Konjac Fish Cake Soup Fish Cake — Examining Fish Meat Content, Calories, and Sweetness
Table of Contents
There are days when you're on a diet and you crave something hot and soupy. That's when many people think of konjac fish cake soup, but when you actually go to the mart, you end up hesitating for a long time about which fish cake to pick.
## Why fish cake determines the calories in konjac fish cake soup
Since konjac itself is nearly 0kcal, the fish cake and broth essentially determine the calories and flavor. No matter how much konjac you add, if you choose the wrong fish cake, it becomes a meal that's hard to call a diet menu.
Commercial fish cakes have larger ingredient differences than you might think. Some products have high fish meat content, but there are also quite a few products where plant-based starch and wheat flour make up more than half. Add sugar and corn syrup on top of that, and even for the same one piece, the calories can differ significantly.
A commonly recommended standard in diabetes and weight management recipes is to "use fish cake with 70% or more fish meat". The lower the proportion of plant-based starch and wheat flour and the more fish meat is included, the higher the protein ratio. In the market, many products are about 20~40kcal per piece, and one bag of mixed fish cakes for fish cake soup is about 300~350g.
Even for the same fish cake soup, one bowl can be this different
When I look at patients' diets in the consultation room, surprisingly many say, "Fish cake soup is a diet menu," while putting in commercially available sweet fish cakes for tteokbokki or skewered fish cakes as they are. Even if konjac is added, if sugar and corn syrup leach into the broth, simple sugar intake creeps up.
Those who check the ingredients list first and switch to fish cakes with high fish meat content and low sugars experience longer post-meal satiety even when eating the same amount, and the frequency of binge eating at the next meal decreases. In particular, if you increase the proportion of konjac and reduce the fish cakes, the number of chews naturally increases, leading you to empty the bowl slowly.
Since konjac consists mainly of moisture and dietary fiber, it creates a sense of volume in the stomach. The satisfaction felt when emptying a bowl of fish cake soup will feel quite different compared to when it is filled only with fish cakes.
The weight of a single meal as seen by Baekrokdam Oriental Medicine Clinic
In Oriental medicine, food is not viewed by calories alone. We also examine the burden on digestion and absorption and the warmth that suits the constitution. In that fish cake soup is a bowl of warm broth, it is a menu that goes down comfortably for those whose stomach is cold and digestion is slow.
However, processed fish cakes have a proportion of additives and refined starch. If you have a constitution where the spleen and stomach are weak or phlegm-fluid (dam-eum) easily forms, eating it too often or too much is not recommended. The method of reducing the intake of processed foods by adding konjac in a proportion of more than half reduces the burden on the constitution.
Basic broth ingredients such as radish, green onion, kelp, and anchovies are food ingredients frequently used in Oriental medicine. Since radish aids digestion and green onion warms the inside, a sufficiently refreshing broth is brewed even without adding many chemical seasonings. When these meals accumulate, I often see patients' overall body flow becoming much lighter than through simple calorie calculation.
Action points to apply starting this evening
Setting aside complex recipes for a moment, I will organize things that can be applied immediately at the mart and in the kitchen.
- Choosing fish cakes: The ingredients list comes before the variety. Checking just three things—fish meat content, sugars, and calories—is sufficient.
- Avoiding fish cakes with strong sweetness: Fish cakes for tteokbokki or those with spicy seasoning have a high proportion of sugar and corn syrup, so they are not well-suited for diet fish cake soup.
- Blanching konjac: If you blanch it for 1 to 5 minutes in boiling water with a little vinegar or salt to remove the characteristic smell, the taste of the broth becomes much cleaner.
- Blanching fish cakes: If you lightly blanch the fish cakes in boiling water to remove the oil, the broth becomes clear. 30 seconds is sufficient.
- Setting the ratio: For 2 to 3 people, 300 to 350g of fish cakes and 250 to 500g of konjac will allow the konjac to fill the volume substantially.
- Light broth seasoning: Set the base with about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of soup soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of mirin, and add only a small amount of tuna fish sauce or oyster sauce when the umami is lacking.
- Plenty of radish and green onion: A refreshing broth is completed by adding about 200 to 250g of radish and one stalk of green onion.
One more thing. You do not need to set a long time for blanching and boiling the fish cakes. The texture is best if you put the konjac in first and boil for about 5 minutes, then add the fish cakes and boil for just one more quick boil.
A bowl of konjac fish cake soup certainly makes for a light and warm meal. However, weight does not move immediately just by eating one meal well. If you are putting in the same effort but not making much progress, or if you feel constantly fatigued and edema does not subside even when paying attention to your diet, it is time to examine your constitution. Baekrok Gambi-jung tablet is a herbal diet program from Baekrokdam Korean Medicine Clinic that helps such individuals check and find the direction that suits their own body. If you are struggling to maintain your diet, let's have a comfortable conversation in the consultation room.
