Introduction: Hot pot, a delightfully satisfying meal, seems to be a year-round favorite at the dining table. However, when eating hot pot in the summer, if you want to feast heartily while also eating healthily, there are a few key points to pay special attention to.
Choose sour broth or clear broth
In the hot summer, sour broth can whet the appetite, clear internal heat, remove grease and dampness, and relieve summer heat while strengthening the body. Additionally, in the summer, you tend to sweat a lot and lose fluids easily; the sourness of a sour hot pot can help control sweating and expel dampness. Besides sour broth, clear broth is also a good choice.
Vegetables should make up 70%; order a plate of tofu
In the cold winter, eating lamb and fatty beef can help ward off the cold. But in the summer, eating such foods can easily lead to "internal heat" (上火). In hot weather, it's better to order more low-fat foods like fish. When eating hot pot in the summer, be sure to eat less meat and more vegetables, with vegetables ideally making up over 70% of your meal. Additionally, you can add some tofu to the hot pot, as it has a certain effect of clearing heat and purging fire.
Use sesame oil and garlic paste as a dipping sauce
In the summer, bacteria easily multiply and spread, which can easily lead to diarrhea. Therefore, be sure to add some ginger, minced garlic, or garlic juice to your dipping sauce. Ginger can stimulate gastric juice secretion, and garlic has significant antibacterial, sterilizing, and antiviral properties. Furthermore, it's best to replace the sesame paste with sesame oil to reduce calorie intake.
Drink fewer iced beverages or beers
It feels very refreshing to eat steaming hot pot while ordering an iced beer or beverage. However, this can unknowingly harm your body. Iced drinks can easily damage the protective structures on the surface of the digestive tract's mucous membranes, leading to digestive system issues like gastrointestinal discomfort. Beer has a high purine content, and when consumed with meat and seafood, it can easily trigger gout. The best beverages to have with hot pot are room-temperature plain water and tea. If you choose an iced drink, it's best to wait at least 3 minutes between eating hot food and drinking the cold beverage. When you do drink, it's best to take small sips.
Less offal
At the hot pot table, poultry and livestock offal are quite common. Eating too much of these foods is not good for your health. With the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and additives in food production, animal offal, as metabolic organs, often become "filters" and "storage tanks" for these harmful substances. The liver and lungs, in particular, contain the highest levels of pathogenic microorganisms and drug residues.
Less high-purine foods
Studies have found that, besides factors like constitution and fatigue, the likelihood of developing gout increases with the frequency of eating hot pot. This is related to the large amount of purine substances found in hot pot ingredients like seafood, animal offal, and mushrooms. Some people mistakenly believe that "just drinking the broth without eating the meat" is a better option. In reality, purines dissolve fully into the broth, which is a major reason why gout is more common during seasons when hot pots and other slow-cooked dishes are popular.
Less scalding food
After winter arrives each year, the number of patients with oral diseases increases by more than 15% compared to other seasons, which is related to the scalding of oral mucous membranes by hot food. The temperature of hot pot broth can typically reach 120°C. If you eat food as soon as it's taken out, it's easy to scald your mouth, esophagus, and stomach lining.
Less undercooked food
Many diners, in the pursuit of a fresh taste, like to eat slices of meat and lettuce after just a quick swish in the broth. This is not a recommended way to eat. Many raw foods contain residual pathogenic microorganisms and parasite eggs. If eaten after being only briefly swished, the risk of these harmful microbes entering your body is very high.
Less old broth
When drinking broth from the hot pot, it's best to do it early. The longer the broth simmers, the higher the level of harmful residues it contains, such as nitrites.