Korean Food

I'm living in Korea at the moment.  Lots of things are very clearly labelled xxKcal so it's not too bad trying to calculate calorie intake on packaged goods.  When it comes to prepared meals- in restaurants and school lunch (which is delicious but a diet nightmare as it is COMPULSORY and gets a big frown if anything is wasted) - it is really hard to estimate or even find a guide online. 

Does anyone know of any rough calorie guides to Korean type meals?

Whether it's Korean, French, Mexican or Japanese, food breaks down pretty much the same.... vegetables/salads, fruit, protein, carbohydrate and fats.  Specific varieties might change from country to country but how it's chopped up and presented is the only real difference.   

Vegetables/salads are the lowest calorie so if you fill most of your plate with those at every opportunity you're off to a good start.  A portion of carbohydrate should be about the size of a tennis ball and regardless of whether it is noodles, rice, pasta, yams or potatoes it'll come back to about 200 cals on average.  Similarly, a portion of lean protein... meat, fish, tofu, eggs... which is about the size of a deck of cards or the palm of your hand will also be about 200 cals.  Fat is the most calorific element so if you can choose grilled foods over fried foods and don't add dressings or sauces too lavishly that will keep the total down.

I currently live in Korea also.

When it comes to public school lunches, most of the school "nutritionists" keep the calorie count between 700 to 800 calories per meal.  My old public school had menus posted in the teacher's rooms that detailed the estimated calories per meal.

You can try to cut that down by halving the portion of rice that you have, the meat and focus on the side dishes and soup. (We'll worry about the astronomical amount of sodium in all of it a little later)...

OR

You can bring a salad or side dish with you and pick at the school lunch and eat your food. It doesn't make you any friends (they take it personally, like Korean food is not good enough for you) but at least you know what you'll be eating.

The other option is to opt out of school meals completely. Despite what they tell you, it most certainly IS NOT mandatory. You talk to your head teacher, fill out a request form to stop having the meals fees taken from your salary and then just bring your food down when it's time to eat.

That's really interesting, thanks.  I do actually love school lunch and I don't want to face the nightmare of refusal - yes, they do take it very personally, don't they?  700 to 800 calories seems like a lot - about half my daily intake!  Still, if it's my main meal of the day that's not so bad.  I'll try and find if they post the calories in my school - I know there is a menu somewhere.  I'll try cutting the rice down a little - I already avoid as much meat as I can.  I was a happy vegetarian before I left the UK - it's too hard to keep it up here, though I usually avoid the chunks of pork and beef.

I suspected high sodium, but also a deceptive quanitity of sugar in the form of corn syrup or just plain old white granulated goes in lots of stuff too. 

Part of the problem is that, while they frown upon anyone who is even slightly overweight, any suggestion that I need to eat less because I want to lose weight is met with a 'no, no, you don't need to' or 'this is really healthy' (as is ALL Korean food, regardless of obvious lumps of fat and copious amounts of sugar).  I'll keep trying though. 

Keep in mind too that that calorie "guide" is a rough estimate on portions and chances are you aren't getting the full portion sizes that they are based on.

You are right about the sugar. A majority of those side dishes have corn syrup added to them to balance out the amount of salt they use to pickle.

I live in Korea as well. I don't know if you understand Korean or not but I've found this site pretty helpful...http://www.47kg.co.kr/ The entire site is in Korean but you can just type the food name into the search bar and it will pull up that food and the calories in it. There are usually several of the same dish so I just pick the highest calorie one. If you can't read Korean but have some dishes you eat often, just PM me and I'll send you the calorie info. 

I'm living in Korea right now, too, and this is one of my big issues. I make most of my own food because the food my school serves is so unhealthy -- fatty pork, various rice products, rarely a vegetable. Definitely try to pile the plate with vegetables if it's an option, and cut down on rice. All that white rice gives me an upset stomach.

