# Chinese Restaurant Food Unhealthy



## MJS (Mar 22, 2007)

Came across this article and I saw clips on the news yesterday, talking about the high amount of sodium, fat and calories in Chinese food.  I love Chinese and was shocked to see some of the things the article said.  Of course, my favorite, Gen Tso's Chicked had quite a list of bad stuff in it.



> WASHINGTON - The typical Chinese restaurant menu is a sea of nutritional no-nos, a consumer group has found.
> A plate of General Tsos chicken, for example, is loaded with about 40 percent more sodium and more than half the calories an average adult needs for an entire day.
> The battered, fried chicken dish with vegetables has 1,300 calories, 3,200 milligrams of sodium and 11 grams of saturated fat.


 
More Here


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## Xue Sheng (Mar 22, 2007)

MJS said:


> Came across this article and I saw clips on the news yesterday, talking about the high amount of sodium, fat and calories in Chinese food. I love Chinese and was shocked to see some of the things the article said. Of course, my favorite, Gen Tso's Chicked had quite a list of bad stuff in it.
> 
> 
> 
> More Here


 
A typical Chinese restaurant menu is pretty much NOT Chinese food you get in China. It is mainly, at least in NYS and MA, Fujian food VERY Americanized. 

Actual Chinese food from a GOOD Chinese restaurant is pretty healthy and Chinese food in China is surprisingly pretty healthy as well, just make sure it is cooked, don't eat raw stuff in China.


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## Monadnock (Mar 22, 2007)

I wonder if the government/activist groups will go after them like McDonalds, or would that cause ... problems.


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## MJS (Mar 22, 2007)

Xue Sheng said:


> A typical Chinese restaurant menu is pretty much NOT Chinese food you get in China. It is mainly, at least in NYS and MA, Fujian food VERY Americanized.
> 
> Actual Chinese food from a GOOD Chinese restaurant is pretty healthy and Chinese food in China is surprisingly pretty healthy as well, just make sure it is cooked, don't eat raw stuff in China.


 
I was talking about this with a guy I work with and he said the same thing.  Out of curiosity, is there a major difference in taste?


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## Kacey (Mar 22, 2007)

American Chinese food is horribly bad for you - the traditional recipes were modified for American tastes; my understanding is that traditional Chinese food has a lot more vegetables and a lot less meat than what you get in American Chinese restaurants.


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## Bob Hubbard (Mar 22, 2007)

I stick to the Hot n Sour soup.


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## MJS (Mar 22, 2007)

Kacey said:


> American Chinese food is horribly bad for you - the traditional recipes were modified for American tastes; my understanding is that traditional Chinese food has a lot more vegetables and a lot less meat than what you get in American Chinese restaurants.


 
Isn't it amazing how the best tasting stuff is the worst for you.  I was planning on Chinese for dinner last night, saw the clip on the news and opted for something else. LOL!


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## tellner (Mar 22, 2007)

Xue Sheng said:


> A typical Chinese restaurant menu is pretty much NOT Chinese food you get in China. It is mainly, at least in NYS and MA, Fujian food VERY Americanized.
> 
> Actual Chinese food from a GOOD Chinese restaurant is pretty healthy and Chinese food in China is surprisingly pretty healthy as well, just make sure it is cooked, don't eat raw stuff in China.



I really don't know about that. At least on the West Coast there are plenty of very authentic run-by-immigrants Hunan, Szechuan, Northern, Cantonese et cetera et cetera et cetera. About the only thing I can't find within a twenty minute drive from home is Northwestern Chinese, the stuff that's heavy on the mutton and buns. The Chop Suey And With Two You Get Egg Roll places are a dying breed around here.

Now, I haven't been to China. But my inlaws are from there. Plenty of friends and relatives-in-law have lived there. Their universal opinion is that authentic Chinese Chinese food is every bit as unhealthy as the stuff here. Plenty of salt and grease. I mean, think of 1000 year old eggs. Cholesterol preserved with layers of salt. Real Chinese Shoyu (which is what we buy) is saltier than many of the American equivalents. Pepper salted squid? Fragrant duck? Heck, duck in general?


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## exile (Mar 23, 2007)

MJS said:


> Isn't it amazing how the best tasting stuff is the worst for you.



