I think I grew up eating a very similar diet to what shootingstar described (got me all nostalgic for home!),

*BUT* I do get annoyed when people think that Asian cuisine is the solution to all of their dietary problems. It's probably a better way to eat than most, but there are still a few things to keep an eye on, like the sodium in soy sauce, or my mom's friend who had a stent put in and has been told by her doc to stay off the white rice (she does 1/2 white 1/2 brown b/c she can't stand the flavor of brown rice). I love tofu and soy milk, but some people can't digest it.

Long term benefits? I hope I haven't undone anything because I certainly haven't eaten that well since I grew up and moved out. It's probably an individual thing with many factors. I do have uncles and aunties in Taiwan who worry about keeping their weight down. Could be a problem of recent prosperity against scarce resources when they were growing up. Could be more access to western convenience products from McD's & 7-Eleven, who knows? My mom has struggled with emotional eating and keeping her weight down ever since I was born (it's my fault), and dad has, too, depending on his stress levels and whether or not he makes time for exercise and makes good decisions about what he eats when he's not at home. All this in spite of a lot of home cooking and home-grown vegetables.

Crankin, some of that weight gain you're experiencing after an Asian meal _could_ be from water retention if you're eating anything with lots of sodium. Try reaching for the low-sodium soy sauce or asking the chef to leave out the MSG. I started to get really bad PMS bloating a few years ago, and my doc told me to try cutting my sodium back. It helps, a bit.