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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Asian Power Lunches
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:59:12 PM)
iet is an area of life in which Asian Americans were once thought to enjoy the pole position. Simply put, Asian foods have been seen as less fattening, less carcinogenic and more nutritious. Since the late sixties Asian staples like tofu, rice, fish and sprouts have been canonized as virtuous alternatives to beef, cheese, white bread and overdressed salads.
In an age when obesity is pandemic and fatty foods have taken on the sinister overtones once associated with dioxin and lead, even the old saw about being hungry an hour later came to sound like a ringing endorsement of Asian restaurants. Indeed, Americans often enter them with the solemn, almost reverent air of terminal patients seeking a cure. Chopsticks are wielded like syringes. Special requests pertaining to MSG, brown rice and animal fats are passed back to the kitchen like prescriptions.
Best Asian power lunches?
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But are Asian meals really E-tickets for gluttons?
A calories-be-damned American-style workaday lunch might consist of two pieces of fried chicken (500 calories and 35 grams of fat), mashed potatoes with gravy (280 cals., 10 grams), 4 ounces of cole slaw (90 calories, 4 grams) and coke (175 calories). Or it might be a personal deep-dish pan pizza with the works (1,000 calories, 57 gr. fat) and a soda (175 calories).
A damn-the-calories Asian lunch might consist of 10 ounces of boolgoki (650 calories, 30 gr. fat), bowl of short-grain white rice (270 calories), side dishes of pickled vegetables, egg and fish (about 150 calories, 5 gr. fat), bowl of radish soup (40 calories, 2 gr.) and a cup of corn tea (3 calories). An alternative might be a 3-item combo platter of, say, 5 ounces of pepper chicken (250 calories, 11 gr.), 6 ounces of country-style tofu (230 calories, 12 gr.), 8 ounces of fried rice (310 calories, 8 gr.), a fortune cookie (25 cals.) and tea (0 cals.).
In our examples, the Asian lunches contain 35% less fat and 14% fewer calories.
Once upon a time that would have been enough to win raves from nutritionists. No more. The onus is shifting from calories and fat to glycemic index (GI). High GI foods are those that break down rapidly into blood sugar. Under the GI regime, Asian cuisine is suspect because of its reliance on white rice. Despite being a fat-free complex carbohydrate, it metabolizes rather quickly into glucose. A jump in blood sugar levels triggers a surge of insulin, a hormone that tells cells to soak up excess glucose for conversion into glycogen, the precursor to fat. For this reason, high GI foods are now being blamed for obesity, heart disease, diabetes and even cancer.
The GI of white rice is as high as that of white bread and donuts, making it an even more potent insulin trigger than baked potatoes, whole wheat bread, most kinds of bagels or even angel food cake. The answer, exhort nutritionists, is to eat more hi-fiber carbohydrates like brown rice and barley, both of which also contain an abundance of the B-complex vitamins lacking in traditional Asian diets. Unfortunately, most people find these substitutes to be as appetizing as bran flakes. Some experts even urge salvation in high-protein-low-carbo diets, precisely the regimen we've been shooed away from the last four decades.
Are we holding our breaths waiting for resolution of the carbs-vs-protein debate?
Hardly. We turn instead to a huge panel of experts who have dedicated their mealtimes to clinically testing every Asian dish from daengjang-chigae to thom yum goong. That would be you.
What are your favorite Asian power lunches, the dishes that may not satisfy the ascendant nutritional dogma but do satisfy your tastebuds and, what's more, leave you feeling juiced and beatific.
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WHAT YOU SAY
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Asian foods might not neccessarily be nutritious (depending on cooking time and other factors), but they are FAR more nutritious than the foods eaten in America and also in Europe (generally speaking). I am a European girl who moved to the USA and I am simply DISGUSTED with the bad quality of the food here and the eating lifestyle of most Americans. Not only that, it is so hard to find good foods since 95% of the foods in supermarkets is pre-fab CRAP and the raw plant foods are covered and drenched in pesticides. Americans hardly ever try out foods like tofu, I ask about it in stores and they just say: I wonder what it tastes like, I haven't had the courage to try it'. I always think to myself: that figures, you fat mother***, go on and stick to your crap food. Oh ya, not 1 out of 6 Americans are overweight, 6 out of 10 people are (more than 60% of population)!!! Believe me, when you go out during the day you would honestly believe it was 9 out of 10 people. Excess (animal-)protein breaks down calcium in the body, and soft drinks do too.
