Choose your hot pot ingredients more wisely with these nutrient breakdown of popular items.
You might be looking forward to a tummy-warming steamboat dinner, but do you know how many calories goes into your hot pot? Like – yikes – how a tablespoonful of pork belly will cost you 120kcal?
Don’t forget that an average Asian woman with a sedentary nine-to-five lifestyle should keep within her recommended daily intake of 1,800 calories, 50g of fat (not more than 18g should be saturated) and 2,000mg of sodium. (Note: A tablespoonful of meat weighs about 25g.) Here’s our guide of nutritional information for 34 favourite ingredients so you know what you’re putting away.
And so you know, boiling or steaming doesn’t add or subtract calories from your food. But overcooking food will lead to the loss of vitamins and minerals, especially in vegetables. If the green leafy ones turn yellow, they’ve lost most of their vitamin B. You are mistaken to think that drinking the soup they were cooked in may help you regain some nutrients. Most vitamins (like B and C) would be destroyed with continued exposure to high heat, says Jaclyn Reutens, clinical and sports dietitian at Aptima Nutrition & Sports Consultants.
(Also read: 7 Things to Avoid When Eating Steamboat)
Likewise, overcooking meat, chicken, fish, and even tofu will alter the proteins and make them harder to digest. As a guide, cook bite-sized food items in boiling water according to the following times:
Green leafy vegetables 3 minutes or less
Hardier vegetables (like mushrooms, carrots and cabbage) 10-15 minutes
Chicken, pork and seafood 3-5 minutes
What’s in your hot pot?
Tau pok (one)
53kcal, 3.9g fat, 4mg sodium
Bitter gourd with fish paste (one)
9kcal, 0.2g fat (0.1g saturated), 0.3g fibre, 73mg sodium
Red chilli with fish paste (one)
8kcal, 0.2g fat (0.1g saturated), 0.5g fibre, 71mg sodium
Lady’s fingers (okra; one)
4kcal, 0.4g fibre, 4mg sodium
Chicken frank (one)
77kcal, 5.7g fat (1.6g saturated), 0.4g fibre, 363mg sodium
(Also read: 6 Best Steamboat and Hotpot Restaurants in Singapore)
Meat
Pork ball (one)
63kcal, 5.3g fat (1.9g saturated), 101mg sodium
Chicken breast (25g)
16kcal, 0.2g fat (0.1g saturated), 6mg sodium
Pork (25g)
65kcal, 5.3g fat (2g saturated), 13mg sodium
Pig’s liver (25g)
32kcal, 0.9g fat (0.4g saturated), 17mg sodium
Pork belly (25g)
120kcal, 12.3g fat (4.5g saturated), 7mg sodium
Mutton (25g)
32kcal, 1.3g fat (0.7g saturated), 23mg sodium
Beef (25g)
44kcal, 2.8g fat (1.3g saturated), 13mg sodium
Egg (one)
71kcal, 5.1g fat (1.5g saturated), 56mg sodium
(Also read: 7 Worst Ingredients To Add To Your Hot Pot)
Seafood
Crabstick (one)
16kcal, 0.1g fat, 0.3g fibre, 109mg sodium
Squid (25g)
20kcal, 0.3g fat (0.1g saturated), 10mg sodium
Canned abalone (25g)
25kcal, 0.1g fat, 150mg sodium
Sea cucumber (one piece)
91kcal, 138mg sodium
Fishball (one)
12kcal, 0.5g fat, 100mg sodium
Fried fishcake with chilli (one)
78kcal, 2.3g fat (1.1g saturated), 1.4g fibre, 767mg sodium
White pomfret (25g)
31kcal, 1.3g fat (0.8g saturated), 34mg sodium
Garoupa (25g)
13kcal, 0.1g fat, 16mg sodium
King prawn (one)
16kcal, 0.1g fat, 65mg sodium
(Also read: Healthy & Delicious Hot Pot Soup Base Recipes)
Vegetables and others
Chinese cabbage (one cup)
20kcal, 0.3g fat, 2.7g fibre, 58mg sodium
Shiitake mushrooms (one cup)
80kcal, 0.3g fat (0.1g saturated), 3.3g fibre, 6mg sodium
Kangkong (one cup)
20kcal, 0.2g fat, 1.9g fibre, 120mg sodium
Fish maw (one)
5kcal
Corn on the cob (300g)
153kcal, 1.2g fat (0.2g saturated), 4.4g fibre, 8mg sodium
Chinese spinach (one cup)
19kcal, 1.1g fat (0.1g saturated), 0.3g fibre, 5mg sodium
English spinach (one cup)
12kcal, 0.1g fat, 0.4g fibre, 11mg sodium
Watercress (one cup)
5kcal, 0.1g fibre, 7mg sodium
(Also read: Here’s Where to Have A One-Serving Hotpot If You’ve Got Sudden Cravings)
Enoki mushrooms (one cup)
24kcal, 0.3g fat, 0.6g fibre, 3mg sodium
Seaweed (one cup)
14kcal, 0.1g fat, 0.9g fibre, 108mg sodium
Chinese tofu (152g)
123kcal, 5.6g fat (1g saturated), 0.6g fibre, 11mg sodium
Fried beancurd skin (one)
57kcal, 5.4g fat (2g saturated), 0.1g fibre, 11mg sodium
Calorie data sourced from Health Promotion Board, Singapore
