Eating out is over as we now know it. According to the report today by LIBBY QUAID, AP Food and Farm Writer 
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak), Chinese Restaurant Food Draws Criticism.
Seems that those pesky small business entrepreneur (who this time happen to be the owner/operators of Chinese food restaurants) are really sticking it to the rest of us when it comes to the food on our plates. Apparently, when we are ordering Chinese take out, thinking to ourselves, “Mmmm, delicious and healthy” we are really only getting “Delicious”! Quaid, or someone had the nerve, the audacity to actually do some studies of the nutritional content of the yummy food in those little take out containers.
Low and behold! They are chock full of calories, fat, sodium, (not to mention, taste, fun, memories of romantic meals by the fireplace…oh, sorry 😉 ). And to be fair, the article also mentioned pretty much every other restaurant you could go to is in the same boat. Ironically, what the report didn’t talk about, likely for fear that we’d all mutiny is the ALL YOU CAN EAT buffets.
Honestly, that’s where the problem is. I am a firm believer that you can eat whatever the heck you want as long as there is some moderation. Now, not sure about you, but Friday Night Fights comes on, long week, particularly hard session at the day job, and I’m ready to seriously hurt that (HUGE) order of Chicken Chow Fun (yeah, they really came down on noodles :'( ) and knock down a beer or three!
So the problem comes not from the fact that there is so much fat and sodium in the plate of food they are serving, but the fact that the serving is bigger than the plate! How many times have you heard someone recommend a place to eat that really “gives you your moneys worth”? A lot.
Oh, and those three beers I had with the Chow Fun did very little for my health in two ways:
- They were not the no/low calorie (aka, no/low taste) beers! They had some flava!
- The effect of the alcohol, whether we want to admit it or not, affects our physical ability to stop the fork to mouth action. Well, it does for me, anyways!
Moderation then seems to be the name of the game. Discipline from the perspective of eating when you are truly hungry. And that’s not easy. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Eat everything on your plate, blah, blah, blah (sorry Mom!) But if your body is telling you to eat. Eat. When you’ve satiated your hunger, stop. Definitely easier said than done.
And if it is Friday Night (or Saturday night) and there’s some good fights on, moderation and discipline are going to be that much harder. But then one or two nights a week are better than 5 or six. Right?
2 thoughts to “No More Chinese Food”
Most food that is in restaurants is pretty unhealthy because there are no negatives (short run) for them to make the food unhealthy. I always assume that by making food more unhealthy it directly makes it more tasty (not completely, but most people would agree).
Restaurants do not need to post their nutritional information (although, I wish they did). So what benefits would they have to make something healthier? Very little, because their customers will never know.
Hey Jeremy, good to see you here. Thanks so much for the comment.
I’m guessing you meant to say “…for them to make the food HEALTHY.” ??
That would seem to make more sense based on the context of your comment, and I agree with you completely. Very few people are going to keel over from congestive heart failure due to extreme cholesterol levels from eating that ‘one’ meal at that place, so why should the restaurant take it upon themselves?
I know that fast food places now have to post their nutritional information somewhere on the premises, and good luck on finding it when you go into the places. I’ve seen them in most of the fast food joints I’ve been to, but you really do have to look for them.
And I’d venture that there is a growing number of healthier places sprouting up (pardon the pun 😉 ). Overall, however, wouldn’t you agree that when you go out for a night on the town, or to take that someone special out for a meal, the last thing you want to be thinking about is a good healthy meal? I know we should be changing that overall, and over all I think we are. At the same time, I believe a bit of decadence isn’t going to kill us. At least not tonight!
Thanks again for your comments!