Housewives are urged to cut down on sodium and add more fiber to their diets during the Lunar New Year, a period when an average person can easily put on a few kilograms because of excessive eating and lack of physical activity.
“An easy to remember slogan when cooking is ‘four less and one more,’” said Hung Ruo-pu (洪若樸), a senior nutritionist at Taipei City Hospital’s Zhongxiao Branch.
The idea is less sauce, less fried food, less oil, less stewing and more fiber, Hung said, adding that most traditional Lunar New Year recipes, which are greasy, usually follow the opposite rules.
However, changing the rules of cooking does not mean compromising the taste, said Hung, an outspoken nutritionist often featured in health magazines.
For gastronomes with a preference for stronger seasoning, low-calorie condiments and spices, such as white vinegar, garlic, scallion, parsley, and an assortment of Chinese herbs, can be used extensively as guilt-free solutions to retain flavors, she said.
Sauces that are either high in calories or sodium, like tomato paste, barbecue sauce and salad dressing, should be shelved or used minimally, she added.
As for reducing oil and fat, she suggested altering the method of cooking.
“Change deep frying and stir frying to steaming and water boiling, and you can save yourself the worry of shedding weight after the holidays,” Hung said.
For example, a plate of steamed dumplings is always a healthier option than a plate of fried ones. It would even be better if more vegetables, such as mushroom and cabbage, are included in the fillings to increase the fiber intake, she said.
The nutritionist also warned that holiday snacks like peanuts, pumpkin seeds and sesame cookies contain significant amounts of fat, so one should be extra careful not to overeat these foods.
Seasonal fruits like oranges and apples are rich in vitamins and fiber and are therefore highly recommended as snacks, Hung added.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods