Small Steps to Health

Make the Smarter Choice - Asian Food

May 1st, 2008 by asithi · No Comments

Last time we discussed the smarter choices when eating at fast food restaurants, American restaurants, and Italian restaurants. Here is the fourth post of our making smarter choices when eating out series. We will be discussing what to avoid, the smarter choice to make, and special requests we should be making when we eat at restaurants that serve Asian food such as Chinese, Thai, or Japanese.

For Asian food restaurants the fat traps to avoid are:

• Deep fried appetizers or dishes (think eggrolls or cheese wontons).
• Crispy noodles.
• Sweet and sour dishes (ie. sweet and sour pork).
• Curry dishes made with coconut milk.
• Deep fried tempura.

The smarter choices are:

• Rice and noodle dishes with lots of vegetables.
• Brown rice dishes when available.
• Tofu.
• Fish and seafood.
• Broth based soups.
• Sushi (consider requesting brown rice).
• California or vegetable rolls.
• Edamame.

Consider making these special requests:

• Cook food light on oil.
• Brown rice instead of white.
• Take home half of the fish entree or share.

Whenever I eat Asian food, I eat with chopsticks to slow down my eating. This is important. It takes approximately 20 minutes for your stomach to signal that you are full. If you are shoveling food into your mouth at a fast speed, only stopping when you get a signal from your stomach, you are bound to overeat and leave the table feeling overly stuffed. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 representing that overly stuffed feeling), you want to leave the table with a 7. By deliberately slowing down your eating, you are giving your body a chance to gauge its hunger level. So when we eat our next meal, we should allocate at least 20 minutes for it.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by.

Tagged Dining Out, Dining Out