If I had to choose between Asian, Euro or USA diet I would definately choose the Asian diet. I became a vegetarian when I was 13 y/old, and yes, I am not very tall, BUT, neither is my brother who has eaten meat every day of his life, so have my parents, who are not very tall either. I know some very tall vegetarians too (that have been veg since childhood or teen years).
Please be glad that you live in a country where they honour plants and their foods and natural medicine, as well as spiritualsm and so many other things. Please do not value crap culture over millennia of tradition and knowledge. Peace.
Western Chick
funface666@hotmail.com
Friday, December 06, 2002 at 07:28:28 (PST)
[4.46.176.252]
T'K Chang you wrote : "DDL: Are you a doctor? (Being a tradition chinese voodoo doctor does not count."
That was a very ignorant and foolish statement. Please explain why in Western medicine traditional Chinese herbs and prescriptions are now being called the 'alternative' form of healing. Thousands of years of the use of herbs have proven their worth. I understand your position. It is true that a Westernized diet with milk and meats as well as the liberal use of wheat will help you get bigger. I as well as my cousins are taller than our fathers. But don't bag on traditional medicine unless you've tried it for it's various uses. My sifu, a champion kungfu master back in the day prescribed herbs and a regimen to gain height. I spurned it and turned out to be 5'8 whereas his son is very tall, much taller than him and his wife. I'm pretty sure that the combination of balanced foods like what the previous poster emphasized - balance, and the traditional herbs had much to do with his growth. You ever tried acupunture? It works.
ABC dude
Monday, November 18, 2002 at 14:42:29 (PST)
[65.184.91.9]
interesting info, Bulk Advice, however I am not lactose intolerant. In fact, I don't think I know one Asian who is, although I have not gone around interviewing everyone I meet.
I am doubly sure that Mongols and frontiersmen can back me up ;)
Also, soy products may have estrogenic properties, b/c they contain phytoestrogens (plant compounds that mimic estrogen). That is why they are not recommended for breast cancer patients, and why some bodybuilders denounce them.
Bataar
Sunday, November 17, 2002 at 21:44:22 (PST)
[63.162.229.2]
Everyone,
Listen to T.K. Everything he's saying is
true. Most Asian foods are not very
nutritious when it comes to building muscles. Sure, Asian foods have some protein, but it lacks many other things
essential for muscle building and growth. Soup and rice will not make you
muscular and grow.
The thing that we Asians do in most cases is eat certain foods more than others while White and Black people eat everything. For example: Some Asians just eat fish (Japanese,Koreans, and etc.) and noodles and not many meat products which is filled with nutrients
essential for growth and muscle building.
Some nutrients need other nutrients to
assist them with their chemistry. Without the other nutrient, the nutrients you just ate will not be
as effective.
All of my childhood, I ate fish and rice everyday and chicken and not enough meat and vitamin D. But during that course, I at times stopped by at fast food restaurants to eat some steak or hamburgers and drink some milk. I'd actually sneak out to eat steak sometimes. And when I try to complain, my father says," You eat what I cook!"
What can I do? He's the one in control
of cooking. I, of course, have no choice
but eating them. I became the tallest in the family at 5'9 while my older brothers are 5'5 and 5'3. If I had not
sneaked out to get the essential Amino
Acids in meat and drink milk, I would have been 4-5 inches shorter. But it was too late for me beacause I started sneaking out during the day to eat steak at 17. During the time, I soon noticed that I was a little taller than my father and brothers. Soon, those little differences became inches.
Yes, Asian foods are filled with nutrients, but it is the matter how you
eat certain amounts of meat and vegetables. The problem is that we eat too much rice, noodles, and fish, which
is filled with protein, but does not have the other essential nutrients.
As much as you dislike it, meat is much more important to one's diet than some people think. Just do not exceed the nutritional limit for a healthy diet, meaning balancing vegetables, meat, fish, and fruits.
This is also the problems for most Americans. They eat too much meat, resulting into baldness and heart disease. They too do not balance their diet. Excessive protein will in turn turn into fat, which is why 1 out of 6
American people are overweight. This is
an increasing problem.
On the other hand, Asians do not eat enough meat and drink enough calcium in milk. As a result, lack of growth and lack of muscles, thus making Asians skinny compared to American and European standards. But unlike Americans and Europeans, the problems that occur is not heart disease.
To make a long statement short, too much and too less of everything can be very bad.
I hear you, T.K.
