12 Reasons You Should Eat Asian Cuisine || Weight-loss and Health Benefits – Glam Radar

by Maria · September 19, 2014

As you know my email address is always open for you to send suggestions (you can locate my email address here) on what type of posts you would like to see from me. At least once every few days I get a email from some of you asking for more bento tutorials. Seeing as I can’t get around to that just yet (need to head out a get some shopping first!) I decided to give you guys some reasons why you should switch to eating Asian style and the benefits from eating Asian food! (ps. if you do switch the Asian cuisine your bound to lose a whole lotta weight if that is what you are looking for!)  12-reasons-you-should-eat-asian-cuisine-weight-loss-and-health-benefits So most of Asian meals are made up of mostly veggies. A typical Korean meal will but only a small amount of meat and then lots and lots of vegetables. This is very beneficial because as we all know vegetables are very low in calories. Some of the common low in calorie vegetables used in Asian cooking are cabbage, lettuce, radish, broccoli, spinach and Chinese greens. If you replace a large portion of your diet to vegetable based diet you will have no trouble loosing weight and maintaining it, that I have no doubt. But, make sure you don’t fill you diet with starchy veggies like potatoes. Most Asian countries and their supermarkets do no produce fruit and veg that are not in season, unlike here in Europe were you can get apples and pumpkins pretty much all year round. Eating food by the season is good for you because they food will have the nutrients and vitamins that may be more important to have during winter months for example. There will be more variety in your diet as a result and if you really want to you can grow it yourself and not have to worry about weather conditions and know what you are growing is good, non-processed stuff! In Asia a lot of people will drink tea before, after and during a meal. This is important part of how they stop themselves from over eating. Drinking tea at these times and also when you wake up fills you up so you don’t end up stuffing yourself. But they drink special Chinese teas and green tea. Its a great habit to get into if you can especially with green tea because it has so many benefits, it has lots of  anti-aging elements too it, not to mention it increases your metabolism which can help you in loosing an extra seventy calories a day! There are many types of Chinese teas ( and green tea too) that are used for diet purposes, it helps curb your appetite with the bitter taste!  12-reasons-you-should-eat-asian-cuisine-weight-loss-and-health-benefits-1-1 A lot of families, particularity in China would have soup before every meal. This again is a healthy way of filling you up and stopping your from over eating on your meat and rice. It tends to be far more flavorsome than most soups you will find available in your normal supermarkets because it is brewed fresh with chicken stock and bones. If you are not a fan of soup why don’t you try Miso soup, seeing as it is always a fan favorite, but try making it yourself with less salt! 5. Easier Portion Control. There is smaller plates and bowls used in Asia. Instead of putting everything on one big plate try placing smaller amounts of food (mainly vegetables) in different smaller bowls. This means you will get a little bit of variety and a smaller portion size, your diet will be more rounded as a result. Also you do not get served seconds in most Asian homes or restaurants.  12-reasons-you-should-eat-asian-cuisine-weight-loss-and-health-benefits-3 There is a well known Chinese phrase “Hara hachi bu (腹八分)” which means eat until you are 80% full. Again, Asian culture have many ways of stopping themselves of over eating. To over stuff yourself puts pressure on your stomach and is very unhealthy for you and obviously fattening. Over eating is looked down on quite a bit in Japan and people will call you out on it, some people you are closer to may even refer to you as a pig! 7. Food Is Far More Interesting and Flavorsome. With seasonal cooking naturaly you get more of a variety in your diet. How food is set out tradtionally for most Asian familes is very differnt to western culture. You are not given a large plate with your own helping. You would be given your own small bowl of rice and the rest of the food is shared out in diffrent bowls and plates on the table and you all share taking what you want and placing it on your rice. Asian food has a lot of differnt flavour mixes and they love to season their food and cook spicy dishes. Compared to your usual generic food that you do get quite a bit in Europe. You walk down the street and there is Italian food, French food and American food prodominetly for sale. In Asia you see less of them and hundreads of differnt tradtional food resturants because there are so many diffrent styles and recipes for Asian food that you would never be bored with your dinners! I mentioned before about how the plates are smaller in Asia, but they also have another key element to how they eat their food, that promotes slower eating and less over eating. Chop sticks! It is difficult enough when you do know how to use chopsticks to get large amounts of food into your mouth, particularity rice which is a staple dish. You fit less in your mouth and you eat a lot slower which gives your stomach time to send a message to your brain to let you know you are full. Like I mentioned in reason number seven again every is shared out in traditional meals and you also can’t shovel lots of food onto your bowl or plate either!  12-reasons-you-should-eat-asian-cuisine-weight-loss-and-health-benefits1 9. From White Rice to Brown Rice. So rice is a staple part of Asian diets and meals. If you where visiting Korea or example your don’t ask for rice it just comes with your dish, and if you tell them you don’t want it the servers can sometimes literally be in shock and not understand why you wouldn’t want any. But rice is eaten in so many countries often, so to make it take bit healthy you should switch to brown rice or multi-grain rice if you eat it a lot. It has less calories and if filling for much longer. Most traditional Asian restaurants will not serve cake or ice-cream for desserts. A lot of placing will have tea with a small sweet. But if they do offer dessert it is always nearly fruit. Its healthy, tasty and not expensive to provide. Again, with seasonal cooking you will only get the freshest and best fruit out there! 11. Eat More Fish And Seafood. I know a lot of people so not enjoy sea food, but you should really give it a try, there are so many different ways of cooking fish and Asian recipes are some of the best! Fish is obviously high in fish oils and omega 3 which are so good for you and keep your immune system up in tip top shape. They are lower in calories and in fat, I mean come on when is the last time you had to pull of a thick layer of fat off your fish like you have to do with your pork chop or steak. Fish and seafood are high in protein so you should try switch to eating more of it than the likes of beef. If you change from red meet to white meet it is a lot better for you! 12. Eat Asian Snack Foods. There is such a major difference in snack foods in general supermarkets and Asian supermarkets. Especially in the the sizing and types of snacks available. In general supermarkets you will find huge bags of crisp, jellybeans, lollies and in Asian ones they will have those but in a smaller size mainly, and far more nuts and dried fruits and seeds that taste delicious. There is also some candy that may not be great for you but would be better than a lot of the American stuff! But be warned some Asian snack foods are high in sodium so if you are trying to cut down on your sodium intake make sure that you read the back of the packet! Oh, and one more thing… Asian stores tend to be a lot less expensive than normal supermarkets!  12-reasons-you-should-eat-asian-cuisine-weight-loss-and-health-benefits-1-3

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