Last night at the Beijing Bookworm, British author Lorraine Clissold gave a brief talk on her new book, Why the Chinese Don’t Count Calories. Something of a riposte to international bestseller Why French Women Don’t Get Fat, this awkwardly titled book joins the growing literature on how traditional cuisines are better than dieting fads.
So just what is healthy about Chinese food? While it has a reputation for being greasy and fattening in the West, the orange chicken and “beef and broccoli in brown sauce” of Chinese take-away is definitely not part of a traditional Chinese diet. Instead, Chinese cuisine incorporates a more holistic approach that does away with counting calories and guilt for having ingested too many calories. One startling fact stood out in her talk–the Chinese actually eat 30% more than Americans, yet remain 20% lighter–something that is supported in The China Study.
While much of the lecture was undoubtedly old news for anyone who was brought up in a Chinese family or just plain common sense, here are some of the more memorable points that Clissold made in her talk on why how their traditional cuisine keeps the Chinese thin:
1. Strong cultural and culinary identities. Traditional cuisines pass on the collected food wisdom of a culture from generation to generation, and China is no different. As scientists begin to learn more about nutrition and how nutrients work in tandem with each other, much of what is passed on in Chinese cuisine is backed up by modern nutrition. The Chinese also talk about food as being determinative of a regional identity–like the strereotype of Sichuan people having fiery tempers because of all the spicy food they eat. By way of contrast, in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan makes the point that because Americans do not have a unifying food culture, Americans tend to be particularly vulnerable to savvy food marketers and diet fads (think Atkins, South Beach diet, etc).
2. Vegetables, vegetables, vegetables! Chinese cuisines tend to make vegetables the star of the show, with meat as a flavouring or compliment. Part of this is because of historical patterns of consumption, until very recently the average Chinese person simply could not afford vast amounts of meat. Contrast this to an American or British diet which relegates vegetables to limp supporting roles for meat.
3. Balance is key. Clissold invokes the Chinese concepts of yin and yang. A properly balanced meal includes both yin foods (cooling foods) like cucumbers and lettuce and yang foods (heating foods) like spicy foods and meats. If you eat too much of either one, then your body will become unbalanced. The Chinese way of eating family-style with shared plates also allow for greater opportunities to balance yin and yang versus a Western-style one-plate meal.
4. Eat with all five flavors in mind. On a related note, the five flavors are bitter, sweet, pungent, salty, and sour. Each of these flavors addresses a specific part of the body. For instance, a bitter food like bitter melon feeds the heart, while a sour food will nourish the liver. Again, balance is important–if you eat too much of one flavor then you are only feeding one part of the body.
5. Eat until you are full, and enjoy your meal. This seems like a no-brainer, but Clissold is specifically addressing the different attitudes that Chinese and Americans and the British have regarding food. While Americans and the British food cultures often incorporate guilt and unhealthy cycles of binging and purging, Chinese people just plain enjoy their food. They talk about food all the time, and a common Chinese greeting is “Have you eaten yet?” Make eating a pleasurable activity, instead of one that induces guilt.
The end message is that it’s not about dieting, because there is no quick fix to losing weight, but about a lifestyle that is balanced and about pleasure. It’s not very different from the conclusions made in Why French Women Don’t Get Fat or in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
The Independent also took a look at Clissold’s book and asked two nutritionists to examine some of its claims.
One irony is that China itself is moving away from its tranditional diet. As China becomes more industrialized, obesity, cancer and diabetes–the diseases of the Western world–are also on the rise.
Fiona Lee is a freelance writer/marketer/blogger based in Beijing. She loves MSG and misses good old-fashioned American-style Chinese food. She blogs at quirkyBeijing.
I’m a big supporter of the content of this book and think it useful, but I have two issues: 1. if you “eat right” no matter the cuisine, you will be in a much better position, so it’s not necessarily Chinese food; 2. I have issue with the Chinese title: no one I know says “ni chi le fan ma?” especially as the greeting, which should be “ni chi fan le ma?”….and we like to make fun of Chinese trying to write English!! Sheesh.
LoL, good catch, I didn’t notice it before.
So what’s the opposite of Chinglish? Zhonglish? Enghua? Engwen?
