Chinese New Year feasting? Not quite over

By Wong Siew Li

The Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations typically last for a full 15 days. Just as you think you survived the first few days of CNY holidays and your stomach is taking a break from the endless flow of pastries, nuts and soft drinks, the weekend is here and the same house visit ritual begins again! Not to mention, your colleagues have brought some of the goodies to the work place and the temptation cycle begins. So how do you keep your holiday spirit high but your waistline low? It is not too late to follow the below tips:

Nutritional Content of Popular Goodies

• Bak Kwa (1 piece, 57g)- contains 229kcal, 8g fat, 24g sugar with 15g protein

• Pineapple tarts (2 pieces, 40g) - 163kcal, 7g fat & 12g sugar

• Love Letter (4 rolls, 52g) - 224kcal , 6g fat & 19g sugar

• Shrimp Roll (10 pieces, 15g) - 46kcal ,4g fat & 0g sugar

• Kueh bangkit (6 pieces, 36g) - 137kcal,4 fat & 8g sugar

• Beehive cookie/ kueh ros - 149kcal, 7g fat & 8g sugar

• Nian gao (1/4 portion, 106g) - 245kcal, 0.5g fat & 37g sugar

Thus, let's have a look at the accumulative intake of a typical variety of goodies that may happen during each house visit!

2 pineapple tarts + 10 shrimp rolls + 1 Bak Kwa + 6 Kueh bangkit + 4 love letters
= 799kcal, 29g fat & 63g sugar

This is actually comparable to a plate of chicken rice that contains 700kcal & 26g fat!

Tips

1. Avoid making a visit on an empty stomach, instead, fill yourself up on the healthier and lower calorie containing foods/drinks

2. Know your trigger food, ration them out or avoid them totally

3. Practice eating and drinking consciously, slowly and wisely

The writer is a Dietition at Department of Nurition and Dietetics, Tan Tock Seng Hospital.