Tips for a healthy Hot Pot Dietitian, Sylvia LAM, shares with us a few health tips about hot pot meal: Selection of soup base: Healthier choices Plain chicken broth, fish soup with bean curd, seafood soup with dried scallops, winter melon soup, tomato and potato soup, corn, carrot and sugarcane soup, soya milk soup, white fungus soup with fig Less healthy choices Pork bone soup, cheese soup base, chocolate soup, shacha soup base, "Drunken chicken" (wine-brined chicken) soup, Sichuan-style hot-and-spicy soup, miso soup, soup made with whole milk Selection of dipping sauce: Healthier choices Soya sauce with spring onion, garlic, ginger or pepper Less healthy choices Commercial sauces such as Shacha sauce, sesame sauce, peanut sauce and chilli oil Selection of food Ingredients: Food Items Recommended Not recommended Fish Balls, Meatballs or Dumplings White fish balls, lean beef balls, dace fish balls, lobster meatballs, lean pork balls. Taiwan style meatballs, deep-fried fish slices, deep-fried fish balls and dumplings with fish wrap. Meats Skinned and boned chicken, mutton, beef, beef shanks or ostrich meat. Marbled beef, pork jowl, luncheon meat and offal. Seafood All seafood except cuttlefish, squid, oyster and eel (which contain a high level of cholesterol and not suitable for people with cardiovascular diseases) Deep-fried fish skin Vegetable All leafy vegetables and mushrooms. -- Bean Products Bean curd and fresh bean curd sheets Deep-fried bean curd, fried gluten and deep-fried bean curd sticks/sheets. Noodles Udon noodles, Shirataki noodles, rice vermicelli, rice noodles, fresh noodles and Shanghai rice cake. Instant noodles, yi-noodles (pre-fried noodles) and oil noodles. Drinks Water, tea and fresh juice Beer, soft drinks, sour prune juice, sugarcane juice, sugar cane and imperatae drink. Extract from CookSmart, Issue 13