Cautious : A traditional Chinese dish may make you gain extra pounds

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For those who are on a diet, there’s another dish that might have to be watched during daily servings – scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

Considered as one of China’s most common, quick and easy home-style cuisine, scrambled eggs with tomatoes are now found with excess calories, according to a recent study from Zhejiang Hospital.

Zheng Peifen, a chief physician from the hospital, told local media such a dish is not that healthy as people expected, in spite of a seemingly proportion of vitamin C, lycopene and protein.

Photo via Internet

“The problem is, the amount of cooking oil is being added too much,” said Zheng. Compared with other Chinese dishes, cooking oil will be added twice as much when stir-frying the eggs and tomatoes respectively – and scrambled eggs will generally be more fluffy and tender with more amount of cooking oil.

“It takes 25g of cooking oil at least,” said Zheng. “If you want to make the eggs look more visibly fluffy, it will take 30-40g of cooking oil.”

However, the recommended allowance of cooking oil per day is between 25 to 30 grams for adults, according to The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents in 2016.

Photo via Internet

The amount of sugar is another problem when cooking the dish, as extra sugar is always added to make it a semi-tart and semi-sweet taste, especially among those from the southern part of the country.

The calorie intake is around 339 calories, which is more than that of a medium McDonald’s French Fries or Chicken Burger – not to mention when serving over lots of steamed rice, according to Xinhua reports.

Obesity is a global issue that has been troubling people's health. Recently, China released a “Healthy China 2030” blueprint in 2016 with a focus on healthy lifestyles.

So, the next time when you are about to grab a quick dinner on a busy weeknight, think twice – try to control the amount of oil and sugar when cooking scrambled eggs with tomatoes.