Science solves the problem | High sugar and high fat content is not allowed? Understand these 5 things to eat mooncakes safely

In the cool and refreshing days of autumn, we welcome the Mid-Autumn Festival again. The 15th day of the eighth lunar month is not only a good day for family reunion, but also a long-awaited festival for mooncake lovers. In fact, no matter whether you like it or not, every household will prepare some mooncakes around the Mid-Autumn Festival to entertain relatives and friends, or to enjoy them together as a family. However, choosing mooncakes is not easy. The increasing variety of mooncakes on the market makes people "dizzy", especially for people who are losing weight and diabetics, who are always hesitant between "eating" and "not eating".

How to eat mooncakes healthily? Remember these 5 things, and you can buy and eat them with confidence!

01

How to choose healthy mooncakes?

Learn to recognize calories, sugar and sodium content

Mooncakes are delicious, but not everyone can eat them. Why? Many people have a doubt in their minds: "Mooncakes are too high in calories and will make you fat." In fact, this worry is justified.

When buying mooncakes, people are most concerned about three things: Is it high in calories? Is it high in sugar? Is it salty? It is actually very simple to find the answers to these three questions. Just look at the nutrition label when buying mooncakes .

02

Are “purely handmade mooncakes” healthier?

No guarantee, high risk

03

Can we eat sugar-free mooncakes safely?

Beware of being deceived by "pretense"

There are also some mooncakes that do not contain sugar, but have added sugar alcohols such as maltitol, xylitol, etc. If the amount of sugar alcohol added is high, diarrhea will occur after eating. Because sugar alcohols are not absorbed by the small intestine, they will increase the osmotic pressure in the intestine in the large intestine, causing water around the intestine to enter the intestine, resulting in diarrhea. In addition, some people may have food intolerance to sugar alcohols, and they will also have diarrhea after eating them. For example, one year a website sent mooncakes to big Vs, and big Vs reported that they turned into jet warriors and had diarrhea after trying them. The website then issued an apology letter to give everyone an explanation.

Therefore, some countries such as the United States require that the words "excessive dosage may cause laxative effects" be indicated on the labels of sugar alcohol foods to remind everyone, for example: 20 grams for mannitol and maltitol, 50 grams for sorbitol, and 25 grams for lactitol.

04

Are mooncakes with preservatives harmful to health?

Be careful if you don’t have it! ‍

Generally speaking, mooncakes, because of their low water content and high sugar and oil content, can inhibit the growth of microorganisms to a certain extent. Even without adding preservatives, they can be stored for a long time. There was a hot search #月饼放10年不毛不动动# in the past: Mr. Zhou, a citizen, found a mooncake from 10 years ago in his old house. It was not bad at all. The old man was reluctant to throw it away, so he put it in a pot and boiled it, and ate two bites. However, even if the mooncakes that have been stored for such a long time do not look changed on the surface, it is not recommended to eat them for safety reasons!

Of course, some mooncakes nowadays also contain preservatives, such as the one in the picture below, which contains "potassium sorbate". So, will eating mooncakes with preservatives be harmful to the body?

Therefore, as long as you purchase mooncakes from regular channels, you don’t have to worry about the issue of preservatives!

05

How to eat mooncakes more healthily?

Generally speaking, if you want to eat mooncakes that are high in oil, sugar and calories healthily, you can do the following three things:
① Control the amount you eat: Take the mooncake I bought this year for example, the calories are 1757 KJ/100 grams, which is 420 kcal. Note that this is the calories per 100 grams, and you also need to look at the specifications on the packaging bag. Generally, the specifications of a mooncake are 100 grams, but there are also 60 grams.

One piece of this mooncake is 100 grams, and eating the whole thing will consume 420 kcal. A small bowl of 100 grams of rice has about 116 kcal, so the calories of this mooncake are equivalent to 3 small bowls of rice. Therefore, if you need to control your weight, it is recommended to eat 1/3 to 1/2 of it as a staple food in one meal.

② It is best to eat it at breakfast: High-calorie meals can obviously produce a stronger sense of fullness than low-calorie meals. Putting this kind of food at breakfast can also reduce the desire for sweets throughout the day. And studies have shown that eating more in the morning and less at night is more conducive to controlling blood sugar stability than eating several meals a day. Therefore, for high-calorie foods such as mooncakes, it is more appropriate to eat them in the morning.

Another reason why it is recommended to eat it in the morning is that there is enough time to consume the calories of mooncakes! If you eat it in the evening, people tend to be lazy after dinner, which can easily lead to calorie accumulation and increase the risk of obesity.

③ Pair with fruits and vegetables and protein: Eating mooncakes with rich fresh vegetables and high-quality protein foods is more conducive to controlling blood sugar after meals. For example, pair it with 1 fist of green leafy vegetables/1 tomato/1 cucumber + an egg, a glass of milk, and 1 fist of tofu shreds.

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