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Healthy Diets from Around the World: The French Diet
Healthy Diets from Around the World: The Japanese Diet
Healthy Diets from Around the World: The Latin Diet
Healthy Diets from Around the World: The Mediterranean Diet
Healthy Diets from Around the World: The New American Diet
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Healthy Diets from Around the World: The Chinese Diet
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 Source:
my.webmd.com/content/pages/10/1671_51429?z=3234_2038_0005_00_03 |
What's
healthy and wise?
Chinese cooking -- if it's prepared in the traditional way.
Wo Fat's Chinese Restaurant in Honolulu, Hawaii
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.
The
Meat Myth
Unlike
the meat-heavy plates featured in many Chinese restaurants in the U.S., the
traditional Chinese diet consists mainly of plant foods, small amounts of fish
and poultry, and only occasionally red meat, says Campbell, the director of the
Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health, and Environment, a long-term
study comparing the diets of rural China with average American ones. He has been
tracking the eating habits of people living in 100 Chinese rural villages since
the early 1980s.
According
to Campbell's research, the traditional Chinese diet is comprised of only 20%
animal foods -- far less than the amount in the typical American diet. As a
result, the Chinese diet contains a formidable team of disease-fighting
antioxidants and plant-based nutrients called phytochemicals -- all of which
contribute to a healthier way of eating.
In
rural China, in fact, the rates of major chronic diseases including breast,
colon, and rectal cancer are mere fractions of those reported in the U.S.
"There are some regions in China in which breast cancer and heart disease
are almost unknown," Campbell says. Moreover, type 2 diabetes also is much
less prevalent, as is bone-weakening osteoporosis, even though the Chinese
consume far fewer dairy products than we do in the U.S., he says.
Just
what do the traditional Chinese actually eat? "For breakfast, it's often
congee, a thin rice porridge," says Shiny Qin, a 31-year-old account
executive at a New York City advertising agency who grew up in a rural village
near Shanghai. "Lunch might be rice with vegetables flavored with bits of
pork, even at school." And dinner? "My mother always served rice and
four other kinds of dishes, which we call main dishes. At least one main dish
would be all vegetables -- different kinds of greens, sweet potatoes, or
tomatoes. The rest were vegetables or tofu with a little bit of beef or
pork."
Importing
"The Chinese Way" American-Style
Crowding
your plate with complex carbohydrates, such as rice and vegetables, and using
meat as more of a flavoring for these healthier options, is the Chinese recipe
for good health. And the best part is you can work this healthy diet into your
everyday meals, no matter where you are. Just follow these five tips.
- #
1 Out for Chinese food? Enjoy! But skip the deep-fried
Chinese-American fare, such as sweet and sour pork. Instead, head for the
vegetarian section of the menu and eat the way the Chinese really do. Look
for entrees made with Napa cabbage, bok choy, spinach, and broccoli, which
are packed with vitamin A and C, as well as fiber and phytochemicals.
Chinese vegetables are usually stir fried, which is a quick-cooking
technique that tends to preserve water-soluble vitamins (such as A and C).
If the menu indicates that the vegetables will be steamed, order them
lightly steamed to minimize nutrient loss during cooking. If meat is a must,
order your chicken or beef stir fried (not deep fried) with vegetables like
snow peas, green and red peppers, string beans, or zucchini. Still hungry?
Consider an extra serving of white or brown rice.
- #
2 Dining elsewhere? Or at home? Give vegetables and grains (including
rice or pasta) entree status. Consider meat a flavoring rather than the main
attraction. To safeguard your intentions, buy meat in quarter to half-pound
packages or ask the butcher to divvy up a larger package for you. As a
general rule, that amount should feed two to three people, according to
traditional Chinese dietary principles. Along with the meat, have a baked
potato and spinach, for example, or a tossed salad and asparagus. Once a
week, it's a good idea to go all out and have a totally vegetarian meal,
such as vegetable lasagna or baked white or sweet potatoes with vegetarian
toppings.
-
According
to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), vegetables, fruits,
whole grains, and beans should make up two-thirds or more of the meal --
like they have in rural China for centuries. Animal foods should make up no
more than one-third.
-
But
before you pat yourself on the back for eating your broccoli, take heed.
Variety is key. "Each fruit, vegetable, or grain has its own profile of
cancer-protective
substances that tend to work as a team," says Melanie Polk, RD, an AICR
spokeswoman. In short, when it comes to disease-proofing your diet, eat more
plant foods like the Chinese do. For the best health insurance, expand your
repertoire to include vitamin-packed Chinese favorites, such as bok choy,
kale, Swiss chard, sweet potatoes, bean sprouts, spinach, and eggplant.
-
#
3 Sneak in fruits and veggies -- it's a good way to heighten the
produce quotient of your diet without realizing it. The Chinese stir-fry,
for example, is a sneaky way to get a host of vegetables all in one sitting.
Try these American ways to do the same thing: Top off your morning cereal or
yogurt with bananas, berries, or peaches. Layer sandwiches with dark leafy
greens such as spinach and watercress; order your chicken or fish sandwich
with extra lettuce, tomato, and onion. Roll bean sprouts, shredded cabbage,
and slices of green or red pepper into tortillas or flat bread; heap salsa
onto low-fat tortilla chips; toss petite peas, tomatoes, onion, celery,
carrots, and peppers into a salad. Tuck mushrooms, peppers, zucchini,
onions, and carrots into pasta sauce, meat loaf, soup, stew, and chili.
-
#
4 When you do eat meat American-style (as the star attraction), choose
low-fat cuts. (Hint: The leanest cuts of meat have loin or round in
their names, for example, round steak or pork loin.) Also, limit portions to
2 to 3 ounces -- about the size of a floppy disk -- and trim all visible fat
from the meat before cooking: You'll save an average of 11 grams of fat
(roughly 100 calories) per serving by pre-trimming, which prevents fat from
migrating into the meat during cooking. Also skip the skin, and you'll save
an additional 100 calories per 3-ounce serving.
-
#
5 Choose fruit for dessert. Cloying concoctions such as brownie
chocolate cheesecake and pecan pie after a meal are a bit of a head
scratcher to the Chinese; their culture doesn't participate in the post-meal
ritual we call dessert. Fresh fruit, on the other hand, is the unofficial
national treat of China. Of course, because it has no fat and fewer calories
than most classic Western desserts, fruit is a much better nutritional deal:
It offers up disease-fighting nutrients, such as fiber, folic acid, and
vitamins A and C to boot.
As
you can see, with a few diet modifications, "the Chinese way" is
easily available for importing. All it takes is an adventurous palate, some
inventiveness in the kitchen, and the desire to stay healthy for the long haul.
"The closer you get to a plant-based diet," says Campbell, "the
better off you'll be."
 Aloha From Hawaii!
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plant-based nutrients called phytochemicals -- healthier way of eating. complex
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vegetables vegetables like snow peas, green and red peppers, string beans, or
zucchini, Each fruit, vegetable, or grain has its own profile of
cancer-protective, vitamin-packed Chinese favorites, such as bok choy, kale,
Swiss chard, sweet potatoes, bean sprouts, spinach, and eggplant. yogurt with
bananas, berries, or peaches. dark leafy greens such as spinach and watercress;
lettuce, tomato, and onion. bean sprouts, shredded cabbage, and slices of green
or red pepper, petite peas, tomatoes, onion, celery, carrots, and peppers into a
salad. Tuck mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, onions, and carrots into pasta sauce,
meat loaf, soup, stew, and chili. Fruit disease-fighting nutrients, such as
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