Apparently kitchen towels can help you cut down on calories. Aznim Ruhana Md Yusup is curious
IN the midst of our rising obesity problem — Malaysia has been rated the highest among Asian countries — many of us have started to become more particular about what we eat.
Losing weight is now more than a vanity issue. It is a health concern.
Interest in healthy eating isn’t limited to food. Nowadays, there are products which promise to help cut down calorie intake during the cooking stage or through portion control.
Scott recently launched a kitchen towel designed to absorb oil. Absorbing oil from deep fried foods, it said, reduces calorie intake from fat by up to 25 per cent. It came to this conclusion after using three sheets of the kitchen towel to soak up excess oil from fried foods.
The Calorie Light Premium Towel is made with 100 per cent natural pulp and is thicker than other kitchen towels in the market. It is also infused with green tea extract to help in fat reduction.
At the launch, chef Florence Tan was preparing deep-fried chicken drummets. She was pleased with how well the towel absorbed the oil and she also liked that the towel was thicker, so it didn’t fall apart easily when used to wipe wet or moist surfaces.
LESS UNHEALTHY
The idea to make deep-fried food slightly less unhealthy by removing the oil is not new. We all have that friend who uses a piece of tissue to dab excess oil from a fried egg or banana fritters. But this is perhaps the first time that a company is marketing a product specifically for this purpose, so we simply had to try it out (see sidebar).
There are other products that claim to help to reduce calories. You can’t help but wonder if these are necessary or effective.
For example, there are silicone baking mats touted as a healthy option because you don’t need to grease or butter (i.e. extra calories) the surface.
Then there is a wine glass on Amazon.com with markings to indicate the volume and calories. So two ounces of wine equal 50 calories, four ounces is 100 calories etc.
The best part was that 10 ounces spell out Who Cares, so even when calorie counting, there is an opportunity to throw caution to the wind.