Chinese food – healthy or not?

It is difficult not to wonder sometimes how healthy Chinese food is, what kind preservatives and flavourings are used, and more often than not – what the hell am I eating?

Recently I saw a study (..it came up on my MSN newsfeed) that of all the countries in the world, China had the second highest life expectancy. I found this quite surprising as I’d assumed the widespread pollution issues and dubious nutrition would have a rather more adverse effect on life expectancy. In the article discussing the study it went on to mention a number of things that can be good for health which may have a beneficial role in increasing life expectancy, and certainly in the area of nutrition it seemed that China was doing a lot of things right. Eating more nuts and seeds was one thing that was mentioned, and you only need to look at the mounds of husks that are left behind by a hungry Chinese mob to see the popularity of that in China. Another thing mentioned was the need to eat more fruit – again, no worries there. I have been to buffets before and seen first-hand the elbowy rush to the fruit counter as people cram their plates with far more than they can hope to eat (buffets are where culture goes to die..). Things mentioned as having an adverse effect on health was eating too much red meat (good luck getting a decent steak in China) and far too much cheese and dairy products (cheese is virtually non-existent in Chinese cuisine).

Of course this is not to say that Chinese food is a fanfare of healthy eating and nutrition. The amount of oil used in cooking is impressive to say the least, and I’m pretty sure that heaping spoonfuls of salt onto every dish is not recommended by most doctors. You will find as well that you eat a lot of dishes at small food joints where the oil used and the preparation area is slightly questionable (in one restaurant I ate in I saw rats climbing up the wall…I did continue to eat there though). One thing that people often assume is that what you order and what you are given are two different things. The classic joke of ordering beef and getting dog is a little off though, whilst you can get dog meat most restaurants do not offer it and in ones that do it is quite expensive – it is more likely you will order dog and get given beef.

Generally speaking you will find that you eat a lot of noodles, rice and vegetables. Whilst you will probably eat meat every day, it will not be in large quantities, more often shredded and fried with vegetables. The amount of fruit eaten is of course up to the individual, though there are fruit shops and stalls everywhere and it is easy to get hold of. I think on balance Chinese food is fairly healthy, and most people I know who come to China for a long period of time tend to lose weight when they are here (if you choose to eat McDonalds on a weekly basis I cannot guarantee this will happen though…).