Natural coloring with mugwort and red yeast rice, Hualien mothers hand-roll reassuring tangyuan
Today is the Lantern Festival, but food safety incidents are being reported frequently, and many consumers worry about eating excessive preservatives and artificial colors. Hualien, with its fine mountains and waters, has in recent years actively promoted local ingredients, not only using local good rice to make tangyuan (glutinous rice balls), but also Hakka daughters-in-law growing pesticide-free mugwort (Artemisia argyi) to make beautiful and tasty green tangyuan; the Rice Paddy Academy in Zhutian Village, Fuli Township, has also started growing pumpkins as a natural colorant, letting consumers roll tangyuan by hand and experience the process and deliciousness of natural foods.
Coloring tangyuan: a Hakka daughter-in-law grows her own mugwort
Dietitian suggests making good use of natural fruits and vegetables and doing it yourself
Zhou Xiujuan, a dietitian at Taipei City Hospital, says that the natural pigments in fruits and vegetables are mainly composed of "phytochemicals," such as lutein, zeaxanthin, lycopene, anthocyanins, catechins and so on, which have antioxidant effects, can eliminate free radicals, strengthen immunity and prevent chronic diseases. Many studies point out that consuming different kinds of fruits and vegetables every day can reduce the incidence of cancers such as esophageal cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, laryngeal cancer and stomach cancer. The human body cannot produce phytochemicals and must obtain them from food, and fruits and vegetables are an excellent source.
The hospital also suggests that if people want to eat colorful tangyuan, they can use natural fruits and vegetables for coloring, for example steaming sweet potato until cooked, mixing it into cooked glutinous rice dough, kneading it together and rolling it into balls, to make beautiful and healthy sweet potato tangyuan.