Back to childhood diet--abit

I posted earlier about diabetes 2 probability...which results show not..but already I was trying to gradually switch to low-glycemic diet.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=4555

So then I went back to eating what I used to eat for a few days that higher GI (bad carbs), more sugar...and I felt worse. "Going back" meant temporarily some small pastries, rice, etc.

Maybe it's time I reverted more what I ate as a child & teenage, but revise the diet, which was predominantly Chinese home cuisine --at that time, not much bread (ie. 1 slice per day), lots of rice (which I shouldn't have as much now), lots of cooked fresh veggies, homemade veggie broths, fruit daily, no pop (I don't drink pop as as adult), sweet/sugar desserts only on special occasions....

And eating out in restaurants was just 3-4 times per year. As a family never ate at restaurants much when growing up ...it was just too expensive for a large family, on my father's salary as a restaurant cook. Restaurant meals were usually at a large Chinese banquet-fest /buffet for community & friends.

So mom did shovel alot of healthy home-cooked food at us. :rolleyes: And no, processed food was pretty minimal --sliced ham, bread, she even eagle-eyed the processed Chinese grocery condiments ...for volume of salt, etc.

Sounds good to me but splain why i have a stereotypical image of a Chinese family being roly-poly?

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Originally Posted by zencentury

Sounds good to me but splain why i have a stereotypical image of a Chinese family being roly-poly?

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The medical community have done some studies both in China and North America...on effect of income (abit more money), access to processed food, more pop, food now higher in sugar and fat...leads to next generation of Asians as more ..fat.

Most of the people in my parents' generation and my own boomer generation aren't what I call obese. ..but next generation looks pretty obvious to me...but I still many Asians..seen as slim or too thin.

Vancouver has a high % of people of Asian descent. So does Toronto. I live near Chinatown..so I'm not fantasizing... I've lived in both cities for last 25 years.

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Originally Posted by zencentury

Sounds good to me but splain why i have a stereotypical image of a Chinese family being roly-poly?

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I have no idea why you have that image. I believe that in general Americans are substantially fatter overall than the Chinese.

Where I live we have a large percentage of Asian American families. You can see who eats traditional foods (older generations) and who doesn't (the kids) by how fat they are.
With caucasian Americans, there's plenty of fat in all generations.

Zen, I don't know where you got that idea.

Shooting star, your mother sounds like a great cook! good luck with the diet

Maybe Zen has that image because some Asian groups tend towards round faces - though they are not necessarily fat?? It's not particular to China (China is so large that it contains many different ethnic groups.... and they do not all look similar), but some Chinese, Koreans, Mongolians among others may have broad round faces even if their bodies are not chubby.

Could you replace the white rice with brown rice?

Maybe it's Buddha.
And my friend from Kahzakstan.

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Originally Posted by Eden

Maybe Zen has that image because some Asian groups tend towards round faces - though they are not necessarily fat?? It's not particular to China (China is so large that it contains many different ethnic groups.... and they do not all look similar), but some Chinese, Koreans, Mongolians among others may have broad round faces even if their bodies are not chubby.

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And wide pelvises.

-Oak, who shares my mom's Chinese pelvis and my dad's German sub-q fat :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

And wide pelvises.

-Oak, who shares my mom's Chinese pelvis and my dad's German sub-q fat :rolleyes:

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It's special people like you, Oak half-Asians (based what you said) that complicate census studies. :rolleyes: Just kiddin' : I have 1 grown niece and nephew who are Eurasian --sister married a Scottish-Brit (I think). And then there's another baby to be born along the way with another sister who married similar as other sister.

By the way, my long-term partner a cyclist, is German-Canadian...immigrated as a little boy. I grew up in a Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, a German-Mennonite based area. And I work for an international German engineering firm. Seems to me I can't escape... :D

Anyway, since my partner imitates his mother's great German cooking (she has true pastry chef skills and I ate alot that she prepared), I have better appreciation of those kuchens, tortes, etc...of SERIOUSLY gourmet/high quality German or French desserts.

