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A nutritionist said on January 24 if one eats two or three butter cookies — one of the most popular Chinese New Year gifts here in Hong Kong — everyday, up to half a kilogram of fat will accumulate in his or her body and easily raises the risk of blood vessel clotting in the heart and brain.
As for the inviting red and black melon seeds found in just about every home this time of the year, they are as fattening as any oily food because they are stir-fried with a lot of oil.
She advised that local residents keep to eating food that is low on fat, salt and sugar but has plenty of fiber, while filling their compartmented snack trays with natural stuff.
Kwan Shue-ying, a nutritionist with the Central Health Education Division of the Health Department, said during an interview that festival favorites such as cookies, egg rolls, candies and chocolate all belong in the unhealthy New Year gift category, because they contain too much saturated fat and trans-fat, which will increase the risk of heart disease and stroke if too much of it is left in the system.
She explained that a can of butter cookies weighing 908 grams contain 171 grams of fat and 184 grams of sugar, which will add 3,500 calories of energy into the body in one month even if a person eats only two or three of them a day. Though this extra energy increases one's weight just by about one pound, it is in fact nearly half a kilogram of body fat, which requires six hours of continuous running to burn off.
Kwan said the food in regular meals one eats everyday already contains oil, while fruit juice and such that one drinks contains sugar, the extra goodies such as cookies, which are rich in fat and sugar, can easily put too many calories in the body as extra pounds of weight.
She suggests that people should buy healthy food as New Year gift, such as green tea, salt-free nuts, mushrooms, dried scallops and fruit baskets. Even uncooked noodles are just fine. ■春生 資深翻譯員
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