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Novella Lui

There is nothing more characteristic of Cantonese cuisine than dim sum. With an endless number of menu food items to choose from, how can anyone resist ordering their favourites?
If you eat dim sum regularly, then making wise choices is important for minimising your risk of weight gain and chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes. It may be challenging to determine which menu item is healthier without looking into their nutritional make-up.
In part one of two articles, we will give you a better idea about which item could possibly be a healthier choice with lower calories, sodium and fat.
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Steamed rice flour roll – shrimp or vegetarian stuffing?

Don’t be mistaken that vegetarian dim sum options are always healthier than their meat counterparts. Take a look at the steamed rice flour rolls, for example.
The steamed rice flour roll with vegetarian stuffing offers 91 calories per 100-gram serving while the shrimp flavoured only offers nine calories more per serving.
Surprisingly, the total fat and saturated fat present in the vegetarian stuffing flavour is slightly higher than the shrimp flavour, with 2.8 grams of total fat and 0.45 grams of saturated fat for the former, and 2.2 grams saturated fat and 0.39 grams of saturated fat for the latter.
Sodium is also slightly higher in the vegetarian option, with 190 milligrams versus 150 grams per serving in the shrimp.
For the same serving size, the shrimp flavour also has double the amount of protein than the vegetarian one.
The only benefit the vegetarian option has over the shrimp option is the presence of dietary fibre, with 2.6 grams per serving, which is absent in the latter.
Despite the absence of dietary fibre, the healthier choice is the shrimp flavour for its lower sodium, slightly lower fat and saturated fat and higher protein content.
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Pan-fried items – turnip cake or rice flour roll?

For those who crave for dim sum dishes that are not steamed, the turnip cake and the plain rice flour rolls are some of the must-have pan-fried items. Although we clearly know that pan-fried dishes are not considered healthy, would one possibly be slightly healthier than the other?
From the calorie perspective, both dishes offer similar calories, with 130 calories per 100-gram serving for the turnip cake and 140 calories for the rice flour roll.
The turnip cake has more dietary fibre from the turnips and shiitake mushrooms, but it also has more total fat and saturated fat, with 5.7 grams and one gram per 100-gram serving respectively, and significantly more sodium, with 540 milligrams, than the rice flour roll, which has 4.4 grams of total fat, 0.58 grams of saturated fat and 190 milligrams of sodium. The higher fat and sodium content is from the use of Chinese preserved sausages and meat in the turnip cake.
Based on the overall nutritional profile, the rice flour roll offers less fat and sodium than the turnip cake. Unfortunately, it is nothing but a starch-filled food.
In other words, there is no clear winner here. The best you can do is to keep your portions small if you decide to eat either (or both).
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Steamed sweet buns – lotus seed paste with egg yolk or egg milk custard?

Just as you may eat dessert after enjoying your entrée for Western meals, eating confectionery to wrap up a scrumptious dim sum meal is also a common practice. Are you trying to decide between the steamed lotus paste with egg yolk bun and the steamed milk custard bun?
Choose the former instead.
You may wonder what the logic is here, when the lotus seed with egg yolk offers more calories and total fat than the milk custard, with 300 calories and 8.1 grams of total fat per 100 gram-serving for the former versus 250 calories and six grams of the total fat for the same serving size for the latter?
The culprit here is the amount of saturated fat present in the milk custard bun, which makes up 53 per cent of total fat. The lotus seed bun, on the contrary, only has 1.8 grams of saturated fat per serving, which makes up only 22 per cent of the total fat present.
Based on the saturated fat factor alone, the better option between the two will be the lotus seed paste bun.
Other nutritional aspects to consider where the former is the preferred choice are: higher dietary fibre and lower sodium per serving. The lotus seed paste bun has 2.8 grams of dietary fibre and 65 milligrams of sodium per serving, whereas the milk custard flavour has 1.9 grams of dietary fibre and 100 milligrams of sodium for the same serving size.
Some dim sum dishes are clearly a healthier choice while others may be less obvious. When you enjoy your dim sum meal, you may want to consider more than just the calories.
Fat found in dim sum is one of the additional elements to consider. Eating foods, particularly those with saturated fat, increases the level of bad cholesterol in your blood, which may increase your risk for heart disease.
The American Heart Association recommends saturated fat should make up no more than five per cent to six per cent of the total calories.
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Sodium present in the dim sum dishes is another factor to pay attention to when picking your dim sum dishes. When eating out, you cannot avoid sodium as most foods prepared outside the home have added sodium during the preparation and cooking process.
The World Health Organisation recommends adults to consume no more than five grams of salt per day, which is equivalent to one teaspoon of table salt, or 2,300 milligrams of sodium.
If you consume a dim sum meal once in a while, enjoy the items you love but keep in mind your portion size as calories, fat, sodium and sugars add up quickly. If you have dim sum on a regular basis, then it is best to not eat it more than twice a week, and you should be selective by choosing the healthier options.
Stay tuned for part two …
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In part one of a two-part article, we highlight healthier choices for dim sum and other Cantonese dishes


Dim sum swap series: which dumpling options are healthier and better for you?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In part one of a two-part article, we highlight healthier choices for dim sum and other Cantonese dishes

In part one of a two-part article, we highlight healthier choices for dim sum and other Cantonese dishes