So know how I regressed... :o
Best combination of Asian diet and western IMHO, is when you see the children born in North America who are not fat, but are taller, bigger boned and just right in weight against their smaller boned parents. Most likely the children's diet was during childhood like mine, predominantly Asian but there was more healthy milk products/calcium in the diet. Alot of butter doesn't count here...

Just want to mention that I tried to look up nutritional value of some Asian veggies (gai lan, bok choy, sui choy, fuzzy melon, bitter melon, pea shoots, fresh lotus root, fresh water chestnuts, etc.). Stuff that I've been buying & eating for over 4 decades.

It's pretty tough to find the info. in English. Oh well, so what. I'll just continue to eat the stuff. Just as long as I don't overcook it and kill its goodness.

Brown rice isn't supposed to be much better than white rice in terms of glycemic index,..nearly just as high. I love wild rice, which doesn't belong in the same family at all. But it's expensive. :cool: I've tried red rice which one of the East Indian employees at work, prepared and brought for us to sample.

So I have to just reduce amount of sushi restaurant visits or reduce my homemade sushi output.

But I plan to still indulge occasionally with my homemade focaccia from scratch with smoked salmon, capers, touch of dijon mustard (for zip), goat cheese, onions, garlic and fresh dill.

Still trying to adjust in a world of less rice or less bread, even if it's healthy grain artisan bread.

Still think regressing to my childhood diet is the best thing for me minus lots of rice.
All I need to do is look at my father...nearly 79 he has no cardiovascular nor respiratory problems. He doesn't smoke nor drink alcohol. He has been diagnosed like me..LOW blood pressure. He doesn't really exercise much except walk to store to buy newspaper. He still walks with a light sprightly step. He is 5'3" at 110 lbs. or less. For nearly 20 years now, he and mother have reduced their intake of salt, which includes soy sauce. My mother has high blood pressure. (She also has a hyper type A personality.) Their Chinese-speaking doctor told her to drastically reduce the soy sauce intake. They are more careful on fats and sugars. Only on special occasions. They have never eaten large amounts of desserts anyway.

You can still cook and have Chinese food with hardly any soy sauce by the way.

Unless one has a home-cooked meal, I still think alot of people are unfamiliar with variety of steamed MEAT --not just fish, but also steamed chicken, steamed beef or pork. It's much healthier cooking technique but just not served much in restaurants. On the FoodTV network, one of the Japanese Iron chefs, did a meat savoury egg custard. Judges thought it was wierd. Well, it ain't! This is an old, old type of dish..that's been around for generations in some Asian countries. I love preparing it...the egg (which is gently beaten) and watered down abit with water, fluffs up in the steaming water bath in pot with yummy sliced meat or mushrooms inside with ginger root /onion. Hardly any fat..if you want to be a purist by using EggBeater whites.

There's a whole world out there...but the food prep. secrets seem to stay tucked at home..

yummm the egg custard. Such traditional dish.
Odd???? How could that be?

Prepared right, and its savory without hot, salty, or sweet taste. It just melts in your mouth with yumminess that can't be surpassed. And one of the best dish when you are sick.

If you can get it at a restaurant, definitly give it a try.

I make mine with home made chicken consomme (no fat), shredded chicken breast, shiitake mushroom, bit of celery leaves floated on the top and of course the egg.

But I love sticky rice and Bao... :eek::eek: doesn't do much justice to GI value. Bao=asian hamburger :p

smilingcat

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Originally Posted by smilingcat

yummm the egg custard. Such traditional dish.
Odd???? How could that be?

Prepared right, and its savory without hot, salty, or sweet taste. It just melts in your mouth with yumminess that can't be surpassed. And one of the best dish when you are sick.

If you can get it at a restaurant, definitly give it a try.

I make mine with home made chicken consomme (no fat), shredded chicken breast, shiitake mushroom, bit of celery leaves floated on the top and of course the egg.

