Good article on Chinese Food

[Jakanden]

What's healthy and wise?
Chinese cooking -- if it's prepared in the traditional way.

By Sandra Gordon
WebMD Features Reviewed by Charlotte E. Grayson, MD

Scan the menu at your local Chinese restaurant and you're apt to find dozens of meat-centered dishes -- General Tso's chicken, orange beef, twice-fried pork. But don't be fooled. Most Chinese living in China don't eat such a meat-centered diet.

For centuries, for reasons both economic and historic, the traditional Chinese diet has been primarily vegetarian -- featuring lots of vegetables, rice, and soybeans -- and containing only shavings of meat for flavoring, says Lan Tan, owner of Lan Tan's Chinese Cooking School in Durham, N.C. Many Chinese simply can't afford mega slabs of meat -- or the cooking oil with which to prepare it.

Just as Americans may ask, "Where's the beef?" when visiting a traditional Chinese restaurant in China, the traditional Chinese might wonder, "Where are the vegetables?" when visiting a Chinese restaurant in the U.S.

"Even I forget just how healthy Chinese food really is until my mother visits from Taiwan," says Tan, who came to the U.S. more than a decade ago. "My mother will use one-third pound of meat to feed six people."

Indeed, the traditional Chinese diet is far healthier than the traditional American diet, which often features meat as the focus of the meal, says T. Colin Campbell, PhD, professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

But you don't have to travel to rural parts of China to eat healthy. Simply incorporate the Chinese way of eating into your diet, which can be done no matter where you are -- whether you're dining at a restaurant or preparing Chinese dishes at home.

Continued....

Click here for rest of article.

[Lee J B]

Very interesting, I was about to phone up the chinese and order the super-meal

[HFWorld]

Very intersting article,

I saw that chinese people aren't overweight and I asked myself why?

How do they do?

Look at this difference, between an caucasian and a chinese. When they emigrate in U.S the caucasian people in time is becoming overweight, but the chinese are maintaining their weight. Why?

Because of their types of alimentation.

[etothepii]

But you don't have to travel to rural parts of China to eat healthy. Simply incorporate the Chinese way of eating into your diet, which can be done no matter where you are -- whether you're dining at a restaurant or preparing Chinese dishes at home.

Hmmm... I can't recall ever looking at an average Chinese person and thinking "Wow, do they look healthy!" Not like I do when I see an athlete. Do you think elite Chinese athletes-- government sponsored olympians, for example, eat the peasant vegetarian diet like the rest of the population?

[Maxgain]

I wont be modelling myself on the Chinese any time soon i can tell you.
And if this encourages people to increase take away think again that food is dreadful

[LiftGirl]

Originally Posted by Maxgain

I wont be modelling myself on the Chinese any time soon i can tell you.
And if this encourages people to increase take away think again that food is dreadful

One point in the article is that American Chinese restaurants aren't authentic Chinese food. But I know what you mean, people seem to take stuff like this article as a license to eat lots of General's Chicken.

[carcajou]

Originally Posted by LiftGirl

One point in the article is that American Chinese restaurants aren't authentic Chinese food. But I know what you mean, people seem to take stuff like this article as a license to eat lots of General's Chicken.

This is THE MOST important factor. The 'typical' authentic Asian diet is incredibly healthy...and would be for the top athlete as well.

[vegan]

The Chinese are typically thin and healthy eating a mostly starch (rice) and vegetable centered diet. No milk or cheese and very little meat. They don't suffer from chronic diseases of affluence like Westerners, however, the rural Chinese do have diseases of poverty from poor hygene and medical care.

Here's an interesting Cornell University article about plant-based diets and low osteoporosis rates in China.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicl...eoporosis.html

[KaiserSose]

This is THE MOST important factor. The 'typical' authentic Asian diet is incredibly healthy...and would be for the top athlete as well.

I don't know about this. If your goal is to be thin, and only thin, than I can see your point. But the bottom line is that in order to build muscle you need protein. The question is whether the protein and sauces that coat them are the appropriate proteins to consume?

[SoulDoubt]

I think you can even go as far as to say that asian diets in itself are healthier smply for the fact of less red meats and more vegetables and rice as their staple meal. I have lived in the east and experienced a standard asian diet and have to say that it is nothing like america.
I actually laughed when I asked my homestay mother why they dont eat a lot of meat, her reply was "where are we gonna grow cows, on the mountain?" (was living in japan).
My friends think i am weird when I get a tofu craving...yummmmmmmmm
In college I began eating more vegetables and actually found it to be even more cost effective for my monthly bills by buying groceries on a weekly basis enforcing vegetables as my central staple and expanding from there staying within the respectable limits of consumption

[DaLinkWent]

LOve Chinese foods because I find it's one of the only way I can choke down vegetables. Good article