The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday seems incomplete without a backyard barbecue feast with friends and family, but nutritionists have advised people to substitute sauce-laden meats with vegetables and to stay away from sugar-sweetened beverages to avoid weight gain and over-consumption of sodium.
The recommended caloric intake for one meal for adults weighing 60kg is about 1,800, but most people tend to get carried away and consume far more in one sitting during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Thursday next week this year, nutritionist Kan Chen-hao (甘鎮豪) said.
“It’s easy to consume more than 1,500 calories at a barbecue if you drink 500ml of soda (250Cal) and eat two slices of pork (400Cal), two sausages (320Cal), two slices of toast (300Cal) and a cob of buttered corn (260Cal),” Kan said. “The problem is that most people eat a lot more than just that.”
Kan said 20g of barbecue sauce contains about 500mg of sodium and that all the foods listed above could contain as much as 2,500mg of sodium — higher than the maximum recommended daily level of 2,000mg for adults.
“If people with high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes or kidney problems have too much grilled food, they could become susceptible to other ailments because of the high levels of calories and sodium in the food,” Kan said.
Greater Taichung Government Health Department head Hsu Chiung-wen (許瓊文) said people should start with vegetables because they contain cellulose and give a sense of fullness.
“People are advised to opt for low-fat meat products, seafood and skin-free chicken breast. They can season them with sea salt, scallions, ginger, garlic and chilies, or add some lemon juice to bring out the flavor in the food,” Hsu said.
Barbecue sauce can be diluted with water before being brushed on food, and repeat brushing should be avoided, Hsu said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS