How Many Calories Are These 7 CNY Snacks Going To Cost You?

We know they’re good, but are they worth the extra kilo weight for CNY?

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We know Chinese New Year is all about family right? Having meals with families, redecorating the house with families and munching on snacks while gossiping with families. Hey, we’ve all been there.

But slow down the snack intake though. We know the tea is interesting but don’t unconsciously nibble down a container of snacks all to yourself!

You might not realise it but these delicious CNY snacks also have quite the amount of calories in them. Here are some of those calculated calories for the snacks and ways to get rid of them.

1. Pineapple Tarts

These heavenly buttery tarts with sweet and tangy pineapple jam are a guilty pleasure for those sweet tooth lovers. Especially if the tart is made with a little ghee or premium butter, it just melts in the mouth.

But they don’t call it a guilty pleasure for no reason. On average, one piece of pineapple tart equals around 73 calories, depending on how much butter and sugar are used in the making.

For one piece of this delicious tart, you can burn off the fat with 26 minutes of cleaning. Simple!

2. Arrowroot Chips

Dangerously addictive, these Ngaku chips are made from Arrowroot, a starchy root vegetable like taro or sweet potato. Being a rare commodity only seen in massive amounts during CNY, it seems like a waste to avoid these.

You can still munch these in moderation though. For 100g of these chips, they have approximately 105 calories.

You can scrub your kitchen sink or mop the floors for 38 minutes to burn off the calories.

3. Dried Prawn Rolls

The prawn rolls or Hae Bee Hiam roll is an important staple of CNY with the prawn symbolizing happiness and spring rolls signifying wealth. However, just because they’re tiny doesn’t mean they don’t pack a good number of calories.

One piece of this delicious crunchy snack carries about 23 calories while 100g of it carries around 467 calories.

You can easily dance away your calories for about an hour to get rid of these crunchy calories.

4. Bak Kwa

The sweet-smoky slices of dried barbecued meat (pork usually but there are halal substitutes) are ubiquitous during CNY, and for good reason. They’re said to taste sweet, juicy and has a lingering addictive aftertaste.

However, on an average, one slice of this meat jerky is around 301 calories. Just one piece, can you imagine?

If you love to jog, then go for it for 30 minutes to rid those extra calories away.

5. Love Letter Biscuits

Whether they come in a rolled form or a fan shape, they’re a popular and fragile CNY snack. Also called Kuih Kapit, this thin wafer is made of mainly rice flour, coconut milk, eggs and caramelized sugar.

One piece of this only has around 17 calories. But you can’t just stop at one piece, right?

For this, you can just take a sprint for around one minute. But the more you devour, add more minutes to your run and you’ll be good to go.

6. Tanghulu

These caramelised sugar dipped fruits (hawthorn berries, strawberries, mandarin oranges, etc) on a stick may fool some because of the low-calorie fruits but well, they’re dipped in sugar. That cancels anything healthy.

On average, one Tanghulu can go around to having 400 calories. That’s almost like one double cheeseburger from McDonald’s!

For this, you can go on a refreshing swim for around 40 minutes.

7. Latiao

These delectable snacks are made from flour, spicy oil and food additives. The spicy gluten sticks are not enjoyed on CNY only, they’re actually snacks that can be eaten anytime.

However, Latiao has little nutritional value as per 100g of it contains approximately 357 calories. That’s nearly the same as a 117g of french fries with 365 calories.

For that, you need to get on your bicycle for around 51 minutes. Feel that burn on the legs!

So, calories are good when they’re giving you energy, but excess calories that our body doesn’t use up will be stored as body fat.

Also, bear in mind that the amount of time you have to spend for each physical activity depends on how much you weigh and how hard you exert yourself.

Hence, devouring these delicious munchies on CNY is okay, just make sure to burn all those excess calories with exercise and you’ll be fit as a fiddle!

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