How Chinese Diet Can Help You Lose Weight Better & Make You Healthier Than Western Diet

Posted on 04. Dec, 2008 by admin in Alternative Medicine, Simple Health Tips, Weight Loss

If you are a non-Chinese, most probably you would not have the chance to eat the traditional Chinese diet.

Unlike the extremely oily, fatty, and even salty dishes that are sold in the streets, the traditional Chinese diet is totally opposite and can be very healthy and as a result, it can even help you to lose weight.

Over the past few months, I had the luxury of living together with a Chinese family. It was an enriching experience to understand how the Chinese prepare their meal and the different dishes out on the table.

A traditional Chinese meal contains rice, vegetables, meat and seafood, with rice being one of the most important elements. Opposed to those Chinese foods selling in the restaurants, a properly prepared healthy Chinese meal cooks by steaming and stir fried instead of deep frying in oil. Instead of serving the food to each individual, food is usually served to the whole family and they shared the food.

A variety of foods

Back in the west, when you order foods like fish and chip, all you can see at the table is only fish, fries, and coleslaw. In a traditional Chinese meal, you will usually see a wide variety of food lying on the table. For instance, you will usually see meat, fish, vegetables, rice, bean or even seafood in a meal. The rule here is if there is dish that is vegetables, you would see another dish of a different type.

The Chinese emphasize on the variety of food such that each of them would give you different nutrients. And by having a variety of food, the Chinese get to taste a wide delicacy of food, which makes the food more appetizing as well as healthier.

Dishes Are Shared

At first, I was not use to the culture of sharing foods, but after some time, I got used to it and it was actually a different kind of experience. It encourages human interaction with one another and build closer bonds to one another.

For the health sake, because the foods are shared, one is not able to consume too much. For example, if a table is served pork, it is usually shared among a few people. Instead of consuming all the fats, cholesterol, toxic, all by yourself, it is now shared and hence the proportion of unhealthy food being consumed is lesser.

Because it is shared, you can have more variety of foods and thus consuming different kind of nutrients in your every meal.

Don’t over eat

Most of the time, the Chinese emphasize on the principle of eating 8/10 full. They believed that eating 8/10 full would protect the stomach from working too hard. Our stomach is one of the most important organs in our body. Unfortunately for the Westerners, who tend to over eat, especially on the burgers, fries, chips, soft drinks etc. These foods are not only unhealthy, but with the overeating, would make it even worse for the body.

Include herbs in the dishes

Chinese dishes usually have herbs in the dishes like lotus seeds, beet leaves, red dates, ginger etc. These herbs not only enhance the food quality, making the dishes delicious and appetizing, they also can boost your immune system or various parts of your body.

Tags: Alternative Medicine, culture, diet, experience, food, health, herbs, nutritions, weight loss