Traditional Asian cuisine is quite different from the dishes found at takeout Chinese restaurants and Japanese hibachi-style grills. For instance, what Americans know as Chinese food is the result of immigrants adapting to American culture and the lack of authentic ingredients. According to cultural website Chinese American Heroes, dishes like crab rangoon and chop suey were invented in the United States and brought back to China to satisfy tourists. Meats like beef and chicken were rarely included in daily meals, due to their high cost and scarcity. Authentic Asian diets center on rice, noodles, vegetables and other healthy, filling ingredients.
Authentic Chinese Food Vs. Americanized Chinese Food
The authors of the website Chinese American Heroes write that beef-based dishes were popularized in the United States, as beef was scarce when the first Chinese immigrated in the late 19th century. The only source for most farmers was water buffalo, which were used to plow fields. Their necessity as labor animals far exceeded their food value. While farmers in China might have had access to pigs or chicken, the animals were not nearly as large in size as those on American farms. Chinese farmers would use small amounts of their limited meat supply at meals, combining it with thin-sliced vegetables and quickly stir-frying them to preserve nutritional value. The website states, "Served with rice this was a fairly healthy diet, heavy on vegetables, low on meat, and low also in sodium, fat, and calories."
Caloric Intake
Lorraine Clissold believes that adapting a Chinese-style diet could allay the widespread obesity epidemic found in many Western nations. Clissold, the author of "Why The Chinese Don't Count Calories," found that the Chinese view food as a source of nourishment, not something that provides pleasure or the potential for weight gain. In an analysis of her book in the British newspaper "The Independent," two nutritionists agree. Clissold found that vegetables make up entire meals in authentic Chinese cooking, while Westerners use them as side dishes. She also described how soups or a porridge called zhou is found at each meal. Patrick Holford, one of the experts consulted by the newspaper, added that liquids can take up space in the stomach and control how much you consume. He said, "Thirst is often confused with hunger. Also, drinking does tend to fill you up. So soups help you control your appetite."
Health Benefits of Japanese Food
Mamie Nishide, a cooking instructor in the Japanese city of Nara, tells Health.com that many Japanese people incorporate soybeans into each meal. The average resident of Okinawa consumes between 60 and 120 grams per day from any number of sources: edamame, or cooked, fresh, whole soybeans; soy sauce, or brewed and fermented soy; miso, fermented soybean paste; or tofu, fresh coagulated soy milk.
Soybean is a protein-rich food packed with calcium, folates and iron, according to the National Soybean Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois. The amino acids contain in the protein are similar to meat, but with less cholesterol and fat.
Curucumin
Turmeric, a rhizome that yields a flavorful, bright-yellow powder, not only provides the basis for curries so abundantly found in Southeast Asian and Indian cuisine, but also may safeguard the brain against the onset of dementing illnesses. A 2007 article published in "Advanced Experimental Medical Biology" revealed that curucumin, the primary component of turmeric, has at least 10 brain-protecting effects including the inhibition of the Alzheimer's disease-related protein shown to destroy brain cells. Research theories presented at the 2009 Royal College of Psychiatrists by Duke University professor Murali Doraiswamy suggest that eating curry once or twice each week could prevent the development of Alzheimer's disease, according to BBC News.
References
- Chinese American Heroes: Chinese American Food
- "The Independent"; Use Your Noodle: The Real Chinese Diet Is So Healthy It Could Solve the West's Obesity Crisis; Sophie Morris; July 22, 2008
- Health.com: World's Healthiest Foods: Soy (Japan)
- National Soybean Research Laboratory: Nutritional and Health Benefits of Soybeans
- "Advanced Experimental Medical Biology"; Neuroprotective Effects of Curucumin; Greg Cole, et al; 2007.
- BBC News: Weekly Curry 'May Fight Dementia'
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