Dumplings occupy an important position in Chinese people's eating habits. Especially during the Spring Festival, the whole family gathers together to make dumplings, which is probably an important memory of the "New Year" for many people. In addition to cultural significance, in fact, from a nutritional perspective, dumplings are also a "perfect staple food"~
Dumplings, a “perfect staple food”
From the perspective of dietary structure, dumplings include noodles, meat, and vegetables, which can meet the diversified nutritional needs of food and are also in line with the scientific dietary pagoda-shaped structure.
Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)
The dumpling wrapper wrapped around the outside is also helpful in retaining water-soluble nutrients such as vitamin C in vegetables, mineral potassium, and B vitamins in meat and eggs.
Dumplings, a food that uses water or water vapor as the heat transfer medium, can fully crack the starch polysaccharides in the food and facilitate the body's absorption.
Steaming or boiling cooking methods (except for fried dumplings) will not produce acrylamide substances when cooked at high temperatures like baked foods, nor will they easily produce harmful substances such as benzopyrene and heterocyclic amines like high-temperature fried foods.
However, in the process of making dumplings, some common operations are causing the dumplings to lose their nutrients.
Nutrient loss operation one: squeeze out the water from vegetables before making stuffing
When making dumplings with vegetables with relatively high water content such as cabbage and radish, in order to prevent the dumplings from being cooked, many people squeeze out the water from the vegetables before adjusting the filling. However, this operation will cause the nutrients in the vegetables to be lost.
A good way is to cut the vegetables into small pieces, stir them with cooking oil, and then add salt and other condiments. This can "lock in" the moisture of the vegetables to a great extent.
Nutrient loss operation 2: Boil the dumplings until they become "swollen"
Many people like to watch the dumplings cook in the pot until they become "chubby" and take them out one second before they break. The dumplings served out in this way are very pleasing to the eye.
However, "fat dumplings" may be dumplings that have been cooked for a period of time. If the cooking time is too long, nutrients will be lost. Therefore, according to the type and size of the ingredients and cooking for a short time, the loss of nutrients can be avoided as much as possible.
Nutrient loss operation three: add more oil and more salt
In the north, the older generation of the family always likes to add a lot of oil to the dumpling fillings, such as peanut oil, sesame oil, lard, etc., thinking that it "tastes more delicious", but the body does not think so.
The recommended daily protein intake for adult men with moderate physical exertion is 80g, and the World Health Organization recommends a daily salt intake of 6g for healthy adults.
According to experiments, the salt content in northern dumplings is very high. The salt content of all samples is above 10g/kg, and the protein content is between 50 and 100g/kg. Eating 100g of dumplings has less than 10g of protein at most, and the salt content in some dumplings is close to the recommended intake of 6g per 100g.
According to the dietary guidelines for Chinese residents, the fat-to-heat ratio in food should not exceed 30%, but 80% of Northeastern dumplings have a fat-to-heat ratio of more than 30%. If too much oil is added on top of this, the nutrition in the body will be out of balance, and it will also pose a threat to human health.
Suggestions for healthy eating dumplings during the Spring Festival
1. Don’t pursue “thin skin and big stuffing” too much.
If you blindly pursue the method of "thin skin and big filling" and "marginalized" dumpling skins, it will easily lead to insufficient carbohydrate intake and excessive meat intake, which is not conducive to nutritional balance.
2. Add some coarse grain flour to the dumpling skin
Adding some whole grain flour and soybean flour during the process of kneading the dumpling wrapper can add some B vitamins and dietary fiber and enhance the taste.
3. Continue to chop the meat you bought.
Continue to chop the purchased meat filling before adjusting the filling. If the muscle protein of the un-chopped meat filling is not released, it will not be able to absorb water. "Second chopping" can make the meat filling stickier and have a stronger umami flavor.
4. Increase the proportion of vegetables in the filling appropriately
When the elders are making stuffing, they always like to add more meat, and they want to eat a "meatball". However, for health reasons, it is recommended that everyone add more vegetables, which is not only more nutritious, but also tastes less greasy.
The human stomach cannot lie. The reason why we have such deep feelings for dumplings since childhood is not only because they are delicious. Now dumplings have become a symbol of emotional connection between family members. Even if you return to your hometown from a faraway place, as long as you eat the dumplings at home, you will feel that your soul has returned from that moment, and your heart will be warmed by the hot dumplings.
What's your favorite dumpling filling? Come and chat in the comment area~