healthy choice: not in restaurants

Let it not be said that I only pick on big corporate franchises. CNN reported that food in Chinese restaurants have way too much sodium and calories than a normal human should be consuming, and that excessive intake would lead to weight gain and hypertension. Of course, that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Really, many Chinese restaurants and take-outs are just the McD version of Chinese restaurants. It doesn't take a nutritionist to tell you that the food in those innocent little white boxes could kill ya.

The report notes that this shouldn't be seen as targeting only Chinese restaurants, or all Chinese restaurants, and I agree. I'm sure if you took a look at any other "ethnic restaurant" (maybe with the exception of Japanese restaurants), you'd get the same results. Too much sodium. It's a shame that homecooking seems to be less popular given how much easier it is to just pick up the phone and press speed-dial #2.

By the way, I'm not a health nut. I'd like to become a vegetarian some day, but for now, I'm still a meateater. I don't count my calories and I don't induce vomiting. I am trying hard to watch what I eat though while making sure I also have fun doing it. Food is great. Eating is great. And sometimes it's so easy to eat nonstop. Sometimes I see an overweight family on the bus, eating Cheetos and talking about what they want for dinner (usually something insanely unhealthy). I have nothing against overweight people. In fact, I think our culture (and not just the American culture, but perhaps it's part of the equation) generates some really unusual attitudes about weight. I see perfectly healthy-weight people, even thin people, watching their weights as if their life depended on it. Then I see people bordering on obesity munching on cakes and other unhealthy foods. What is going on here?

Just one last thing before I start rambling. I cooked for my family when I was in Malaysia, and noticed that they often needed their dishes to be a tad saltier than what I consider as normal, which came as a surprise because, when I was living with them, they would always complain when they think their food is too salty. Perhaps we slowly get used to tastes and, without knowing, take in too much salt. I try to stay away from salt as much as I can, and rely on the natural juices in meats. Maybe that's what others can try.

To parents: Stop buying soda, chips, or anything like that. Stop rewarding your children with candy bars. It's quick and easy and it shuts them up, but in the long run, you get them used to eating those things. My parents never had those things around the house, so these days, I almost never crave soda or chips or candy. It's a habit thing that really should start when the kids are young, but it's also never too late to start.

social awareness guide #2: one less

Okay, this is less of a social awareness thing than it is a health guide, although I do think moderating individual consumption of anything can grow to become a moral issue given how consumerism has taken over society.

Anyway, it's hard to cut back on the things you like, whether it's a snack, a drink, a cigarette, or just some extra gadget you need to buy off the Internet. Here's one thing that might help. The next time you're out to get something, whatever it is, just get one less of what you might get. This can be a minor gesture, like taking one less bite of a cookie, or preferably, one less cookie. If you get into that habit, and slowly build up, you might end up cutting back a lot in the long-run.

For example, some things you can do one less of:

Less sugar in your morning coffee
Less salt in your cooking
Less turning on the lights
Less sweets and snacks
Less slab of fatty meats
Less bite of cheese
Less sip of soda
Less cigarette
Less taking the car
Less turning on the heat
Less candy

For some this might not seem like a huge deal, but I think it works. It's more realistic to cut back slowly than to expect people to make huge changes in their lifestyles.