World's Healthiest Cuisines - Part II: Japanese & Chinese
Take a brief look at the local Chinese take-out menu clinging to your refrigerator; it's likely that most of the dishes are loaded with meat — beef and broccoli, orange chicken, twice-fried pork, and many other greasy delights. Sure, they taste good — especially the day after a late night out — but what you're eating is not really traditional Chinese food.
The Chinese diet only consists of 20% animal products. Instead, it is loaded with disease-fighting, plant-based nutrients found in seaweed products and fresh produce.
Chinese restaurants in the U.S. and other large Westernized cities have manipulated their menus to provide the local people with what they want: meat. And the meat you get from your neighborhood Golden Gong restaurant is usually dripping with oil and loaded with fat and calories.
Traditional Chinese meals tend to be baked or stir-fried; they are rarely fried. The Chinese consume a wide variety of vegetables and healthy broth-based soups, and like the Japanese, they prefer tea over coffee.
So, what does a typical Chinese meal look like? Breakfast is often a type of rice porridge, called "congee." Lunch is rice with vegetables flavored with beef or pork, and dinner is rice with several larger "main course" dishes, most of them focused on vegetables, such as greens, sweet potatoes or tofu.
This diet is relatively simple, yet it provides loads of health benefits. Overall rates of cancer are generally lower in China as compared to the United States.
In fact, there are some rural areas of China where there are no known cases of some types of cancer or heart disease. Imagine that... all by incorporating more veggies into your diet.
eat the asian way and live longerDon't take the Chinese take-out menu off your fridge just yet — there are ways to modify your current diet to get the vitamins and nutrients you need while still enjoying the food you love. So it's still okay to indulge in that greasy chow mein every once in a while.