Thais love their street food, with pa thong ko (fried dough) and cha Thai iced tea among their favourites. But too much of a good thing can be bad for you given the amount of sugar and calories involved, warned the Health Department.
Dr Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, the department’s direc- tor-general, issued the caution after TasteAtlas, an online travel guide for foodies, put pa thong ko on its list of the 10 best Thai dishes.
Online “Best of …” lists tend to go viral quickly, and in the case of food, the mere mention of a dish can cause sales to skyrocket — at least until the next craze comes along.
In the case of pa thong ko, a 100-gramme serving contains up to 441 calories, while a pair of the medium-sized dough snacks can have 132 calories.
A lot of pa thong ko, he said, is fried using recycled cooking oil, which can contain carcinogens.
“And if you like to wash down your pa thong ko with cha Thai (Thai tea), you might want to think again,” he said of the local sweet drink ranked by TasteAtlas as the 40th best non-alcoholic drink in the world.
A 200-millilitre glass of cha Thai contains 430 calories — the equivalent of up to 13 teaspoons of sugar.
People should not consume more than six teaspoons of sugar a day, Dr Suwannachai said.
“Drinking it daily carries risks of diabetes, stroke, coronary artery disease, cancer, hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity,” he added.