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.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.” In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane. Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng
DEFENSE: The purpose of the exercises is to identify strategies for the government to control risks during tensions, prevent war and bolster national resilience A tabletop exercise series has begun simulating possible scenarios if the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a war against Taiwan in the guise of a military exercise. The exercise series is jointly organized by National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations, Taiwan Center for Security Studies and Asia-Pacific Policy Research Association. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yeong-kang (陳永康), former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director William Stanton and Taiwan Center for Security Studies director Liu Fu-kuo (劉復國) attended the event in Taipei yesterday. Scenarios that would be simulated include changing political circumstances in the US during US President Donald Trump’s tenure
RSS