But I love sticky rice and Bao... :eek::eek: doesn't do much justice to GI value. Bao=asian hamburger :p

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Yea, good and nutritious to have when one is sick. Like chicken soup=steam chicken egg custard with abit of rice on side. I make a steamed chicken dish with small slices of chicken breast, rehydrated lily buds, rehydrated shitake mushrooms or abit of wood fungus. (it's a mushroomy, more chewier taste) with small jot of oil and soy sauce. Takes 15-20 min. for 1 small cereal bowl size to cook in steaming water bath on stovetop. Done. No messy casserole size dish to clean. I really don't believe in using microwave ovens except for reheating leftover food, melting (soy)cheese or instant oatmeal.

After a long bike trip of 2-3 wks., I do go home and make comfort food, which is this type of childhood home food.

Those steamed white savoury buns, bao. And bao also=dumpfenudel, a German steamed white bun too!! They put applesauce or custard sauce over ...2-4 large dumpfenudel in 1 meal. :p There's even a special German dumpfenudel pot to dry steam cook them...not a bamboo steam basket at all.

All those ethnic high GI food, got to cut down. Oh well.

My mother even tried to invent whole wheat flour bao. Hmmm, yea. At least she occasionally tried something different and healthy. After nearly vomitting at the smell of yogurt, when she first immigrated to Canada, 20 years later she likes to use it in her muffin batter. Father shares muffin-making task. :)

We can maybe have lightly panfried white radish cakes with chives for dim sum? Similar mouthfeel for high GI foods, but healthier, perhaps lower GI for radish cakes, eh?

Bao is humbao? THAT would be my everlasting vice if I found somewhere that prepared it nicely.

I often look at diet and culture and try to figure out why some people are larger than others. I think (though it's my unofficial way of thinking) that it's the convenience of pre-prepared and restaurant food? My analogies are horrible but when I'm at home and make sausage or bacon and eggs, I use turkey bacon or sausage and egg beaters. I use a non-fat spray on the frying pan. If I heat up an english muffin, it's whole grain and I just put butter spray on it. If I were to go to a restaurant or eat frozen food, I'm sure my breakfast would be MUCH higher in fat and calories.

I'm still wondering though, is rice all that bad? Or is it rice mixed in with other things?

Rice is pure starch, has no vitamins or minerals to speak of and no roughage.
At least brown rice (or red rice) has some roughage, vitamins and minerals. Not a lot, but some.

The reason that people went for white (refined) rice instead of whole brown rice is that the calories are accessible faster. So you get more of a sugar rush, but then you're hungry faster.

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Originally Posted by mimitabby

Rice is pure starch, has no vitamins or minerals to speak of and no roughage. At least brown rice (or red rice) has some roughage, vitamins and minerals. Not a lot, but some.

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Um.... leaving aside the question of whether all brown rice is fungible and just going by the USDA's nutrient database, LGBR is high in protein, very low in sugar, high in complex carbs, high in iron, zinc, selenium and magnesium, very high in total fiber, high in vitamins B1, B6, pantothenate, and very high in niacin. It's hypoallergenic and pH neutral after digestion, unlike most grains which are acid-forming and highly allergenic.

A study published in 2006 in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition found that "[t]he total sugar released in vitro was 23.7% lower in brown rice than in milled rice. In healthy volunteers, the glycemic area and glycemic index were, respectively, 19.8% and 12.1% lower (p < 0.05) in brown rice than milled rice, while in diabetics, the respective values were 35.2% and 35.6% lower." [emphasis supplied] (Vol. 57, No. 3-4 p. 151)

Obviously any diabetic should follow her own doctor's recommendations, but the blanket statement that rice isn't good food is just wrong. Many people regard it as one of the most perfect foods on the planet.

I'm sorry, I meant it as a comparison.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

A study published in 2006 in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition found that "[t]he total sugar released in vitro was 23.7% lower in brown rice than in milled rice. In healthy volunteers, the glycemic area and glycemic index were, respectively, 19.8% and 12.1% lower (p < 0.05) in brown rice than milled rice, while in diabetics, the respective values were 35.2% and 35.6% lower." [emphasis supplied] (Vol. 57, No. 3-4 p. 151)

Obviously any diabetic should follow her own doctor's recommendations, but the blanket statement that rice isn't good food is just wrong. Many people regard it as one of the most perfect foods on the planet.

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Wow, Oak. Somehow I sense you've had to do lots of research in past few years to deal with your health problems (allergy thing). Thank you for the scientific reference.

