There is good news and bad news from the Center For Science In The Public Interest..
The good news is that Chinese restaurant food has not gotten any worse for our health or our weight.
The CSPI was careful to be serious about labeling this as a good thing, because other types of restaurant foods have gotten worse in the years since they last made a restaurant food survey.
The bad news is that Chinese restaurant food still sucks.
Even vegetable dishes – without rice – can have more than 1/2 a days calories and an entire days allowance for sodium. Sodium has been linked to osteoporosis and shorter life spans.
I have read all sorts of scientists, doctors, trainers and health advocates tell people to only eat half of what they are served when they go out to eat. Many recommend asking the server to doggie bag your extra half of a serving before bringing it out to the table.
The status of this advice seems to me to be moving from obscure diet tip to well known, well accepted health rule of thumb.
I’m not sure if even eating at vegan restaurants is beyond the realm of this advice. The bulk of the calories in Chinese restaurant food comes from oil. A sandwich at the falafel shop can be just as deep fried as General Tso’s tofu or the eggplant dish at your favorite vegan place.
Anyway, here is the article. It is worth reading in addition to watching the video.
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200703211.html
And the video:
Similar Posts:
- None Found
Dang…. I love getting eggplant dishes at Chinese places, and they said that’s a baaaad choice….
Just eat half of it.
I love going to a Chinese restaurant I used to go to in college on the weekends. My favorite dish is Malyasian Curry Tofu. Probably deep fried, loads of salt, oil, etc. I usually skip lunch on the weekends so it balances out.
Yeah…. I usually only eat half because I can’t fit anymore in me!
Last night my parents took me to this awesome Asian place in our neighborhood, and I had a dish where veggie pork and mushrooms were in a yuba wrapper with bok choy… it was pretty good, but there was no way I could eat all of it.