From bak kwa that’s barbequed to perfection to flakey tarts and crispy cookies, festive season goodies are delicious with a capital D. It’s no surprise that people eat 39% more calories during the festive season. In fact, a 2012 survey done by Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration found that people gained 1.7kg on average during the holidays!
Survive the festivities with your waistline intact, check out the calorie counts of your favourite festive snacks and know what to eat, what to avoid and post-feast rituals to keep in mind.
Being made from green peas, these little flavour bombs are deceptively healthy. Made from roasted green peas ground to a fine powder, the cookies do contain beneficial fibre, vitamins and protein. However, the addition of sugar, carb-laden flour, starches and oils to complete the treat negates the nutritional benefits. On average, a serving of 3 cookies contain a whopping 160 calories which works out to 40mins of walking to burn off.
Photo by: Miss Tam Chiak
Crisp, addictive and light on the palate, Love Letters are an iconic Chinese New Year treat. For something so small, it definitely packs a punch when it comes to caloric damage. Each roll contains 56 calories and 4.7g of sugar (that’s about 1 teaspoon), making it one of the hidden calorie bombs out on the festive snack table.
How long would you take to burn off a serving of this delicious treat? Well, three love letters would take 20 to 25 minutes of intense stair-climbing to burn off.
A staple of the festive season, getting a slice (or two) of Bak Kwa is up on any agenda. One slice of the savoury treat contains 301 calories and over 30g of sugar. For reference, the recommended amount of added sugars that one should eat in a day by the American Heart Association (AHA) are 37.5g (or 9 teaspoons) a day for men and 25g (or 6 teaspoons) a day for women.
A single slice takes about 30minutes of jogging to burn off.
Photo from: Eat What Tonight
Chewy, sweet and savoury, once you get started on munching on these fruity gems, you can’t stop. Keep in mind that a single Pineapple Tart contains 93 calories and snacking on
A pineapple tart contains 93 calories, 2.3g of saturated fat, 6.2g of sugar and 58mg of sodium. Chances are, you will not stop at one, so be mindful when consuming these yummy morsels.
Pop two pieces into your mouth and you will have to do 25 minutes' of vigorous jumping jacks or clean the house for more than an hour to get rid of the excess calories.
Our strategies for surviving the Chinese New Year feasting!
Make a beeline for the protein
Photo from: The Line
Make a better choice when faced with a spread of food while visiting, our nutritionists recommend filling your plate with lean protein options followed by leafy greens and veggies. Protein and fibres work to keep your satiety levels up, preventing overeating and keeping the munchies at bay!
Sneak some turmeric into your diet
Photo by Organic Authority
Tumeric is the spice that gives curry its signature golden hue. In Sanskrit, turmeric goes by many names, one of which translates to the “killer of fat”.
A 2009 study done by Tufts University found that curcumin, the principal compound found in turmeric, suppressed fat tissue growth in mice. Mice fed curcumin were unable to form the blood vessels required for fat tissue to expand and thus gained less fat than those who were not fed the compound, despite being on a high-fat diet.
We love sneaking some turmeric into our diets with some turmeric latte, a warm comforting infusion of spices that also boast some sleep-promoting properties!
Walk it off
Photo by Health Magazine
So you’ve overindulged in a little too much, no biggie. Walk it off!
Don’t underestimate the power that walking can do. Taking a post-feast walk can help to boost digestion which helps with the uncomfortable bloating caused by overeating and burns some extra calories to boot. Grab a cousin or two to go on your walk with you and do some much-needed catching up.
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A blend of Tumeric extracts, taurine and Vitamin C, Kinohimitsu Be Liva will protect your liver from the festive feasting and prevent hangovers when you drink! Great for those late nights visiting, Be Liva aids in boosting your immunity so you can collect all the red packets.
Make a difference in 2019 and embark on a journey to uncover your best self! A fresh new year is an amazing excuse for a new batch of new year’s resolutions. According to a poll by YouGov, the most common New Year Resolutions for 2018 include eating healthier, getting more exercise into your day and saving more money!
But sadly, New Year Resolutions are most often not kept to and many people abandon them a couple of months into the year.
Our take on it? Small, easily achievable goals that’ll add up and create a huge collective impact. From getting fitter to just feeding yourself better (because you are what you eat right?), if your target is to improve your health and wellbeing this coming New Year, we’ve got the guides for you! Read on to find out just what to do to reach those resolutions!
The festive season is probably the worst time ever to even think about getting in shape. But hey, being round is still a shape. We’re kidding of course. Read our in-depth guide on what you should know if you’ve resolved to get in shape this New Year.
Skincare is a marathon, not a sprint. If your goal is to leave the house sans makeup and tell people ‘I woke up like this’, read our handy guide on building a skincare routine of your own.