It's definitely hard though -- food is my number one complaint about living here!

haha I don't really see what the issue is. I've been here for 2 years and have had no issues losing weight. It's always about quantity. I work for a hagwon so my school doesn't provide lunch however I order Korean food everyday. You just have to pick something suitable. Eating rice isn't the problem. Look at all of the Koreans... majority of them don't have any sort of weight problem.

But most Koreans, at least the ones I work with, also don't eat very much food. I cook for myself and usually make chicken and veggies. In the cafeteria, it's all white rice and other rice products, fatty pork, various fried items and kimchi (which is super healthy). There's almost no nutritional value. So you might be losing weight but I can't see how it's a healthy diet.

Not trying to criticize, just saying that an all-Korean diet doesn't work for me. I felt SO sluggish and bloated when I ate Korean food all day. Now that I cook for myself, I feel 10 times better.

I can appreciate a little of what everyone says. 

I love Korean food - most of it anyway.  I always had problems with being bloated and with indigestion when I lived in Europe (and it's an inherited thing, my brother and sisters are the same) but since I've lived here I've had no digestive trouble at all.  I'm sure the absence of bread and flour plays a major role.  I'm a kimchi addict and could happily live on kimbap and raw fish.

In an ideal world I would choose not to eat meat, though I love fish and eat it at every opportunity.  What I find hard here is the obligation to eat - it becomes such an issue to refuse.  Despite telling a colleague several times that I prefer to avoid meat if I can she still forced me to taste pigs trotters!  I'm not going to throw a fit for the sake of a taste of a bit of animal flesh, but I do need strategies to be able to make decisions about my own diet without causing bad feelings with colleagues.

It's also interesting that Koreans believe that their food is all so healthy - fatty pork, corn syrup, lots of salt in everything, spam for god's sake! White rice three times a day isn't the best either.   Suggesting to anyone that I'd prefer to eat something a little healthier sometimes causes a bit of a negative, defensive reaction. 

But Alibsam is right - if you can choose what you eat, there are a lot of good things here, and as I said, I love it, best cuisine I've ever had.  Quantity control is a factor, but what I was hoping for is some idea of calorie and nutritional content so that I can make wise decisions, not simply eat less of everything.  I'm not sure how to even begin with this as, for example, we had fish at school today, very nice,in a pepper sauce of some kind, but how many calories?  Was it loaded with oil and sugar?  What kind of fish? 

Original Post by rubyblue12:

But most Koreans, at least the ones I work with, also don't eat very much food. I cook for myself and usually make chicken and veggies. In the cafeteria, it's all white rice and other rice products, fatty pork, various fried items and kimchi (which is super healthy). There's almost no nutritional value. So you might be losing weight but I can't see how it's a healthy diet.

 

95% of the people I know in Korea are Koreans and despite my being overweight, they consistently eat way more than I do. How do you know what I'm eating to say my diet isn't healthy? Did I say I eat fatty pork and fried food everyday? I stick to things like kimchi jjigae, dwenjang jjigae, etc... things that aren't fried and don't have added sugars, etc. My diet is supplemented with fresh fruits and fresh veggies as well. Perhaps you're just the one who is having a hard time making the right choices with Korean food. No one said go out and eat jjajangmyeon and fried street food everyday. 

daryl- If you have a problem with white rice, you can find brown rice at any supermarket. My coworkers all eat brown rice. The only time I've see them eat white rice is if they order take-out. I've learned to cook Korean food as well so I can control everything that goes into the meal.

Like I said before, PM me with the meals you like the most and I'll look up the calorie content of those meals on that site I posted. Everything is in Korean but it would only take me a couple minutes to get the information to you. 

Hmmm... this interests me because honestly, my coworkers had never heard of brown rice. Most of them didn't know there was an alternative to white rice besides basmati rice, which some of them know from Indian restaurants. Maybe it's just a different part of the country. :)

When I was talking about fatty pork, fried, etc., I didn't mean that's what YOU are eating. I meant that's what my school serves everyday. So if someone ate that everyday, they would be unhealthy, which is why I don't eat my school's food. I have no idea what you eat but it's great to add fruits and veggies to it. There's definitely not enough of that here!