Friday, November 15, 2002 at 06:28:43 (PST)
[68.96.110.59]
T'K Chang,
Okay, so you are determined to be a meathead (heh heh). Go right ahead.
Sounds like you've chosen voodoo western hype over sensible nutritional practices developed over thousands of years of human experience. Bon appetit!
DDL
Thursday, November 14, 2002 at 07:23:45 (PST)
[12.36.118.87]
To T'K Chang,
You wrote: "Asian foods are just NOT too nutritious."
Asian food is very nutritious. Plenty of veggies and beans and fruit.
"Americans usually eat their vegetables RAW (with dressing,) which is actually the BEST way to eat vegetables."
Some veggies should be cooked, like spinach, otherwise you wouldn't absorb its nutrients. Cooking helps you absorb more from carrots, etc.
"Do you know how much nutrients Asians lose by stir frying and cooking and overcooking their vegetables?"
Not all Asians stir fry. Look at Koreans, Japanese, etc.
js
Wednesday, November 13, 2002 at 11:15:44 (PST)
[63.199.240.241]
DDL:
Are you a doctor? (Being a tradition chinese voodoo doctor does not count.)
Are you a nutrition speacialist?
"I'd like to hear from you in about five years to see if that solid muscle gain hasn't all turned to flab."
Are you a fortune teller?
I guess not.
By the way, there are many people out there who have been taking protein supplements for decades and are still alive and well. Thank you very much.
"There are no free lunches when it comes to building a healthy body."
Yeah, no free lunch. You work out, eat right, and take supplements (and voodoo eastern herbs do not count as supplements.)
T'K Chang
Tuesday, November 12, 2002 at 14:36:27 (PST)
[207.167.96.39]
T'K Chang,
You're forgetting that carbohydrates are combined by the body to form protein. For example, a combination of grains and legums (e.g. barley and beans) will give you complete protein. There is also complete protein in foods like soy and laver (seaweed). They also sell TVP (textured vegetable protein) which contains over 50% protein and can be used in place of meat.
The problem with ingesting all that protein powder and meat is the burden you're putting on your kidneys, liver and cardiovascular system. Not to mention that you aren't getting the vitamins and minerals that you would normally get from fresh vegetables. Vitamin supplements help but only a fraction of that stuff gets absorbed.
I'd like to hear from you in about five years to see if that "solid muscle" gain hasn't all turned to flab. There are no free lunches when it comes to building a healthy body.
DDL
Tuesday, November 12, 2002 at 07:32:31 (PST)
[12.36.118.87]
The best diet to have is a modified Atkins diet of eating lots of meat and proteins as well as lots of fruits and vegetables. Carbs can be supplied by the occasional rice or bread fest but limit them like fats.
But I find this diet to works well for me, in cutting out the fats in the body and well as add bulk to my frame.
Another thing if you have a thin frame and need to bulk up is to eat a meal replacement like Met-Tx or Ensure along with your meals because it will add extra calories and lean muscle mass as well. Make sure you add soy milk and not cows milk snce Asians are lactose intolerant. You need to be careful to not add fat and sugar when you eat so your gains will be a healthy weight and not fat weight. It is easy to overeat and get fat on junk and fat foods than eat health and still gain muscles.
Another thing is to do the heaviest weights possible. Preferably, you should only do one rep with the weight (eg. you do a bench press with the most weight to just to one rep) do two exercises per body part and then move on to another body part. You should not waste your time doing sets because it only means you are not using a heavy enought weight. You should use enough weight just to barely lift it when you can do this then you are lifting for bulking. Life is too short don't waste your time in the gym! Let the other meatheads stay there if they want to while you have the time to date their girlfriends!
Another variation is to still do the one rep weight and just before you reach full extension, you hold it for 5 to 8 seconds. You only lift at the full contraction of the exercise(Eg. In the weight-bench you have two to three inches before you fully extend but at this position you are fully contracting your muscles at the full contraction) This is just another bulking method that I use that works the fibers of your muscles. It is like a static contraction or isometrics but you can measure it by the amount of time you hold it. What it also does is makes your ligaments and tendons stronger which is something that many body-builders neglect. They rather pump up the muscle and forget about exercising the ligaments and leads to your tendons popping from the bone due to weak tendons.
Another thing is you can still eat asian foods but with less the oils and fats just use the same seasoning and skip the oils and you too can be even better that you American counterparts.
Bulk advice
Friday, November 08, 2002 at 23:23:35 (PST)
[209.245.15.252]
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