Cliche but true, you are really what you eat. Eating better is amazing, not just for your waistline, but for your overall health and beauty to boot! We’ve sought the advice of our team of nutritionists on how to nourish yourself better this 2019, even at the occasional fast-food chain outlet.
Getting more and better quality sleep is a resolution that’s often overshadowed by things like losing weight and saving money. But don’t underestimate the power of sleep on your wellbeing.
There’s a reason why neighbourhood gyms are always packed in the first week of the new year. Getting in shape tops the list of new year’s resolutions for most of us, but how many of us actually achieve those goals?
Let 2019 be the best year ever for your bod and get moving with these simple tips and tricks!
What people need the most in their fitness journey is to just get out there and start moving, and most often than not, finding a community provides that boost of motivation to get things done.
A 2016 study found that overweight people tend to lose more weight when spending time with fitter friends. Another study found that when starting a weight-loss program, 95% of those who started with friends completed the program compared to a 76% completion rate for those who embarked on the program alone. Bonus benefits? Those who started with friends were also 42% more likely to maintain their weight loss.
Working out with a group provides motivation and a sense of accountability, making you less likely to skip a workout day.
It’s easy to set lofty goals on the lines of “I want to lose X amount in a month!”, but getting fit is a marathon, not a sprint. Starting with small goals ensure that you won’t get discouraged. So if you wanna run a 5k eventually, start out with brisk walking and progress on to slow jogs.
We love the Couch to 5k, a running planning plan available on iOS and Andriod to help beginners get into fitness. The 9-week plan involves a 20 – 30-minute workout, 3 days a week with rest days between each day. The workouts scale up over time to keep you feeling challenged and to help you improve your fitness levels as well.
Meal prepping is an easy way to get some consistency into your diet. Plus, it's cheaper than always eating out!
It’s really easy to justify that extra slice of cake or bar of chocolate when you’ve been working out. But you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. According to Kinohimitsu’s resident nutritionist Nicole, “It’s much easier to overeat than it is to burn away the calories”. Treats like chips and chocolate also contain way more calories than we realise and require hours at the gym to just burn off.
For a healthier post-dinner treat, try dark chocolate! An antioxidant powerhouse, dark chocolates may even contain more antioxidants than certain fruits!
So skip the beer and candy. Aim to get a balanced diet filled with lean proteins, whole grains, fresh vegetables and healthy fats for maximum bang for your exercise buck.
If your complaint every morning is ‘I’m soooo tired’, we feel you. This coming New Year, aim to make better sleep a part of your lifestyle to feel on top of your game always.
Singaporeans are not getting enough sleep. A recent poll by international market research agency, YouGov, has found that 44% of Singaporeans sleep less than the recommended seven hours a night.
Poor sleep is not only linked to an increased risk of chronic health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.
Get more and better quality sleep with these tips:
We’ve all heard of the old wives tale that eating dinner past 9pm causes weight gain, well it turns out, there is some truth in that. Sleep deprivation can cause weight gain and being the last meal of the day, your dinner can cause you to lose some zzz’s as well.
For better sleep, aim to get dinner at least 2-3 hours prior heading to bed. Yin, a nutritionist at Kinohimitsu says that, “It takes your body about 3 hours to digest food and heavy meals interfere with your body’s internal clock, leaving you with less restful sleep.”
So what do you do when you’ve got dinner in but you’re hungry again right before bedtime? Yin recommends small, carbohydrate-rich snacks like warm milk, fruit or biscuits to help your body produce serotonin that’ll put you right to bed.
The impact of digital devices on our sleep has been so great that The UK Sleep Council has coined the phrase ‘Junk Sleep” to explain it. The phenomenon is described as sleep that does not feed the brain the rest that it needs to function properly.
If you’ve ever felt sleepy and tried to fight it with a smartphone game or so, you would have found that after a round or two of playing, you did not feel sleepy any longer. Digital devices have that effect on our sleep, emitting blue light that messes up the body’s circadian rhythm by suppressing melatonin, the sleep hormone.
For better sleep, try keeping your phones and screens away an hour or so prior to bedtime. Better yet, try a pre-bed ritual to soothe and prep you for a good night’s sleep! We love stretching out with a short yoga routine or two and snuggling down to a good book as part of our daily wind-down.
Great news for those resolving to get fitter in 2019, working out regularly can actually help to improve your sleep. A poll done by the National Sleep Foundation found a link between exercise and better sleep.
People who were regularly active reported better sleep when compared to people who were not physically active, even on the same amount of sleep per night! Working out also provides a hit of relaxation, helping to relieve stress, anxiety and negative feelings that may keep you up at night.
So for better sleep, get moving this 2019! For information and fitspiration, read our guide on getting fit in the new years!
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Kinohimitsu Diamond Nite is a collagen-based beauty drink, made with GABA and Manuka Honey, ingredients that have been scientifically proven to give better quality sleep.
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