Taiwanese love to eat hot pot during the wintertime. It’s a fun and delicious way to warm up during winter weather. But there could be some side effects – such as extra pounds – if one is not careful. The Health Promotion Administration is offering tips on staying healthy while you tuck into a favorite hot pot.
Hot pot is a popular winter stew. People often gather around a simmering pot of stock and cook a variety of food like sliced meat, seafood, vegetables, tofu, dumplings and rice vermicelli right in the stew.
Cooking food in soup may seem like a healthy way to eat, but a hot pot meal contains about 3,000 calories. A person can gain nearly a pound (0.7 pounds) for every hot pot enjoyed. If people consume one hot pot a week, they will gain nearly 10 pounds that winter from hot pot alone.
So how can we enjoy hotpot while staying healthy? Health official Chiou Shu-ti gave some advice on Tuesday.
“The smart way of eating hot pot is to replace its numbing spicy soup with the clear seaweed one,' said Chiou.
"Instant noodles and processed foods should also be replaced with rice vermicelli and black mushrooms. The sauce shouldn’t be too salty and don’t get sugary drinks or desserts. Meanwhile, we would also like to remind the elderly to keep themselves warm when walking out of a hot pot restaurant.”