Relic of the starving, salt-deprived critters we were a long time ago. It's that way with a lot of things. Stress and anger tend to be very bad for people: they trigger the production and release of cholesterol into the blood, which winds up killing people left and right. But up to a few thousand years ago or so, it was _good_ for that to happen, because cholesterol is burned as fuel in fight-or-flight situationsit's a very compact source of energy, and for almost all of our history, stress was the response to situations of a sort in which either fighting or fleeing were your only choices. 

Nowadays, when people go into apoplectic rages because it takes them three-quarters of an hour to reach someone in a government office following the dead-end routines rammed down their throats by automated answering systems, it's _bad_ for you to have all that white crap released into your arteries... but we're stuck with it. Fat used to be very hard to come by, and you needed it as reserves for the (fairly frequent) very hard times; similarly with salt. So we have this taste for salty, fatty things... yum, yum!


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## Senjojutsu (Mar 23, 2007)

Its been a gag line with stand-up comics for decades, so here is one variant:

_*Have you ever seen a stray cat hanging outside a Chinese restaurant?*_

CAT, the other white meat.

You can take that plate of General Tsos chicken away from me when you can pry my cold dead fingers from it  or until I order my dessert and another beer. 

I am also waiting for the Center for Science in the Public Interest to issue the following report: 

_*"Researchers discover that Living causes Death"*_
:uhyeah:


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## Xue Sheng (Mar 23, 2007)

MJS said:


> I was talking about this with a guy I work with and he said the same thing. Out of curiosity, is there a major difference in taste?


Yup.

My wife can't eat the majority of the stuff here she finds if pretty disgusting, she can't even get near these places here, she can't stand the smell.  However there are places in both Boston and NYC China towns she likes, but they are still not like what she is use to in Beijing.



tellner said:


> I really don't know about that. At least on the West Coast there are plenty of very authentic run-by-immigrants Hunan, Szechuan, Northern, Cantonese et cetera et cetera et cetera. About the only thing I can't find within a twenty minute drive from home is Northwestern Chinese, the stuff that's heavy on the mutton and buns. The Chop Suey And With Two You Get Egg Roll places are a dying breed around here.
> 
> Now, I haven't been to China. But my inlaws are from there. Plenty of friends and relatives-in-law have lived there. Their universal opinion is that authentic Chinese Chinese food is every bit as unhealthy as the stuff here. Plenty of salt and grease. I mean, think of 1000 year old eggs. Cholesterol preserved with layers of salt. Real Chinese Shoyu (which is what we buy) is saltier than many of the American equivalents. Pepper salted squid? Fragrant duck? Heck, duck in general?



You're on the West (Left) coast, of course you have restaurants closer to what you can get in China. I am on the East coast and unless I am in Boston or NYC they are just about all HIGHLY Americanized Fujian. I have 1 restaurant near me that actually has a Cantonese Chef and we go there a lot but that is about it. Oh and one that is from Shanghai but he too is cooking for Americans so it is a bit different than what you would get in Shanghai&#8217;s (I am told) but it is definitely healthier than the majority of the restaurants in my area. 

My in-laws (and my wife) are from China as well and all I can say is they don't agree. But then they all eat a lot of boiled and steamed stuff. But you are right Duck is big in Beijing, but it is no where near as greasy as what I have seen in ANY restaurant here (But either way I don't much like duck). But with that said there is some deep fried food in Beijing that is not as healthy as non-deep fried food. And there are bakeries in Beijing that have this absolutely wonderful bitter crème filling, which is high in cholesterol. But the funny thing there is they call those America Bakeries. A Chinese bakery is a bit different, but a cookie is a cookie (kinda) and not good for you. When I was there last my morning started virtually the same everyday, Fried bread, steamed buns and millet Congee. The fried bread was not all too healthy but better and healthier than what I can get in just about any restaurant here. 

I am not saying Chinese food in China is health food, just healthier than what I generally find in the restaurants here. For one thing no MSG there.


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## Bigshadow (Mar 23, 2007)

MJS said:


> I was talking about this with a guy I work with and he said the same thing.  Out of curiosity, is there a major difference in taste?



From what I understand from a co-worker that spent several years in China.  The food is nowhere near the same as the chinese food here.  According to her, she hated the food there.  She described it as being slimy, mushy, and yucky!  Anyway, I personally don't know, just there is overwhelming evidence that is clearly different.


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## Bigshadow (Mar 23, 2007)

I used to eat daily at a chinese restaurant several years ago.   Needless to say, I gained alot of weight and it has been a struggle to get rid of since I stopped eating at the Chinese restaurants.  

