As part of the celebrations for Lantern Festival, which falls today on the lunar calendar, many people will eat bowls of hot tangyuan (湯圓) — glutinous rice balls with flavored fillings, but an official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Health Promotion Administration (HPA) has urged the public to moderate their intake of the treat.
HPA Community Health Division head Lin Li-ju (林莉茹) said tangyuan are high in calories and four tangyuan with sweet black sesame filling contain about 280 calories, almost the equivalent of a bowl of cooked rice.
A person who weighs 60kg would have to walk for about 80 minutes to burn off the calories.
A bowl of tangyuan with sweet fillings cooked in a sweet soup, such as peanut or red bean, can amount to 480 calories or nearly the equal of an entire meal for a 60kg person, she said.
“When eating tangyuan with sweet fillings, you can just cook them and eat them with hot water [instead of soup] because they are sweet enough,” Lin said.
Many tangyuan are high in sugar, salt or fat, so eating too many at one time could have an adverse impact on people with metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease or other chronic diseases.
“If you want to eat small tangyuan with no fillings, but with a sweet soup, you should avoid those that are too sweet,” she added.
Making a soup out of dried longans, wolfberries, jujubes or ginger would also help reduce the calorie content, she said.
“As for salty tangyuan with meat fillings, because the filling is already flavorful, you can reduce the flavoring in the soup and add more vegetables instead, such as scallions, radishes, Chinese cabbage or crown daisies, to make the soup healthier,” Lin said, adding that fibers from the vegetables can help digestion and make people feel full.
The Taipei City Department of Health said people who are planning to make tangyuan by hand should remember to wash their hands and remove nail polish and rings first and make sure they do not have any open cuts on their hands or fingers.
Consumers who purchase tangyuan should pay attention to the labels on packages and keep the tangyuan refrigerated before cooking, to keep them fresh, the department said.
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