Hi Josh
Thanks for your interest
‘Ni chi le fan ma?’ is a typo (one – on the back page only) which will be sorted in the reprint. Read the text and note that it does not occur inside. It is VERY difficult to write a book using another language that the copy editor does not recognise. There are two other pin yin errors inside which I am both aware of and embarrassed by – see if you can find them!!
The characters were also wrong on the front cover scan for the presentation as it was an original mock up. I did not have access to a scanner when I was in Beijing and hoped no one would notice but I should have guessed that in that particular forum someone would pick it up. I have since changed it.
As regarding whether or not anyone in China uses the greeting perhaps we mixed in different circles because if I hadn’t been struck by it I wouldn’t have used in in the book.
Regarding your first point, I agree that any diet using fresh natural foods is good an. However, I think that Chinese dietary therapy has some unique insights into how different foods work in the body.
Cheers
Lorraine
My girlfriend is Chinese (I’m American) and she cooks for me exactly the way described above. I’m still amazed just how spot on this post was!
One of our favorite pastimes during meal time is to talk about how she made the food: the technique, the ingredients, any improvements needed, etc.
This is a very cool post. I love America and it’s traditions, but we desperately need to change our eating traditions. We are too fat and are paying too much in insurance costs because we are fat. We don’t have to become the Chinese in every aspect, but we should adapt some of their cooking methods.
Nice article
All of this stuff about the Chinese having an ideal diet is hogwash! I live in China. Men, especially, eat a diet high in meat with a low balance of vegetables. Not only that, but the meat that they eat is mostly of the full-fat variety, with the fat hanging off the side of the meat in full view. Case in point: Red-braised Meat (Hongshaorou), one of Chairman Mao’s favorite dishes, which is still very popular here in China. It’s true that people in the countryside eat vegetables almost exclusively, but that is because they cannot afford meat. Note that in my experience, the Chinese who eat a heavy meat-and-cornstarch diet are still rail thin despite the high-calorie intake!
The ‘mysterious’ and ‘exotic’ secret of the Chinese is merely a matter of genetics, combined with a lot of walking (Chinese people walk a LOT).
You do have a point here, sometimes its not just about the diet menu, its about genetic as well. I’ve been to China, Australia, USA and some other countries in South East Asia (I’m Indonesian :) I found that their diet menus do not have any effects on my body shape, I’m still in the same shape like when I’m in my country.
I’m not saying that this article is rubbish or something, its just that maybe we need to mention several aspects on this. Because every race in this world has different physical characteristics. E.g: Even if I eat as much meat as I could, I don’t think that my body will get as big as Shaquille O’Neal; That’s because my genetic heredity do not allow such thing to happen :)
I don’t know about genetics. In China there may not be very many obese blokes outside of the cities, but, in America and the UK, I see at least as many fat asians as I do skinny ones.
This suggested nutritional diet jives very well with things that I’ve learned from other cultures, such as the Mediterranean Diet, which is actually made up but dependent upon real values held by cultures in the region.
I wouldn’t smock at anything in that post above. It looks to be very inclusive of the ways that a culture, which is TRADITIONALLY healthier than our western one, conducts its nutrition. They are also the only culture to study nutrition and its effects on mankind for over two and a half millennia, I seem to trust that kind of dedication to craft.
I think it’s partly due to the fact that the Chinese usually eat wholesome, home cooked meals made from scratch. And this is culture is usually passed down the family. The problem only rises when we increasingly introduce Western foods, especially junk, into our systems on a regular basis.
The Chinese culture doesn’t rely on microwave meals and foods high in saturated fats and hydrogenated fats, which are for snacking instead of making up the bulk of our diet. I am 26 and have lived in the West for 16 years, having eaten my share of Western junk along the way of course. I am still very slim after having my baby a year ago (the post partum weight loss being unintentional). Both of my parents are very slim and are in their 50s. My bf of white British descent and I cook for eachother a variety of dishes including English, Italian, Chinese and East Asian; but all of them are made from fresh quality produce. We are both foodies. I eat twice as much as him but he is still (begrudgingly) overweight. Hence I conclude that the rest is down to genetics. Some people are equipped with a fast metabolism, and this is also true for many Westerners.
Also worth noting is the fact that after China saw the increase of junk food as the norm (McDonalds and Pizza Hut having a strong prescence for example), obesity, especially in that of children, have been on the rise.