April 28, 2023 | 03:03pm GMT+7
I love beef pho and eat it almost every morning. Can the doctor tell me if eating it that often is harmful? (Minh, 30, Hanoi)
Answer:
Beef pho has a balanced amount of carbs and protein, and a large amount of fat content inside the soup. The energy that you get from a bowl of pho is the equivalent of a main meal.
An average bow of beef pho contains about 140 grams of pho noodles, 100 grams of beef, and 350 milligrams of soup, all topped with some scallion, onion, and rendered fat. This translates into 350-400 Kcal; alongside that is protein, fiber, sugar, and salt. The fiber content is much smaller than the other nutrients (only 0.4 grams), while the salt content is 3.8 grams.
If you’re eating pho that often, your body will lack the necessary amount of fiber – which makes the body unable to absorb enough vitamins and minerals. Lacking fiber can also affect the digestive system and cause constipation.
When it comes to salt content, according to the World Health Organization, a person should only consume 5 grams of salt daily. As such, eating a bowl of pho combined with other meals throughout the day means the body will have too much salt. Many researchers suggest that eating too much salt can cause some deadly diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, kidney stones, osteoporosis, and bronchial asthma.
A word of caution: the amount of salt inside a bowl of pho is mainly concentrated inside the soup. Therefore, to reduce salt consumption, you shouldn’t drink the entire bowl. Experts also suggest that if pho is used for breakfast, then you should avoid salt for the rest of the day.
To avoid imbalanced nutrition, you should not eat pho too often, and you should switch up diet with other food products. Any food, no matter how good it is, won’t be good for your body if consumed too much.
Dr. Nguyen Trong Hung
Head of Department of Adult Nutrition Consultation
National Nutrition Institute