Now, I eat at the Japanese steakhouse usually once every two weeks, sometimes once a week.  My son and I are regulars there.  I don't know if it is much better or not, but I have them hold the noodles and fried white rice and give me extra veggies.  I usually enjoy some sake too.


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## tellner (Mar 23, 2007)

There are also so many regional styles, so many economic styles and so many changes with the industrialization of China that it's hard to make generalizations. What my mother in law cooks is different than restaurant food which is different than what her (vegetarian, Buddhist, has his own cook and housekeeper) father eats. On a similar note there was a study (I found the link on fark.com) about Indian food and how it turned out a lot of it - heavy on the ghee and coconut milk with lots of salt - was actually as bad for you as Western fast food.


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## kuntawguro (Mar 23, 2007)

I didn't care much for the food i ate in Hong Kong and Kowloon- it was very salty an really lacked flavor except for the steak houses serving american type foods
- Japanese food is a bit different-  I like the eight jewel fried rice- that is about all i could afford when i toured there. A cup of coffee some cabbage and 1 egg cost 8.50   now that is expensive. A coke cost 1.00 in a 3/4 size can. It really tasted better than our coke.
 go figure


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## Xue Sheng (Mar 23, 2007)

tellner said:


> There are also so many regional styles, so many economic styles and so many changes with the industrialization of China that it's hard to make generalizations. .


 
True and if yuou get the chance to go to Beijing just about all of them are represented there. A whole lot of very tasty food in Beijing.



tellner said:


> What my mother in law cooks is different than restaurant food which is different than what her (vegetarian, Buddhist, has his own cook and housekeeper) father eats. On a similar note there was a study (I found the link on fark.com) about Indian food and how it turned out a lot of it - heavy on the ghee and coconut milk with lots of salt - was actually as bad for you as Western fast food.


 
You too!!

My mother-in-law although she does not have her own cook and housekeeper is a vegetarian Buddhist as well. The woman is almost twice my age about 2/3 my height and is more flexible and a faster walker than I am. But DAMN that woman can cook some mean vegetable and Tofu dishes

As my wife says and as I found in Beijing there is restaurant food and there is home style and they tend to be different. However most of the younger (less than 60 years old) people in Beijing (Beijing residents) tend to eat out... a lot.


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## fireman00 (Mar 24, 2007)

i love how they completely ignored any other ethnicity in this report... which by the way seems to come out every year when its a slow news day.  Stay away from the breaded, deep fried foods and ask that your veggies be steamed.  We go out for chinese every week with no problems or concerns - except that my green tea isn't strong enough.

You could find the same issues with Italian food, Mexican food or French.


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## exile (Mar 24, 2007)

fireman00 said:


> i love how they completely ignored any other ethnicity in this report... which by the way seems to come out every year when its a slow news day.  Stay away from the breaded, deep fried foods and ask that your veggies be steamed.  We go out for chinese every week with no problems or concerns - except that my green tea isn't strong enough.
> 
> You could find the same issues with Italian food, Mexican food or French.



I've actually read similar reports about Mexican food. As far as French food goes... well, the best comment is the one from Woody Allen's hysterical movie _Love and Death_, where WA's character, a reluctant soldier from an aristocratic Russian family, is listening to his commander exhorting the troops the night before a big battle, and finally raises his hands to ask, `Umm, General, why do we really _need_ to fight the French?'. His commander looks back at him astonished, and repeats, `Why do we need to fight the French... _MEN!!!_ Think about your wives, your sisters, your daughters!!... Do you know what will happen to them if the French conquer Russia.... Do you want them to have to eat nothing but fatty cheeses, and meat pies and vegetables drowned in thick, heavy cream sauces?? To have to drink all that wine? Well, _DO YOU??_'


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## tellner (Mar 24, 2007)

From the (old, out of print) book "How To Be A Jewish Mother" in the section on world affairs....

_Mao Tse Tung_ - A lot of undercooked vegetables and God only knows what kind of meat. We only order the plain rice with a little sauce.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Mar 24, 2007)

Xue Sheng said:


> A typical Chinese restaurant menu is pretty much NOT Chinese food you get in China. It is mainly, at least in NYS and MA, Fujian food VERY Americanized.
> 
> Actual Chinese food from a GOOD Chinese restaurant is pretty healthy and Chinese food in China is surprisingly pretty healthy as well, just make sure it is cooked, don't eat raw stuff in China.


 
Absolutely!


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