each into several pieces and share them all at once. This way, everyone can taste different flavors.
2. Pair mooncakes with hot tea
Hot tea can quench your thirst, remove odors, cut through the grease, and aid digestion. Pu'er tea, green tea, jasmine tea, and chrysanthemum tea are all good choices. If you don't drink tea, warm water is also fine, but it should be served warm, as cold drinks may cause diarrhea.
3. Eat mooncakes in moderation
Mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sucrose, so they should not be consumed in excess, especially by the elderly, children, and people with poor gastrointestinal function.
Remember, mooncakes should not be eaten as a main meal. It's best to have them between meals. You should eat less or none at night, especially within two hours before bedtime. The elderly should pay special attention to this point.
4. Eat savory mooncakes before sweet ones
Mooncakes generally come in two flavors: savory and sweet. If you are eating both savory and sweet mooncakes, you should eat the savory ones first, followed by the sweet ones. If you have mooncakes with different flavors such as fresh, savory, sweet, and spicy, you should eat them in the order of fresh, savory, sweet, and spicy to fully appreciate their unique tastes.
5. Pay attention to the shelf life of mooncakes
Experts point out that mooncake packaging is becoming more and more luxurious, and many people give them as gifts to friends and family. As a result, many mooncakes are passed around several times before being opened and eaten. Since mooncakes are mainly composed of oil and sugar, they can easily spoil. However, many people still eat mooncakes even after they have passed their shelf date, especially if they are expensive and haven't yet shown any signs of spoilage. This is actually very harmful to your health. Eating expired food can, in mild cases, cause acute gastroenteritis, and in severe cases, may even lead to cancer. Therefore, it's important to pay attention to the shelf life of mooncakes.
6. "Sugar-free" mooncakes still contain sugar
Hu Tingting, a nutritionist at the Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, explains that the main components of mooncakes on the market today are flour, white sugar, oil, and other ingredients, making them very high in calories and not beneficial to health in excess. Regarding the so-called "healthy sugar-free" mooncakes, Hu Tingting points out that "sugar-free" only means they do not contain sucrose. The fillings like nuts and the outer starch will still be converted into sugar in the body. Consuming too much can also lead to excessive fat and blood sugar levels. Therefore, patients should also eat sugar-free mooncakes in moderation. In addition, patients with cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, gastritis, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and coronary heart disease should not eat too many mooncakes. Even sugar-free mooncakes, if the peanut and nut fillings are consumed in excess, can increase blood viscosity, burden the heart, and even trigger a myocardial infarction.
7. Some people should avoid eating mooncakes
Patients with gastric and duodenal ulcers will have increased stomach acid secretion when eating mooncakes, which is not conducive to ulcer healing. Patients with chronic cholecystitis and chronic pancreatitis may find that eating mooncakes can easily lead to a relapse of their condition, causing severe biliary colic and upper abdominal pain. Patients with gallstones may experience stimulation of bile, easily triggering biliary colic attacks. Adolescent patients with gallstones must strictly avoid mooncakes. Patients with chronic diarrhea, acute hepatitis, and those in the recovery phase of hepatitis should also abstain from mooncakes. Furthermore, patients with dental caries should try to eat fewer mooncakes and brush their teeth immediately after eating. For patients with obesity, high blood lipids, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, and coronary heart disease, eating mooncakes will increase the levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, making it thicker. Therefore, they must eat them in strict moderation.