Chinese Food Nutrition Facts
If you wish to learn more about Chinese food nutrition facts, here you can find out more about this very popular cuisine, an overview of what it is all about, the philosophy behind it and the ways of making it healthy.
Chinese is one of the top four cuisines in the world along with French, Turkish and Italian and food is a very important part of daily life for Chinese people.
It is very popular all over the world although you don’t often get to eat the authentic Chinese outside China. Chinese food is actually rather healthy, it is the westernized versions that you need to be more careful with as they are filled with saturated fat, sugar, salt and calories.
Yin and Yang:
The philosophy of yin and yang lies at the heart of Chinese cooking. Low and high, dark side and the sunny side, hot and cold, male and female… Opposites set in balance to create harmony at the table and in the body. If this balance is not achieved, the Chinese believe the body becomes vulnerable to illnesses. Chinese try and adhere to yin and yang principles in any dish:
• Yin foods are believed to decrease the body’s heat– lower the metabolism; yang foods are believed to increase the body’s heat- raise the metabolism.
• Yin foods tend to have high water content; yang foods tend to be dense in food energy, especially energy from fat.
• Yin foods are wet and moist and yang foods are dry and crisp.
• Poaching, steaming and boiling are yin methods; deep and stir frying, roasting are yang methods.
• Tofu, bean sprouts, egg-plants, water and duck are yin foods withcooling nature; beef, chicken, ginger, garlic, lamb are yang foods withwarming qualities.
Chinese Food Nutrition Facts:
• Traditional Chinese food is low in glycemic index, it is not loaded with simple sugars or other high GI ingredients.
• By using chopsticks you will naturally eat slower and you will not pick up as much sauce.
• Fruits, vegetables, meat and grains are the main food groups in daily Chinese cooking, however meat is more like a condiment in comparison with veggies.
• Chinese substitute dairy products with tofu and soy milk due to common lactose intolerance.
• Green tea is common in China, especially after meals as it helps digestion. Other benefits include preventing cancer, contributing to oral health, helping with weight loss as it increases metabolism and lowering your blood sugar.
• Chinese use vegetable oil, which, in moderate amounts, has enough unsaturated fat to counteract the cholesterol-raising properties of the saturated fat it contains.
Tips for Eating Healthy Chinese:
• Heavy sauces, deep frying and dishes loaded with meat can turn an otherwise healthy plate of food into a nutritional nightmare.
• Chinese people eat until they are full then stop! Then they have green tea, dessert is usually fresh fruits, rarely Western cakes, cookies or ice-creams.
• In a Chinese restaurant, order steamed rice or steamed brown rice with your meal and not high fat fried rice with unhealthy ingredients.
• Choose meats and vegetables that aren’t drowned in soy sauce; it is very high in salt.
• Choose steamed dumplings over deep-fried dumplings. Ethnic Chinese cooking does not involve a lot of deep fried cooking.
• Treat vegetables as main ingredients in meals like the Chinese do, not something that you have with your meat dish.
• Use chillies to promote digestion, garlic to fight toxins and to prevent cold. Proper nutrition from foods that adhere to yin and yang principles will ensure different parts of your body are functioning properly to allow chi energy to circulate smoothly around your body.
• Enjoy healthy flavorings like rice-wine vinegar, wasabi and ginger.
• No crispy noodles or creamy sauces in salads.
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References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Chinese_food_therapy.
Wood, Rebecca. The Whole Foods Encyclopedia. New York, NY: Prentice-Hall Press; 1988 1988. PMID:15220.
Duke J. The Green Pharmacy. St Martin’s Press 1997.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ chinese food nutrition facts .html.
Ensminger AH, Esminger M. K. J. e. al. Food for Health: A Nutrition Encyclopedia. Clovis, California: Pegus Press; 1986. PMID: 15210.
http://www.chinatownconnection.com/ chinese food nutrition facts .html
