The Dark Side of the Mooncake

Today is the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongjiu Jie), also sometimes called the Mooncake Festival or Lantern Festival. This is a popular harvest festival dating back over 3,000 years to the Chinese Shang Dynasty period. The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, which is sometime in September or October on the Gregorian calendar. It also corresponds with the Autumn Equinox when the moon is supposed to be at its fullest and roundest.

During this Mid-Autumn Festival period, many Chinese and Vietnamese are likely to consume a lot of delicious mooncakes.

These days, the mooncakes come in all sorts of interesting flavours ...

and shapes ...

There is also a story you might have heard about the role of mooncakes in a Chinese uprising against Mongol rulers (during the Yuan Dynasty) in the 14th century. In this tale (which I'm not sure is fully supported by historical facts), the mooncakes were used as an early form of e-mail ... the "e" being "edible" rather than "electronic" .LOL.  Anyway as group gatherings were banned, it was very difficult for the Chinese to make plans for a rebellion. So one bright chap called Liu Bowen (from Zhejiang), who was a confidant of the rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, suggested timing the rebellion with the Mid-Autumn Festival. He applied for and got permission to distribute thousands of mooncakes to Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Apparently the Mongols did not eat mooncakes, so inside each cake distributed was concealed a piece of paper with the message "Kill the Mongols on the 15th day of the eighth month". And on the night itself, the rebellion was successful and the Mongols were overthrown. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was thus born.


Like everyone else, I like my mooncakes too. My favourites are tau sar, ling yun, single or double yolk and the ones with mixed nuts. Yummmmmmmy ...

However doctors and healthcare professionals have always been cautioning against over-indulging in mooncakes. They say that a small mooncake may contain as any calories as a bowl of rice! As mooncakes are generally made from flour, sugar and butter, one egg-yolk filled mooncake weighing about 60 g can contain up to 270 calories. That would take an averaged sized person about an hour to walk off, says a nutritionist friend of mine.

A health report from Taiwan that I read also noted that aside from moon cakes, many people also celebrate the festival by eating barbequed and processed meat, which are high in calories and sodium. Eating too much of such foods not only led to weight gain, but consuming more sodium than is recommended on a daily basis could also strain the kidneys and the cardiovascular system, the report said. Some health bureaus in China advised people to consume only moderate amounts of moon cakes and where relevant to substitute meat for vegetables such as mushrooms and green onions when having a barbeque. Pomelo, another traditional Mid-Autumn Festival food, is also recommended because of its high vitamin C content. The fruit is also known to lower cholesterol and decrease risk of heart disease.

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Well, having shared all that, I must say it's only once a year and so long as we don't go overboard with stuffing our faces with mooncake, it should be fine ... tau sar, ling yun, double yolk ... here I come !!!!

HAPPY MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL !!!

Kopi and Your Prostate

Hi guys and gals, I'm not medically trained so will have to rely solely on our doctor schoolmates to comment on this latest medical finding.

But I must admit this new research certainly sounds good to a kopi-lover like me.

There have been many newspapers and magazines carrying this story. Here's one from the Daily Mail (UK) ...

Six cups of coffee a day 'can slash prostate cancer risk'

By FIONA MACRAE

18th May 2011

Drinking cup after cup of coffee could more than halve the odds of developing a deadly prostate tumour, research suggests.

A 20-year study of almost 50,000 men found those who drank at least six cups a day were 20 per cent less likely to get prostate  cancer than those who never touched the stuff.

Strikingly, they were 60 per cent less likely than the non-coffee drinkers to die of the disease.

Those who like to restrict their caffeine intake will be glad to know the study found decaffeinated coffee to be just as effective.

The research is significant because prostate cancer, the most common cancer among British men, affects 37,000 a year and kills more than 10,000.

However, the Harvard University researchers say that non-coffee drinkers shouldn’t change their habits based on this study alone.

The American team compared the coffee intake of men quizzed about their diets every four years between 1986 and 2006 with their medical records.

Two-thirds of those taking part drank at least one cup of coffee a day and 5 per cent got through at least six, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports.

Some 5,035 of the 47,911 men developed prostate cancer, with 642 of the tumours classed as lethal, meaning the men died from the disease or were expected to.

Even relatively small amounts of coffee – one to three cups per day – lowered the risk of lethal prostate cancer by 30 per cent. And bigger amounts had a bigger effect.

Importantly, the link cannot be explained away by the coffee drinkers having healthier lifestyles. In fact, they were more likely to smoke and did less exercise.

Caffeine is credited with a host of health benefits, including cutting the odds of asthma, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.

But in this case, the researchers believe that other plant chemicals in coffee are behind the benefits.They think compounds such as anti-oxidants may cut the odds of prostate cancer and reduce the likelihood of deadly tumours by altering levels of sex hormones, regulating blood sugar levels and cutting inflammation.

‘An association between coffee and lower risk of advanced prostate cancer is biologically plausible,’ they reported.

Kathryn Wilson, the study’s lead author, said: ‘If our findings are validated, coffee could represent one modifiable factor that may lower the risk of developing the most harmful form of prostate cancer.’ But British experts said other studies had failed to find that coffee protected against prostate cancer.

Dr Helen Rippon, head of research management at the Prostate Cancer Charity, said: ‘It is important to remember that studying diet is difficult because you are not studying a standardised product – coffee can be prepared in many different ways from many different varieties of bean.

‘That is why it is so important that studies like this are repeated by others, to see if the result stands up in other groups of men.

‘Although this study is a welcome addition to our knowledge, it is far from definitive and we would not recommend men who are not already habitual coffee drinkers to become so in the hope of preventing prostate cancer.’

She pointed out that heavy caffeine intake is associated with other health problems.

Well, you can access the original article at THIS SITE. Also check out what others have commented on the research. Interesting reading. Another article from the Los Angeles Times is HERE.

Have a good day. I'm having my third cuppa now.