Why do reports say that Chinese food is unhealty, often referrring to it as "a heart attack on a plate?"

Question

Why do reports say that Chinese food is unhealty, often referrring to it as "a heart attack on a plate?"

Answer 1

westernized chinese food is cooked in unhealthy oils and fried......proper chinese food os mostly boiled.

Answer 2

the government thinks everything is unhealthy, and they want you to believe them

Answer 3

really?omg thats the first time ive heard that.thats not nice

Answer 4

cuz they have soo much oil

Answer 5

Maybe cuz they use alot of oil when cooking their food... but it tastes so good! I only eat hakka chinese food which is a mix of chinese and indian food... try it out if you haven't already.

Answer 6

It's very healthy, infact the worst c**p you can eat is Mcdonald's and B.K

Answer 7

Traditional Chinese food is relatively healthy and low in fat. The unhealthy Chinese food that you are referring to is the cheap stuff that you will see under heat lamps at your local mall food court. Various fried concoctions and foods drizzeled with MSG are abundant and vegetables are limited to a side dish. Unfortunately, great Chinese food is usually expensive and this is why most people will turn to the cheap stuff.

Answer 8

lol because the Chinese food they refer too is not authenic chinese food but americanized chinese food.

Answer 9

I think its from the amount of oil used in cooking some of the food.  Usually it's pretty healthy compared to most foods though.  How many fat chinese have you seen?

Answer 10

Well the place I go to everything is like fried, breaded, sauced up.  It has a lot of salt.

Answer 11

Hah! Heart attack on a plate. Real Chinese people eat out of bowls using chopsticks!!!

There. Got that off of my chest.

Too much of any food that is breaded and fried is not good for anyone except maybe the people running the restaurant. What many people who have answered this question have said is correct. Most Chinese restaurants serve food that is not authentic. It is real food. Just not the kind of Chinese food that would be served in their own homes. Trust me on this one, I've been Chinese-American all my life.

Many foods served in Chinese homes are stir fried in a very hot wok with a small amount of oil. A good number of dishes are also steamed. Very seldomly is breading used. You would also rarely find the thick sauces that you often see in Chinese restaurants.

What restaurants serve is food that has been westernized. Some of it is good. Some of it is horrible. Here's one way to help you determine whether or not a Chinese restaurant serves "authentic" food.

Before entering the restaurant, see if they have a menu posted. If they do, check to see if there are Chinese characters next to the English descriptions. If there are not, the restaurant does not cater to Chinese people and the food will most likely be westernized completely. If there is, look in and see if there are Chinese families enjoying a meal. Yes, I know. How do you tell if people are Chinese or some other ethnicity. For me, it's easy, I listen to them talk. If they speak Chinese, they're probably Chinese. If you don't understand Chinese, you will have a difficult time telling. The point is, if the restaurant is full of non-asians, then they're most likely not Chinese.

Sometimes on a menu, you'll find a section that is completely in Chinese characters with the price and a number such as 2-3, 3-4, 5-6. This is especially true in Cantonese style restaurants. You have just stumbled upon the "secret" Chinese dinner menu. Instead of "Cantonese Dinner for Two" which includes the likes of Egg Rolls, Fried Rice, Chow Mein, Sweet & Sour Pork and Almond Ding for only $9.95 per person, minimum two persons, add Mongolian Beef for three guests and Honey Walnut Prawns for four. Now you might get something like Steamed Whole Fish with Black Bean Sauce, Dungeness Crab Stir Fried with Ginger and Scallions, Crispy Chicken, Peking Pork Spareribs, Chinese Black Mushrooms with Broccoli. The numbers denotes how many people the menu is designed to serve and the price speaks for itself.

So, to answer your question, Chinese food is not "heart attack on a plate". But lousy Chinese food in large quantities does not make for a well-balanced diet.

There's much more that I can share but I'll save it for another question. One last thing though, no matter what type of restaurant you're eating at, check out the restroom first. If the "public area" is filthy, you can only imagine what the private areas are like. Private areas? Think kitchen.

Bon appetit!

Answer 12

The PC food police have too much media coverage.  I never found anything from oriental cuisine bad for you, mostly vegetables, rice, noodles.. I suppose the PC carb police would hate the rice and noodles.  

I go by an old adage: Exercise, eat right, die anyways!

Happy New Year!!

Answer 13

Whose reports?  I always wonder about these so called reports.

I am 70 yrs old, I am diabetic, (managed extremely well by diet and not on medication. I have serious osteoporosis (not a lot I can do except take mega doses of calcium every day and try not to fall - if I do I break something).  I don't have a cholesterol problem but I watch my diet carefully.  Normal blood pressure.

I love Chinese Food in the US and Canada (really don't care for it in Hawaii, probably closer to the real thing...Have absolutely no idea what they do to it in the UK).

I have it frequently - I stay away from the sweet sauces, but love Wonton Soup, Ja Doo Wings, Gai Ding, Shrimp in Lobster sauce....and I do a very acceptable job at a great Chinese buffet. e.g. whole steamed fish, mussels, shrimp, noodles, chicken, beef, pork, bok choy, water chestnuts, every flavour I want and every type of rice I like.

As I said, who writes these reports?  My doctor has no problem with my daily test results, monitored with blood tests every 3 months and full evaluation annually.

Answer 14

this isn't referring to chinese food in "actuality". Authentic chinese food is very healthy. However, it is referring to such places as all-you-can-eat chinese buffets and take-outs that basically run on mass production of cheap, unhealthy products to prepare the meals. Not to say that it is fast-food, but it is not prepared efficiently or to the purpose of recognizing the health factors.  

it is the same with any other type of food. for example: a lot of Italian food is good for you (regardless of what people say about pasta. if you have too much then that is where the problem comes from) Authentic Italian food is extremely healty with all of the herbs and vegetables that are used. However, if you go to a university cafeteria and order the fettucini alfredo you are most likely getting a meal that is produced on the basis of fast production that overrides the basis of health concerns.

Answer 15

News reports rely on the scare factor...americanized chinese food probably does use too much oil, but "heart attack on a plate" is a ridiculous exaggeration typical of the media.

Answer 16

They are referring to 'Westernized' Chinese food.  They can be loaded with grease, fat, sodium, MSG etc.  This is all VERY unhealthy for you.

The REAL Chinese food from China is one of the healthiest diets you can follow.  They almost never eat desert or anything laden with sugar.  There are many vegtables and you never eat huge pieces of red meat (or any meat for that matter).  Meat in the Chinese diet is a garnish and not a main component.  They use exotic vegtables that most Westerners would not regularly use.

Answer 17

tons of calories, tons of salt, tons of fatty oils

Answer 18

my uncle got food posioning from chinese food.  then, while he was puking, we threw his back out and had to get therapy.  i just felt like sharing that.

Answer 19

Because of the ingredient MSG found regularly in

Chinese take-out.

MSG clogs arteries and does not a good history

in the medical community. Check out web md on

google. MSG stands for monosodium glutamate.

Hope this helps.