Chinese Food: A New Twist to Your Health

Depending on what Chinese dish you order, it could help whittle away your waistline or it could pack on the pounds.

Knowing how much quantity you should be eating or what type of Chinese food to eat can be the difference between staying healthy or gaining the pounds back around your waistline. Follow these tips when choosing Chinese food.

Fried, Boiled, or Steamed

Try to avoid anything fried. Fried Foods can have a lot of oil and saturated fat in them. Broiled or steamed is the best way to go when you are going to eat Chinese food.  Soups, such as vegetable soup, egg drop soup, or wanton soup, are loaded with vitamins. They are low in fat and high in protein.

Authentic Chinese food is the best way to go. Authentic dishes such as broiled dumplings or egg drop soup are good examples. 

If you are going to have vegetables with your dish be sure to steam them. Steaming vegetables helps to lock in the nutrients in the vegetable itself.

This will keep the vegetables tasting fresher and vibrant in color.
Use Your UtensilsChop sticks were invented for a reason. They help slow down the eating process and lower the amount of food that is consumed during a meal. Using chopsticks will force you to actually see how much you are consuming for food. It can help improve hand eye coordination.

If you are eating a Chinese dish that may contain a lot of oil, the best option is to eat with chopsticks. Chopsticks allows less oil to be picked up in the food, where as a fork may bring up a lot of oil.  In pastimes and today many Chinese people use chopsticks for preparing and eating their dishes.

Serving Size

When figuring out the best portion size, you will want to go by only one portion. If you are having guests than you will want to figure one bowl for each guest and each dish served. In traditions second helpings were not normally thought of. Just like beverages were not thought of either. A soup was considered a beverage and entre.