Rice as the main componet in your Diet, is good?

[Lu]

Yeah, because pandas are going extinct. Clearly they're doing it wrong.

Unless things have changed a lot since I last was in China, you can ask for the rice to be served together with the food. I know it's not always the 'proper' way of eating, but I really like eating my dishes with rice, and to have a bite of rice after one dish before taking a bite of another.

[skylee]

I don't really understand why rice is served last at the restaurant. I guess when people are wealthy they would like to enjoy other food before resorting to rice.

[Lu]

That's how it was explained to me, you eat cai, rice is for if you're still hungry when the cai are finished. Rich people should have so many cai that there is no need for rice.

[adrianlondon]

I remember often having to chase the staff to bring the rice at the beginning of the meal, but I don't think they ever brought it at the end even if we didn't hassle them.

I'm used to having a bowl of rice in front of me and using it almost like a temporary stop-over for the food I grab from the serving dishes ;)

As for the Chinese getting fatter quickly ... well, they're also getting richer and lazier very quickly. I'm not totally sure about other cities outside Beijing and Shanghai (but I guess they're the same) but you don't really find loads of joggers, fast cyclists, other other sports going on - just a few elder people swinging slowly in those lottery funded parks.

Plus getting rich means wanting a car, not doing physical labour, drinking more beer, eating more food. It all adds up to an unhealthy lifestyle.

[skylee]

Plus getting rich means wanting a car, not doing physical labour, drinking more beer, eating more food. It all adds up to an unhealthy lifestyle.

I think people would go through the same phases that people in more developed places went through. They would then want more family life (instead of just work), then more healthy life style (eating healthier/even more expensive organic food, going to gym doing more physical exercise), then a better environment (less pollution, greener lifestyle), more rights, etc, generally things that people can afford to do when they are not poor. 衣食足然後知榮辱。

[adrianlondon]

Agreed. That's how it should work. Although if one looks at the UK and America for what the future may bring, then it's the wealthy in the major towns who start to get healthy while the rest of the population stays lazy and fat ;)

[skylee]

then it's the wealthy in the major towns who start to get healthy while the rest of the population stays lazy and fat ;)

Then either the rest of the population is not really wealthy enough to live a healthy lifestyle yet, or it is perhaps natural selection 物競天擇 at work - those stay lazy and fat even if they have the means to have healthier lifestyle would eventually have shorter life span, give birth to less healthy children, and then in a very long run be eliminated.

[mcgau]

I don't really understand why rice is served last at the restaurant. I guess when people are wealthy they would like to enjoy other food before resorting to rice.

he's possibly talking about dining in a wedding party or some business meeting? Roasted pork first, ended with Chau-Fan and orange.

[jurassic]

呵呵，It is just our custom,we enjoy this,and it is healthy as a matter of fact.100g rice one meal won't hurt your health,btw,we eat many other things beside rice.And in North China,people eat more wheaten food than rice.