The Best Chinese Food to Stay Healthy and Lose Weight

This weeks health challenge is fun- it's about eating healthy at your favorite Chinese Food Restaurant!

“Variety is the spice of life,” as the old saying goes. It is important to always have variety in your diet. If you're eating the same few foods on rotation, you eventually get bored. If you get bored, you will start to crave those easy “go-to's” that you're trying to stay away from. Whether you're dieting to lose weight or just trying to eat healthier, it is very important to constantly introduce new foods to your diet. The more freedom of choice you have, the easier it is to adhere to the positive changes you are trying to make. But there's another reason to expand your food horizons- to benefit from the different vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and other nutrition benefits of each. If there's only a few vegetables that you like- there's only a few vitamins you're getting, and I would bet money that you just haven't found all the ones that you do like. So keep trying!

Here's a great way to open the door to a world of culinary possibilities- literally. Take a world tour of foods. Try one new cuisine or ethnic dish that you haven't tried before. If you're up for the challenge, keep adding something new for one meal every week. Different cultures have experimented with different preparation methods and combinations of ingredients over time, giving each a rich, delicious and exciting distinction from what you may be used to.

Chinese may bring to mind the idea of various thick, vaguely gelatinous sauces smothering bits of fried meats, over so much white sticky rice that you're bloated and exhausted by the end of your meal. If it does, its time to raise your standards on this fine far eastern cuisine.

First of all- Chinese soups are amazing! Each restaurant makes theirs a little differently and I've had some great ones and some stinkers, so don't get turned off to a certain kind just because you had one bad rendition. For me, this goes for Vegetable Tofu Soup more than anything else. Also called bean curd, Tofu is a meatlike protein derived from soy beans (what can't those little pods do?). Tofu can be prepared to take on various textures and takes on the flavor of whatever you put it in. If you aren't ready for Tofu just yet, try some Wonton Soup or Egg Drop Soup. Whatever soup you choose, start any Chinese meal with a small portion of soup. This will help you control overeating later in the meal as well.

It is also important to watch how much rice you are eating. It is a cheap ingredient and most restauranteurs are very generous with it. A serving of white rice is ½ cup. That means the pint they give you is at least 4 servings. There are also lots of great vegetable choices, some restaurants devote entire sections of their menu to them. I recommend choosing steamed options over anything fried.

And one more tip with Chinese food- eat with chopsticks, not only will you eat slower and fill up sooner, you will pick up less of any oil than you would with a fork.

Here's a quick look at some common choices and some better substitutes:

Yī lù píng ān – thats Bon Voyage in Chinese!

These Good Habits are baby steps towards living healthier. Folding one small good behavior into our daily lives at a time makes it easy to change the way we look at having a healthy lifestyle. Try to follow along every week or jump in when you can- any good change is always better than none! And if you feel you're already an expert in this week's Good Habit, share your knowledge and skill with your friends, family and coworkers! What good is a gift in your pocket when you can give it to others?

As always- discussion is open and I will answer your questions in comments below!