"Chinese Food"

They featured Chinese food on the news a few days go. And by Chinese food, I mean the pseudo-Chinese/westernized stuff that we've all come to love.

Apparently, some of those saucy dishes are the equivalent of 3 Burger King Whoppers. A Whopper is over 600 calories. Also, double the amount of sodium you should have in a whole day and more! Isn't that disgusting? I'm officially cutting this stuff out of my diet and sticking to the occasional Vietnamese dine in.

I thought Chicken and Broccoli was good for you. Is that true or am I joking myself.

(Westernized) Chinese food is definitely some of the WORST food you can eat. We're talking HIGH fat and HIGH calorie, for sure. About the only thing you can get on the menu that's half-way healthy is the no-meat vegetable dishes. Most of their meats are deep fried. I always used to get the chicken and vegetable dish with the peanuts in it -- can't think of the name at the moment -- and I found out it was one of the HIGHEST in fat and cal -- NEVER again!!! I wouldn't trust the chicken and broccoli either -- no way! NONE of it. It's all swimming in oil.

As far as I know, westernized Chinese foods are loaded with starch and sugar and oil. In order to create the rich taste, they would put crazy amounts of MSG in everything. The starch is also the reason why the sauce is so thick. My friend used to work at a westernized chinese restaurant and he told me that.....the chef, the waiters, the delivery person and even the owner had never eaten anything on their menu once! I'd suggest that if you're craving for some Chinese food, go to a Chinese restaurant where you actually find Chinese ppl eating there. Have you ever seen Chinese lining up for Golden Chopsticks?

Chicken and broccoli IS your best bet with chinese food. I think its 150 calories or so for ONE of their little scoops with that spoon.  However the sodium is really high.

Again, in moderation you're okay.  Mexican is my weakness :)

chicken and brocolli from a westernized chinese takeout place is really not your best bet.  they deep fry the chicken to decrease cooking time.  you should just ask for a steamed chicken dish with a white sauce.  the longer you have to wait for your chicken, the better.  and whatever you do, do NOT get the egg foo young.  i hear they throw all kinds of animal fat in that sauce to make it taste better.  i know this because my friend's ex boyfriend owned a chinese restaurant.

I love those little restaurants in food courts where they fry up the foof for you right there. Its called like Tokyo Express or something. Very good. Very good for you too. They just throw some vegies on this giant skilit thing, water, some meat if you want, some sauce, and put it on rice! Now thats chinese food!
I sometimes get craving for springrolls... so I bought a box of President Choice ones, 200 cals for 3! Woo hoo!

Tokyo Express = Chinese food? erh.....

Again, like I said, do not visit a westernized Chinese restaurant.

They DO put animal fat in there.....Just look at the container after you finish your take out. You could use that oil to fry an egg on a frying pan.

Tokyo Express and Subway are my two favorite "Fast Food" joints. But again, all in moderation!

Its, Oriental-ish... right?

Ha ha sorry about that...i just couldn't help it when I see people mix up Japanese and Chinese...like the Oscars Academy Awards.....

Anyway, I love Subway too!!! Their Roast Chicken Wrap is soooo good...

screw chinese food. you want asian? then go for

japanese
thai
korean
vietnamese

MUCH better choices..

Oh this thread makes me sad! I love chinese food! Ouch. And to make matters worse, there is a heavenly chinese buffet right beside my gym!! It's so hard walking out every day to smell that!  Haha! I've only been in once, and that's because my husband was in the parking lot after my aerobics class & he wanted Chinese! But it was sooo good! They even had a sushi bar. It's going to be painful trying to go cold turkey! Haha, I'm a sucker for Chinese & Mexican!

Oh. Well Im not very good at differentiating the different contry the food originates from. Dont know the difference between award shows either, but thats just out of not caring. I guess I probably should have known that (Helloo, Tokyo Express? Duh).

I love the Chicken Teriyaki at Subway, with the (apparently its low fat!) Sweet Onion Sauce.

*drool*

OH And Ground Turkey makes a Kick @ss taco.

Mmmm

Taco

I eat the real Chinese stuff...I love athentic foods...so if I go to a Chinese restuarant I want atleast 80% of the customers to be Chinese....then I eat funky stuff that scares most of my friends to death...I love dim sum...which some of you may think are the pork buns....but dim sum is actually a whole dining experience of small dishes, and rarely do I eat the pork buns...I prefer shrimp wrapped in rice paper, spare ribs in bean, and chickens feet...these are all tiny dishes, only a few bites...but I like to have a mixture

I do the same for Thai or Japanese food....but then I used to live in Asia, and have never been impressed with Westernized Asian foods...full of sugar and oil

What about "mongolian barbecue" food?  There's a "Chinese" restaurant I'll be lunching at today that also has a mongolian barbecue, where you pick your own items (meat, veggies, sauce) and they cook it right in front of you.  Anyone have any suggestions as to what to eat & what to stay away from on this front?

P.S.  PLEASE reply soon, I'm leaving in about 3 hours (lunching w/hubby & kids)!!!

Hope this is not too late suzigirl :)

For Mongolian bbq, the nice thing is you pick your own ingredients and your own sauce. So you have full control of what is going to end up in your bowl. You can pick as much as veggies as you want. They have some noodles for you to choose from as well that are ok. But stay away from the dark soy sauce...those are extremely high in sodium and they mix those with animal fat. Pick some chicken meat if you are a omnivore.

When the guy cook it, ask him to put less oil. Their "frying pan" is so big and hot that I don't think they put a lot of oil to cook anyway...and I actually once saw a guy (in a Mongolian restaurant in Vanouver) when he cooked the food, he cut out the excessive oil coming out from the meat. since the "frying pan" is flat like a table top, it's possible to ask them do this ! :P

Hope this helps.

Thanks gomui, that's what I was thinking!  I'm even considering going with no sauce, just "stir fry" it so I can stay away from the sodium (big problem in my eating habits).  Wish me luck!

Well I was as good a girl as I could be at the mongolian grill.  I had 4 oz chicken, 1/4 c onion, and 1/2 cup each of bean sprouts, broccoli, pea pods, green peppers & mushrooms.  I caved on the sauce though, I had them add some garlic sauce, without MSG (no oil) so I only counted 1 serving of 2 tbsp for 610 mg of sodium.  I also had a BIG glass of water to drink instead of a diet soda.  So far today, as of 4pm, I have only had about 700 calories!  Yay me!  Don't worry everyone, I haven't figured in dinner yet.  Thanks for everyone's help!

i was gonna go out to a chinese resturaunt tomorrow for lunch=( i knew it would be bad but not that bad! haha

We ordered Chinese delivery a few days ago at work. I ordered chicken and broccoli with NO sauce. When it arrived I squirted some Wish Bone Salad Spritzers Asian silk on it. Pretty tasty and I would have to think not having the sauce helped.