Beware bingeing on snacks during Ghost Month: specialist – Taipei Times
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Mon, Aug 24, 2026 page3
Beware bingeing on snacks during Ghost Month: specialist
- By Lo Pi and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
A weight-loss specialist on Saturday warned that bingeing on stockpiles of high-calorie snacks left over from the Ghost Festival’s pudu (普度) ceremonies can affect liver fat and metabolism before weight gain appears
Pudu, held to honor ancestors, is a common ritual during the seventh lunar month — traditionally regarded as Ghost Month in Taiwanese folk belief
Liu Yao-tseing (劉曜增), obesity medicine specialist at the Genesis Clinic’s Kahosiung branch, said that after the pudu ceremonies, offices often suddenly end up with large amounts of snacks
Ministry of Labor officials hold joss sticks while making offerings during a Ghost Month ritual in Taipei in an undated photograph
If they are all placed on desks, near water dispensers, or beside coffee machines, they are easy to grab, making increased consumption more likely, he said
To avoid eating too many snacks, changing one’s environment can also be effective, he said
Liu cited a study published in the journal Appetite that found there is a positive correlation between a food item’s proximity and the chances that it would be consumed by an office worker
The research, which observed Google employees in the company’s New York City office, found that 23 percent of men and 17 percent of women took snacks placed near the water cooler area, he said
When snacks were placed farther from the water cooler, only 12 percent of men and 13 percent of women consumed the items, Liu said
Nutritional studies in the US also found that 25 percent of an American’s caloric intake comes from snacks, he said
From this perspective, the Taiwanese custom of laying snacks on tables during Ghost Month creates a risk of sudden weight gain, Liu said
More importantly, bingeing on large quantities of snacks often has an adverse effect on metabolism long before increases in body weight can be observed, he said
Medical literature suggests that healthy men who consumed extra high-calorie snacks for five consecutive days took in about 1,200 additional calories a day on average, he said
Although their weight did not increase significantly, liver fat rose from 1.55 percent to 2.54 percent, while some areas of the brain also showed changes in their response to insulin, he said
People should consider leaving snacks in less accessible cupboards and ration Ghost Festival leftovers to avoid causing harm to their health, Liu said
He recommended eating a proper meal and making sure to get enough protein and fiber before having snacks, which can make it easier to curb cravings and keep blood sugar levels stable
Liu said snacking occasionally is not necessarily a problem, adding that the real concern is the impact of long-term eating habits
If weight gain, an expanding waistline, fatty liver or abnormal health checkup results have already emerged, people should look more closely at their diet, body composition and metabolic health to identify the underlying causes, rather than simply resorting to restrictive dieting to lose weight, he said
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