As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the Department of Health and nutritionists are advising people not to consume too many moon cakes, as a single small cake can contain as many calories as a bowl of rice.
Eating moon cakes made of glutinous rice flour and filled with bean paste, dried fruit and a wide variety of other foods is a popular way to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in Taiwan. However, eating too many moon cakes can be bad for one’s waistline, nutritionists said on Thursday.
Chen Yu-yin (陳雨音), a nutritionist at Cardinal Tien Hospital, said that as moon cakes are mainly made with flour, sugar and butter, a little piece of egg yolk-filled moon cake weighing about 60g can contain up to 270 calories.
As an example, a woman weighing 55kg would have to power walk for an hour to burn off the amount of calories she consumed in a 60g moon cake filled with dried dates or an egg yolk — typical fillings in a moon cake.
“Larger moon cakes … such as Cantonese moon cakes and cakes made from green bean, can contain up to 450 calories,” Chen said.
“Four hundred and fifty calories is comparable to more than half a lunchbox meal,” she said.
Aside from moon cakes, many people also celebrate the festival by eating barbequed and processed meat, which are high in calories and sodium, Chen said.
Eating too much of such foods will not only lead to weight gain, but consuming more sodium than is recommended on a daily basis can also strain the kidneys and the cardiovascular system, she said.
The Bureau of Health Promotion advised people to consume only moderate amounts of moon cakes and barbequed meat and to substitute meat for vegetables such as mushrooms and green onions when having a barbeque.
Pomelo, another traditional Mid-Autumn Festival food, is also recommended because of its high vitamin C content. The fruit is also known to lower cholesterol and decrease risk of heart disease.
The department also instructed local health bureaus to conduct inspections on moon cakes sold across the country. Local health officials inspected 1,437 moon cake manufacturers, retailers and tourist attractions where moon cakes are sold to determine whether conditions are sanitary and up to code. Five types of moon cakes were recalled after they were found to contain too many preservatives and several products with inadequate labeling were given warnings.
The department advised those who have purchased moon cakes to take note of product labeling, such as nutrition and expiration dates, and to make sure the cakes are consumed as soon as possible after their packaging is removed.
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