One reason is enough to persuade you to eat more taro!

When it comes to taro, many people's mouths will surge with that soft and sweet feeling...

Taro paste cake. Image source: pixabay

Many people seem to have forgotten the original taste and flavor of taro. In fact, taro itself tastes good. Even if you don’t add any seasoning, just eat steamed taro as a staple food, the taste is not inferior to rice or steamed buns.

Excellent staple food

Taro belongs to the tuber family. Similar to sweet potatoes, potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, and yams, taro can be considered as whole grains, replacing the role of refined rice and white flour in the diet. As a staple food, it can not only satisfy hunger and provide energy, but also reduce fat and control blood sugar...

1

Lower calories

Compared with refined rice and white flour, whole grains generally have lower calories. For example, the calories of taro are much lower than steamed bread and rice. 100 grams of taro only has 56 to 85 kcal (different varieties have different calories). The same 100 grams of steamed bread can provide 223 kcal, and 100 grams of rice has 116 kcal.

2

Low glycemic index

The glycemic index of taro is only 53, which is lower than potatoes and sweet potatoes, and much lower than rice and steamed bread. It is a low glycemic index (low GI) food. Therefore, if you want to control your weight and blood sugar, it is highly recommended to include taro in your staple food recipes to help control your total calorie intake.

3

Contains VC and potassium

Taro and other potatoes have an obvious advantage over refined rice and white flour, that is, they contain VC which is not found in rice and steamed bread. Although the VC content of taro is not as high as that of potatoes and sweet potatoes, the content of 1.3 to 5 grams/100 grams in various types of taro is better than nothing.

At the same time, potatoes are good at supplementing potassium, and taro is very good at potassium. Many varieties of taro can have a potassium content of more than 300 mg/100 g, which is higher than the potassium content of bananas (256 mg/100 g), which is well known as a potassium supplement. The energy is also lower than that of bananas. Therefore, for friends with high blood pressure who need to control sodium and supplement potassium, it is a wise choice to replace some of the staple food of refined rice and white flour with steamed taro.

Image source: pixabay

In addition, because taro is rich in mucopolysaccharides and dietary fiber (most of which is soluble dietary fiber, about 4.1 grams/100 grams, nearly three times higher than steamed bread and more than ten times higher than rice), it can increase satiety and delay fat absorption, promote gastrointestinal motility, and help improve constipation and other problems.

However, various fresh fruits and vegetables and other whole grains are rich in dietary fiber. From the perspective of the "laxative" effect alone, there are better choices (you can review the previous article "Can bananas and honey relieve constipation? Wrong! These 10 suggestions are really "laxative" →"). It is recommended that you pay more attention to the advantages of taro as a coarse grain staple food.

Correct/incorrect way to eat taro

Since taro has such a high nutritional value, we naturally need to know how to eat it so as not to waste it. Not only should it taste delicious, but it should also be eaten healthily. If you eat it in the wrong way, even the best taro will instantly become a "health negative food".

Healthy eating method 1: Steam and cook taro to replace part of the staple food

According to the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents", potatoes are part of the staple food. Replacing 1/4 to 1/5 of the staple food with steamed or boiled taro without sugar can not only enrich the variety of staple food, supplement some nutrients lacking in refined rice and white flour, but also reduce the calorie intake of staple food.

Specifically, the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" recommends that the daily staple food intake of potatoes can reach 50 to 100 grams (a total of 250 to 400 grams of cereals and potatoes per day). An ordinary small taro weighs about 60 to 80 grams. You can use this as a reference to visually estimate your taro intake.

Healthy eating method 2: Eat with green leafy vegetables and high-quality protein

Some friends think that taro can be used as both a vegetable and a meal. Some even hope to lose weight by eating taro, and take a piece of taro as a meal. This is not recommended.

Although taro is rich in nutrients, it is a staple food after all, lacking in essential nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and high-quality protein. Therefore, it is recommended that you eat taro with some green leafy vegetables and high-quality protein foods such as eggs, milk and meat.

Unhealthy way to eat: as a snack, deep-fried

If you eat taro as a snack during or between meals in addition to the staple food, it is undoubtedly equivalent to consuming more staple food.

If it is a dish like taro braised pork with a lot of high-fat meat, the fat content should not be underestimated. Taro products eaten as snacks may often have a lot of oil and sugar added to enhance the taste of the snack. For example, taro crisps, taro with sand, fried taro, taro with candied silk, etc., these snacks are high in sugar, oil, and starch.

Image source: pixabay

Unhealthy eating method 2: Eat only taro as a staple food

If you think taro is nutritious and delicious, it is not appropriate to replace all your staple foods with taro.

On the one hand, taro is low in calories and high in dietary fiber. Eating taro as a staple food for a long time may lead to insufficient calorie intake and fail to meet the body's metabolic needs for energy and starch. On the other hand, the large amount of dietary fiber in taro not only increases satiety, but also increases the digestive burden to a certain extent. For people with weak digestive function, eating taro as a staple food may cause indigestion.

Unhealthy eating method 3: Prefer taro paste and processed taro products

Many friends prefer taro paste, or like to use taro and other sweet foods to make paste, such as various taro paste milk tea, etc. However, this kind of eating method is not recommended for everyone to use frequently.

On the one hand, when taro is made into taro paste or mashed, the digestion and absorption speed is greatly accelerated, and the advantage of low glycemic index is no longer there. On the other hand, taro paste ingredients often contain a lot of oil and sugar, and may also add cheese, salad dressing, etc. to adjust the taste, so the calorie, sugar and fat content will be greatly increased.

Take a certain taro paste on the market as an example. Its calorie content is 230 kcal, nearly three times higher than that of steamed taro, and its fat content reaches 18%, while steamed taro contains almost no fat.

How to choose taro

If you want to eat fresh and delicious taro, refer to the following tips when choosing:

1

Lipu Taro

Newbies can directly choose the large Lipu taro, which is less likely to fail. They can also give priority to other varieties of large taro, which makes it easier to see the freshness and damage of the skin, and has a lower failure rate.

This is what Lipu taro looks like~Pictures from the Internet

2

Steam small, stew large

According to our different eating methods, if you want to eat it directly by steaming, it is recommended to choose small taro. It is easy to steam and convenient to eat at one time, and it is smooth and sticky after peeling, and the taste is also good. If it is stewed vegetables or stewed meat, it is recommended to choose large taro with high starch content and powdery taste, which can fully absorb the flavor during the stewing process and is soft and delicious after cooking.

3

Choose round, not long

Experienced taro lovers know that you should choose round taro, especially those that are round in shape, have dirt on the skin, have many hairs, and feel firm to the touch, which means they are fresh and mature, and taste sweeter and more glutinous.

Notice!

Beware the Toxicity of Taro

However, although taro seems gentle, it also has a slightly "unruly" side.

Taro belongs to the Araceae family, a family with many poisonous species. Wild taro is very poisonous. Although the taro we eat today has become very mild after human breeding, some people have experienced numbness in the mouth and throat due to eating taro flowers that were not cooked well.

Although taro as a tuber is much less "toxic" than taro flowers and stems, due to the high content of ingredients such as oxalic acid and saponins, we can still easily get "burned" and cause itchy skin if we do not wear gloves when handling raw taro.

Before taro is made into food, it needs to be soaked for a long time and heated to remove most of the oxalic acid. If you accidentally eat taro that is not fully cooked, the tip of your tongue will be slightly numb. It is recommended that if you want to process taro with skin at home, you must take protective measures.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

This winter, meet delicious taro often!

Author: Wang Lu, registered nutritionist in China

Review | Ruan Guangfeng, Deputy Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center