All-you-can-eat hot pot restaurants are a popular dining choice — especially during the winter — but the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday warned the public against overindulgence, as it could cause diners to gain unwanted weight.
The HPA said field research found that dining at all-you-can-eat hot pot restaurants can lead to consumption of as many as 3,170 calories per meal, which is about 0.32kg in weight, and can often contain about 5,700mg of sodium — 1.4 times the HPA’s total daily recommended amount.
“If a person eats at a buffet-style hot pot restaurant once per week over the three-month winter period, he or she could gain 4.3kg by the end of the season,” the agency said.
HPA Director-General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said there are six practical suggestions for those wanting to enjoy hot pot without being unhealthy.
“The first suggestion is to stay away from all-you-can-eat venues and opt for restaurants that offer a fixed amount of food per person. The second is to go for a tomato or seaweed soup base and shun spicy hot pot, which contains 382 calories per 400ml serving of soup, compared with only 10 calories in the former,” Chiou said.
Chiou said the third tip is to select food which contains natural ingredients, such as mashed daikon or onion and garlic, instead of oily and sodium-rich seasonings, including Taiwanese-style satay, soybean sauce and chili paste.
Other suggestions include consuming more low-calorie vegetables, such as mushrooms, daikon and crown daisy; avoiding processed hot pot ingredients, including fried soy sheets, and meatballs; and exercising restraint with sweetened beverages and desserts, Chiou said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS