What invisible dietary risks come with eating hot pot in winter?

Lead image/ blue.tofu
Text/ Lu Mei-luan  Secretary-General, Homemakers United Foundation

When a chilly cold snap arrives, drunken chicken, mutton hot pot, and ginger duck are common medicinal dishes, and steaming hot pot is even more popular. Whether going out for a treat, gathering with friends, or having the family gathered around the pot, hot pot is always the first choice for restaurants and dining tables in the cold of winter. Typical hot pot ingredients include various sliced meats, seafood, vegetables, soy products, mushrooms, and more, which are placed into boiling water or a specially prepared broth and eaten after being blanched. But while we heartily enjoy a "hot pot" meal, how many invisible dietary risks are there?

A pot of "nitrate-rich broth"

Common leafy vegetables in hot pot such as napa cabbage, cabbage, bok choy, and garland chrysanthemum may contain excessive nitrates. Although the nitrates in the vegetables are reduced after boiling because they are released at high temperatures, all the released nitrates dissolve into the hot pot broth, turning it into a pot of "nitrate-rich broth."

Dr. Lin Pi-hsia, an adviser to our foundation who has long been concerned about the nitrate problem in vegetables, once conducted a nitrate test in hot pot. The napa cabbage used in that test had a nitrate content of about 8000 ppm, and by the end of cooking, the nitrate content of the broth at the bottom of the pot was 500 ppm. The nitrate intake from eating vegetables and drinking soup in one hot pot meal may be quite alarming! Eating too much increases the risk of cancer in the body, so Dr. Lin recommends that leafy vegetables are best blanched before being put into the hot pot, and that it is best to eat hot pot at most once a week to avoid taking in a high amount of nitrates in a short time. On ordinary days, eat a balanced variety of other vegetables such as roots, stems, mushrooms, and sprouts.

The problem of pesticide residues in vegetables

In October, the Homemakers United Foundation purchased and tested 8 samples of commercially sold leafy vegetables for nitrate content, and 4 of them had nitrate content higher than the EU standard. Our foundation also commissioned the Liugong Foundation Agricultural Testing Center to test the same 8 samples of leafy vegetables for pesticide residues. The test report came out: 2 of the samples had pesticide residues exceeding the standard, and 1 sample tested positive for a pesticide that must not be detected. This report has been sent to the Council of Agriculture and the Department of Health, demanding that the safety problem of commercially sold vegetables be taken seriously.

Use induction cookers with care

For the convenience of having the family gathered around a table keeping the soup and dishes hot while eating hot pot, households that often use induction cookers should pay careful attention to the problem of electromagnetic radiation. The potential danger of long-term exposure to electromagnetic waves cannot be ignored. Many household appliances emit electromagnetic waves. Professor Chen Shou-chih of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology suggests that you can use an induction cooker in the kitchen to cook the hot pot ingredients thoroughly, then bring the hot pot to the dining table to enjoy, in order to reduce the probability of prolonged exposure to microwave leakage when using an induction cooker to cook hot pot while gathered around it. For health, keeping a safe distance is the best strategy.

Melamine ware may leach melamine

The ladle used by many hot pot restaurants or households is often melamine ware. When chatting while eating and leaving the big ladle in the pot to cook, this situation is the most likely to leach melamine. Melamine ware is cheap, heat-resistant, and shatter-resistant, and is widely used for food containers. Melamine ware is a polymer formed by the polymerization of melamine and formaldehyde. If low-quality melamine tableware is used carelessly, you may unknowingly eat "melamine" without realizing it. Dr. Lin Jie-liang, director of the Clinical Toxicology Division at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, once said that if melamine products encounter high heat, high acidity, or are low-quality products, in addition to possibly leaching melamine, which can cause problems such as bladder stones, kidney stones, and kidney damage, they may also leach carcinogenic formaldehyde. He also called on the government to set a service life for melamine tableware so that melamine ware would not become a "family heirloom," passed down from one generation to the next and instead poisoning the next generation.

Professor Wu Chia-cheng of the Department of Chemistry at National Taiwan Normal University also sharply criticized that melamine resin should not be permitted for use by manufacturers as food containers or tableware. He called on the government to first ban the use of melamine resin to make food utensils for young children. "Now even school lunches are served in melamine ware! This should be regulated first."

Methanol content of alcohol paste

To keep food hot, many restaurants use alcohol paste to heat food. The Consumers' Foundation has conducted a survey of alcohol paste on the market and found that it contains more than 50% methanol. If methanol does not burn completely, it produces formaldehyde, which is absorbed into the human body through the respiratory tract. Formaldehyde has been recognized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a suspected carcinogen. Methanol costs less than ethanol, so manufacturers generally use alcohol paste with a high methanol content. The Consumers' Foundation also reminds the public: when eating this kind of food heated with alcohol paste, it is best to keep the air circulating and maintain an appropriate distance from the heated utensils; before adding alcohol paste, first extinguish the remaining flame, then add it, to avoid the danger of a large flare-up.

Invisible health risks

Consumers cannot visually judge the nitrate content or pesticide residues of vegetables from their appearance; it is also difficult to judge the food additives in various processed hot pot ingredients; and it is even harder to detect electromagnetic radiation, the possible leaching of melamine from melamine containers, and the methanol content of alcohol paste... To enjoy a happy and safe gathering, when eating "hot pot" in the cold of winter, pay attention to ingredients, pots, bowls, ladles, plates, cooking utensils, etc. Even when having a treat, you must also consider nutrition, hygiene, and health, and avoid invisible health risks. (This article is reprinted from the Homemakers United Foundation)