Healthy eating in China

[liuzhou]

There is a very good article on MSG in City Weekend. Click here.

[PollyWaffle]

interesting... a guy i knew was living in china for about 5 months when in a 2 days spell he almost passed out & complained of chest pain... he was hospitalised but the doctors could find nothing wrong with him... every time i eat take out form the local chinese delivery service i eat A LOT & almost immediately after eating have a slight stomach ache... maybe msg is the cause of both...

[Junior]

Ive just returned home after 5 months living in China... I stayed for 2 nights in Hong Kong before i caught the plane where I ate only western food and both nights myself and my roommate felt really bizzare, like dizzy, in the head... we both put it down to msg withdrawerals although theres no way to really tell...

Aside from that I lost about 5 kilos during 5 months in China (which is quite a lot considering I only weighed about 50 before...) so i guess despite all the oil and salt it may not be that bad...

[wushijiao]

I have high blood pressure. From the research I've done, MSG is better than salt or soy sauce, which both raise one's blood pressure a lot.

In any case, I try to eat as much oatmeal, seeds, nuts, fruits and vegtables as possible so that when I go to a restaurant I can eat a fairly unhealthy dish and a veggie dish or two, and my diet still remains fairly balanced. I'm an ex-vegan, but I still like to eat as vegan as possible at home. Luckily, fruit stalls and vegtable markets are everywhere. I avoid processed snack foods at all costs.

[Bob Dylan Thomas]

surely there's truckloads of MSG in Western packaged food? the only difference here is that most people don't buy it pure to add to home-cooked food. Also i heard that indian takeaways here use it in most curries.

I'm an ex-vegan, but I still like to eat as vegan as possible at home. Luckily, fruit stalls and vegtable markets are everywhere. I avoid processed snack foods at all costs.

In some ways i found it much easier to eat a decent vegan diet in china, given the easy availability and more reasonable relative pricing (in Tianjin where i lived anyway) of beans and nuts - the only problem when eating out is that if you want to be mega-strict about it, then you can never be sure what's gone in to packaged sauces that are added to a lot of "vegetable" dishes.

[wushijiao]

Yeah, I feel a bit guilty about not being a strict vegan because I am still convinced it is the best diet for one's health, the environment, and of course, the animals.

One good thing about China is the government doesn't subsidize the meat and dairy industries to such insane levels, like in the US. So, at least it's cheaper to eat a couple vegtable dishes with rice and some fruit than it is to eat at McDonalds.

the only problem when eating out is that if you want to be mega-strict about it, then you can never be sure what's gone in to packaged sauces that are added to a lot of "vegetable" dishes.

or bits of pork.

[Jacko]

Like anywhere, eat as wide a variety of food as you can.

Oil is so much more affordable these days so food vendors tent to use much more than is needed.

In China it really easy to get more carbs - rice, noodles, dumplings, bread - than you need, unless you are very active. Cut back a bit on these and eat more veg.