Confucius Say, “Chinese Food Will Make You Fat”
7 Comments Published by Alex March 21st, 2007 in Food. Share This
Not a big surprise—Chinese food, my favorite just behind pizza, is tremendously fattening and unhealthy for the most part. Ignorance was a kind of bliss, though; I knew it wasn’t healthy, but I was unaware of exactly how unhealthy it was, until I read this AP article that broke it down for me. I am shedding tears into my General Tso Chicken over this.
It’s not so much the caloric intake, but the kind of calories that I’m slurping down per egg roll, per dumpling. My favorite dish is loaded with saturated fat and far too much sodium than my family’s history of heart disease will really allow me to get away with.
Dig a particularly painful excerpt:
An order of six steamed pork dumplings has 500 calories, and there’s not much difference, about 10 calories per dumpling, if they’re pan-fried.
Okay, so on the one hand, I feel slightly more off the hook if I go head and order them the way I like them, but if I order them at all, I’m still fucking myself over. Well, it isn’t like I’ll never pig out on a Chinese dinner again, but I’ll have to wait until a really worthy occasion, like my birthday in freakin’ July before I can do it in good conscience.
Until then, I will be researching low calorie, low sodium Chinese recipes to try out at home; if I come up with any winners [read: nutritious, delicious, not going to kill me], I will share here. Meanwhile, if any of you health conscious chefs out there care to help me out, I’d love any recipe tips along the way.
Chinese restaurant food draws criticism [hosted.ap.org]
I’m really surprised by the numbers on steamed dumplings. I just made a batch a few days ago. Each dumpling wrapper has about 20 Calories. A 3 oz pork serving doesn’t have more than 200 Calories, and most have much less (source: http://www.hormel.com/templates/knowledge/knowledge.asp?catitemid=31&id=160 ) I used a pork filling with soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions, ginger, and garlic, and there wasn’t more than about 2 tsp of filling per dumpling. A traditional filling mixes in about 2 cups of cabbage, so they would end up being even less pork heavy. I’d be fairly skeptical of anyone who said that what I made was 500 Calories. The math just doesn’t work.
I forgot to add that their numbers on fried vs steamed sound much more accurate. Fried pot stickers use no additional oil. They’re put in a hot, dry pan for a few minutes, until they stick, at which about 1/3 c chicken broth is poured in and the pan is tightly covered. This causes the pot stickers to become unstuck. The only fat in the frying process is whatever is in the chicken broth. I’d be more worried about the extra sodium.
Alex, I hear you man. Chinese food is by far and away my favorite take-out. And you hit the nail on the head on how I was feeling when I read the article “I knew it wasn’t healthy, but I was unaware of exactly how unhealthy it was.”
PLEASE showcase healthier Chinese food recipes on the site. I don’t want to have to give it up.
Stupid journalists, why do they have to ruin everything.
No wonder I gained weight eating a heaping portion of brown rice, tofu and stir fried veg every day for lunch…fuckers.
Whoa, something we like is unhealthy? Newsflash! How do the Chinese people do it – is their whole diet unhealthy?
Heh, seriously, though. I don’t see what the deal is – “always in moderation!”. Just don’t eat Chinese for every meal, have it when you want, exercise some or at least stay somewhat active, and you’ll be set!
You would have to eat Chinese food Pete. What we get in America isn’t even close to any dish they make, mostly because we just dont have the ingredients (or the taste buds) they do.
A perfect example would be Mu Shue Pork (which I adore) Also General Tzo, which while similar to a recipe is MUCH sweeter than the real one
I think portion size has a lot to do with why Chinese don’t gain weight eating this way.
Try boxing half of your Chinese lunch for dinner, then adding some fresh fruits or steamed vegetables for each meal. It’s cheaper and a lot healthier.