Eating chinese on a diet
When food was available, it was prepared according to the recommendations of Chinese medicine. We use cookies to enhance your visit to our site and to bring you advertisements that might interest you. That Chinese person shovelling rice down is slightly pudgy because they eat too much rice. Rather than an uninspiring accompaniment to meat or fish, the Chinese treat vegetables as meals in their own right, rather than add-ons, as in the West. Chinese food has a bad reputation in the UK. Soup, or a soup-based dish, is present at every Chinese meal, often in the form of a watery porridge, zhou. The rice-heavy meals and fatty meat dishes are thought to lead straight to obesity and heart disease. That is said to keep the body in balance, which in turn protects it from disease. Food is steamed, baked, and boiled less frequently than it was in the past, and there is far more snacking and eating outside of the house (an idea that was unheard of before the new millennium). For thousands of years, the concept of balance from Chinese philosophy kept Chinese communities from straying from the traditional diet. There were always periods of famine and periods of wealth, but without much industry or access to western food there was never a question of leaving behind the traditional diets. Without rice, which is low in fat and high in nutrients and fibre, claims Clissold, it is impossible to eat until you are full. Though it only fell by the wayside fewer than 70 years ago, we have already seen a decline in the general health of the population. Sophie Morris explains how it works - and nutritionists give their verdict. The Chinese eat until they are full, and then stop. There had been famine before, but at the end of this famine there was a dramatic shift in the way people grew and imported food and ate.
In 1949, widespread famine killed millions in China. Read our Privacy and Cookie Policies to find out more. But properly prepared, says Chinese food expert Lorraine Clissold, the very opposite is true: the Chinese way of eating is healthy and fulfilling, fights illness and prolongs life. Clissold says their secret is avoiding the empty calories of sugary, nutrient-free foods. Particularly in cities, the Chinese diet today has shifted towards fats and sodium. That food, however, would be completely unrecognizable to most people living in China. A 1990 survey found that Chinese people consumed 30 per cent more calories than Americans, but were not necessarily more active. Low-carb diets promise to burn fat, but Clissold says that replacing carbs with food that is higher in fat and lower in nutrients is not a long-term answer to weight loss. This started to change in the late 1800s with the influx of western food habits, the principle result of which was the historical change from whole brown rice to polished (refined) white rice. I think so much of that message is lost in the conspicuous consumption of the Western world. They view food as nourishment, not potential weight gain. Western diets can be very dry, and nutritionists compensate by urging us to drink more water, which the Chinese would never do with a meal. The proportion of energy intake from fat tripled, and by 1982 China saw its first significant rise in the number of overweight people and those stricken with diet-related cancers. Much like those who are demanding the Mediterranean diet and the Nordic diet, and very much like Native Americans of late, many Chinese people are now seeking a return to their traditional diet. TrimDownClub, Feb 08, 2016 The Chinese diet has a long, complicated history, based in thousands of years of Chinese medicine. Each organ is tied to an element and a taste.
