Stop panic buying: healthy food to last you through a crisis and keep your immune system strong
- Instant noodles, tinned luncheon meat and frozen dumplings may have long shelf lives but won’t keep you healthy during the coronavirus outbreak
- Experts share their tips on healthy food to stock up with and how items like fresh vegetables can be frozen for later use
Panic buying at supermarkets around the globe has stoked fears of shortages of essential goods as the coronavirus pandemic has spread.
Kitchen staples such as rice and pasta have been swept off store shelves, while less nutritious processed and packaged foods have also been in low supply, leading some experts to suggest a rethinking of our buying habits.
When the outbreak began in Hong Kong nearly two months ago, desperate shoppers hoarded rice but also snapped up items such as instant noodles, tinned luncheon meat, frozen dumplings and dim sum.
Registered dietitian Joyce Chan Ho-yi of Tetra Nutritional Consultation Centre in Yau Ma Tei was one of the observers alarmed by this phenomenon. “At this critical time for immunity boosting, those foods may do more harm [than good],” she says.
Chan advises following general health food guidelines to bolster one’s health, which is to eat a diet low in sugar, sodium and saturated fat.
The items she saw selling out – such as frozen dumplings and dim sum – are highly processed foods often containing too much salt and fat.
