By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-16 07:38

Video: Laba Porridge

Eat laba porridge, and you won't have your chin bitten off by the cold, goes an old Chinese saying.

The porridge is not only a yummy rite to mark yesterday's laba festival (in Chinese, la means the 12th lunar month and ba means the eighth day), but also a delicacy good for health, according to the 2007 Chinese Diet Guide released by the Ministry of Health (MOH) Tuesday. 

Laba contains glutinous rice, red beans, millet, Chinese sorghum, peas, dried lotus seeds, red beans and other ingredients such as dried dates, chestnuts, walnuts, almonds and peanuts, etc.

It is also called babao (eight treasures) porridge for its high nutritional value.

All the ingredients make the recommended list of a healthy diet in the latest health guide, which is updated from a decade-old version.

"The guide aims to show people how to eat healthy," Kong Lingzhi, deputy director of the disease prevention and control bureau of the MOH, said at the launch ceremony.

Given that chronic diseases like obesity, hypertension and diabetes have become the top killers in the country, the launch of the guide is timely, Kong said.

Yang Xiaoguang, a researcher at the Chinese Nutrition Society, said the "Westernized" diet contains too much energy and fat, and too little dietary fiber, which can lead to higher incidence of a variety of chronic disorders.

The latest national nutrition and health survey conducted by the MOH in 2002 showed more than 60 million Chinese people were obese in the previous decade.

The prevalence of obesity in the country has nearly doubled in 10 years, according to a report by the World Health Organization.

Besides, 100 million Chinese suffer from high blood pressure and 26 million from diabetes.

To redress the situation, the guide recommends a cereal-based diet with dark-colored vegetables.

Eating laba might be a good way to start.