Know Your Mala Mala 麻辣 (meaning numbing spice in chinese) has become a hit in Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, China and many other Asian countries due to its addictive, numbing and hot spicy sensation. Malaysian who are spicy food lovers will definitely not miss the chance to hunt for these thrilling sensational spicy delicacies! 
As you may have known, Mala dishes originated in China's southwestern region of Sichuan are made from herbs and spices grounded and simmered with oil in a pan. Ingredients of Mala include Sichuan peppercorns (Hua Jiao) giving the special numbing feeling, chili pepper, bean paste, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, star anise, fennel, and black cardamom, vegetable oil and salt. These mixed and blended ingredients help create the signature flavourful taste of Mala.
You may be wondering: Wow, there are so many different types of herbs and spices in this Mala. Is it possibly healthy for me?
It was claimed that capsaicin in the spice blends help boost your metabolism, enabling you to quickly lose weight and burn fat. Moreover, dried chili is a good source of vitamins A, B, C and contains minerals such as folate, potassium and thiamine. Spices such as Sichuan peppercorn also have an effect on cardiovascular health and may increase life expectancy.
This sounds like great news, aint it? But wait! Scroll down to read more!
Cardiologist Calvin Chin from the National Heart Centre Singapore warned that although chili may boost our metabolism, the weight lost will be modest. You will need to eat chili everyday for more than 3 or 4 months to lose 1 kg?! The effects of losing weight from chili will also reduce over time once your chili tolerance builds up over time.
Other problems of Mala dishes include a high sodium content. According to a test shown by CNA, 100g of Mala broth has an average of 418 mg of sodium, whereas 100g of stir-fried Mala has 470 mg of sodium. The Mala dish salt content is significantly higher than other dishes such as mutton biryani (163mg sodium/ 100g) and laksa (294mg sodium/ 100g).
Additionally, other ingredients added into your mala hotpot will add extra sodium levels to the dish, which may accumulate to 1000mg or even exceed the recommended daily salt intake of 2000mg by the World Health Organization (WHO). Excessive salt content in your body can increase the risk of high blood pressure and kidney problems.
What’s more, Mala is packed with high saturated fat and trans-fat. An average Mala can contain up to 6g of fat per each 100g, depending on the ingredients in the dish. 100g stir-fried mala has an average of 3.8g saturated fat while 100g of mala hotpot oily layer has 4.9g saturated fat. Besides, if you want a more spicy tasting Mala, the waiter will add more chili oil, increasing the saturated fat in your hotpot! On average, an adult should not exceed more than 22g of saturated fat per day.
Prolonged heating of the soup can also convert good healthy unsaturated fat like polyunsaturated fat into bad unhealthy trans-fatty acids and saturated fatty acids. The presence of toxins, carcinogens and free radicals of high temperature cooked food will definitely be detrimental for our health!
Eating in moderation is key to your health! You can control your portion and choose quality ingredients when ordering Mala!
- To reduce saturated fats, you can opt to remove the oil at the top of the broth after the ingredients are cooked in your Mala hotpot. Include more fresh leafy vegetables such as mushroom, cabbage, lettuce or spinach in your hotpot and blanch the vegetables instead of leaving them to cook fully in the hotpot which will absorb more of the oil.
Eating more lean meat over fat such as fresh chicken, seafood or fish is a food source of lean protein. Do take note that fatty fried food such as deep-fried tofu skin, fried yam, and pork belly may absorb double the amount of oil in your hotpot! - To reduce the sodium level, you can ask for less dipping sauce or paste and less chili oil in your hotpot or other Mala dish. For a light dipping sauce, you can ask for minced garlic, fresh cut chili with soy sauce, and vinegar sauce.
Processed food such as crab sticks, meatballs, luncheon meat and hot dogs are high in sodium, thus you may want to try to limit these! - Watch out for repeated boiling of your hot pot broth! If the broth is already boiled for more than 90 minutes, it may increase nitrite levels (Yahoo! News). Nitrite, created directly in food through high heat cooking is carcinogenic and is linked with bowel cancer if consumed in high amounts. Thus, you may want to set a time limit when boiling your hotpot!
You can also try to control your urge to eat Mala by only eating it once or twice a month with your friends and family! You are what you eat, remember to not overeat your Mala and stay healthy and energized! Have a happy and blessed Chinese New Year!
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Reference:
- Trustana. Health Benefits of Spicy Food (Mala Spice Specifically!). Available from https://blog.trustana.com/blog/health-benefits-of-spicy-food-mala-spice-specifically
- CNA. Can mala help you lose weight? 5 things to know about the fiery dish. Available from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna-insider/can-mala-xiang-guo-hotpot-help-lose-weight-whats-fiery-dish-how-beat-heat-2434051
- World of Buzz. Experts: Hotpot Is Seriously Unhealthy & You Should Only Eat It Once a Month. Available from https://worldofbuzz.com/experts-hotpot-is-seriously-unhealthy-you-should-only-eat-it-once-a-month/
- BBC. The truth about the nitrates in your food. Available from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190311-what-are-nitrates-in-food-side-effects
- Yahoo News. 8 tips for a healthy Chinese New Year hot pot. Available from https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/fit-to-post-health/8-tips-healthy-chinese-hot-pot-071522300.html
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