Maybe this is not obvious to people who never grew up on predominantly rice-based/Asian diet, but common reason why at least some of the Asian countries tended to lean heavily on white rice....was more cultural and status thing. White rice was viewed as "higher" status than brown rice. Yea, the colour thing, colour of purity or whatever. Think about it, the offerings to the gods in temples...tended to be primarily white rice.

t
eigyr: yea, I'm talking about the same bao --whatever all kinds of filling variations. The German dumpfenudel by the way, doesn't have any filling. Hope you take advantage of Vancouver's dizzingly larger choice of places to buy bao, dim sum when popping in from Seattle.

Restaurant food is a problem in controlling ingredients...but admittedly sometimes can give illusion of tasting better.

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Originally Posted by shootingstar

Maybe this is not obvious to people who never grew up on predominantly rice-based/Asian diet, but common reason why at least some of the Asian countries tended to lean heavily on white rice....was more cultural and status thing.

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It's the same thing with wheat in European cultures.

PS I love bao too, but I'm too lazy to make them... I only get them when I visit my mom and she's in the mood ;)

I love rice!

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Originally Posted by teigyr

Bao is humbao? THAT would be my everlasting vice if I found somewhere that prepared it nicely.

I often look at diet and culture and try to figure out why some people are larger than others. I think (though it's my unofficial way of thinking) that it's the convenience of pre-prepared and restaurant food?

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Always try the long-term independent Chinese bakeries / tea shops for better bao. Best ones have hand minced pork or chicken with finely chopped shitake mushrooms, onion, even just a bit of salted turnip (which is like a preserved condiment), etc. Nice with some chopped lower fat Chinese sausage. yes, a vice...now we're falling off the rails from healthy diets. :o

The effect of the worst parts of Western diet is obvious when you go to Hawaii and look at big size of some people there and the food now. It amazed me that SPAM, that tinned meat is considered part of an entree choice in a fast food restaurant.

It was rare 30 years ago to see North American Asian women anywhere, with serious breast cleavage PLUS heavy upper arms. Now to me, it's more common...particularily on younger women, not necessarily a good thing.

And why would I notice?....Asians were more visible back then, there were less of them in the masses in North America.

I did grow up with parents who became what I thought at that time, a little paranoid of fat and sugar. Childhood memories of helping Mom scraping out the congealed fat from refrigerated soup broths. (Would children be helping out this way in kitchen now? Probably not.) She spent lots of time cutting off skinfat from meats before preparing them for the freezer...for 8 people. It was probably because my father was restaurant cook, he just saw ..it all..behind the scenes.

Read this yesterday and remembered this thread. (Had to search a little to find it.)

"Americans who eat two or more servings of brown rice a week reduce their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by about 10 percent compared to people who eat it less than once a month."

Correlation isn't causation, of course (as the story grudgingly points out in the last paragraph ;)), but the absence of correlation of brown rice consumption with an increased risk of diabetes is instructive.

I missed the original discussion here, but another reason why white rice (and white flour) gained in popularity over brown was because it keeps better and it's easy to transport in the absence of refridgeration. Strip off all the fats, nutrients and fiber, and what's left is almost indestructible!

Personally, I find white rice exceedingly boring. I'll choose brown over white any day...just for texture and flavor, if not for nutrition.

I haven't had any type of rice since June 2nd. On that day Luftansa Airlines served truly bad version of white rice. Gluey.

I have walked by resolutely every single Asian eatery in Europe so far.
In respect, for the better versions of properly cooked rice varieties that I have known for so long and for knowing how to prepare properly. Every time I walk by, I am reminded of the huge range of Asian restaurants' food choicesand quality in Vancouver (and Toronto where I lived before).

Will I have rice in Toronto ....when I return to visit Canada to see family?

Of course.....I cannot change my mother to cook brown rice. I only see her once a year or less. Probably some siblings/friends might offer something too. Not sure.

So I save consumption for the times where it's closest to the heart.. Food is cultural and can signal intimate, long memory that cannot be wiped out. I just eat alot less white rice last few years. That's all.