Hi there. I thought I should throw my two cents in as I am also living in Korea.

Korea, and in particular my school lunches, have actually been something of a God-send for me. I'm recovering from a long history of eating disorders and I find the food here to be quite balanced overall. My school does a particularly good job with lunch. Sure, we have white rice everyday, and we have the occassional fried item, but I tend to just watch what others around me are eating. I've not lost weight in Korea (I'm trying to maintain), but I feel healthier here than I have felt in a while.

I recommend a few things. First, just watch what others around you are eating. Embrace kimchi and eat as much produce as you can (especially with summer around the corner- and cheaper prices!). Second, try the Korean stuff. Have fish and kim for breakfast. Try having chestnuts, or if you can handle it, roasted squid, for snacks. Try to replace soda and coffee (if you are addicted to them like me) with tea and soymilk. Learn how to make a few Korean stews at home.

Just a few thoughts. Best of luck! :P

Why do forums always have to get edgy?  Chill, girls.

I don't really have a problem with white rice, I just know it's not as good as brown, but white is so much easier. Often at school it is mixed with beans or grains.  It's not a real issue, I'm sure I make some much more radical and unhealthy lifestyle choices than that without a second thought.  I do cook Korean at home and can do a mean doenjang jjigae, soondubu jjigae and a passable kimbap thanks to Maangchi whose advice saved my life when I first arrived here.

My main problem about food intake does come back to the cultural desire to feed and to share meals.  It's a great cultural trait on the whole, but difficult when you are a foreigner being welcomed and trying to diet at the same time.  The school lunch thing is my only real hurdle and I can deal with that.  I appreciate the offer to look up meals on the Korean website but if it's something I know and can make myself (like Kimchi jjigae) I can calculate it myself from base ingredients.  It's when I'm served something at lunch, for example the fish in some kind of spicy sauce yesterday - I don't know its name or even what kind of fish.  My colleagues don't speak English well enough to tell me what it is so I'm stuck.  I can make an educated guess on most things of course and I'm intrigued by the idea that there is a menu with calorific breakdowns somewhere - not found one yet but I'm still trying.

It is interesting that Koreans are generally very thin despite eating loads.  Having said that I've seen young female teachers here eat like birds and complain of being fat when to me they look underweight.  There is a lot of pressure to be thin and pretty in this culture.  We need to remember that as Westerners we have several generations of wealthy society, surplus food and good nutrition behind us so are now genetically predisposed to being fatter. I was born in the early 1960s and haven't had any of the weight issues faced by by daughter's generation - I'm simply dealing with middle-aged spread!

Weight gain is coming to the Koreans already - just have a look at your teenage students; they will find it harder and harder to remain skinny and I suspect that the two obvious factors affect them and are a lesson to us too. 

First, teenagers are moving away from a traditional Korean diet, which suggests that the traditional food is more useful to us in dieting than imported Western options.  Though it may not seem that way when we look at some of the menu options, consider this - a TV program was made in the Czech Republic based on 'Supersize Me' - I'm sure you're familiar - with someone substituting burgers for traditional Czech food - considered by the modernists to be stodgy, fatty and unhealthy.  The guy actually lost weight.  I guess that Korean food is the same - traditional food is usually somehow well balanced and healthy - otherwise they wouldn't have survived as far as this generation.

The second factor was exemplified this week when I decided to get up early - around 5.30am - to have an hours fast walk in the local sports park.  It was humming with life - old and young, chubby and slim, fit and otherwise.  Koreans do take their exercise seriously.  And, as my final defense of Korean food, though I am trying to lose about 12lbs now, I gained that before I came here.  I only began a determined effort to lose this a week or two ago and it is a testament to a basically healthy food culture that in the six months since I arrived I have started menopause and quit smoking but not gained anything.  I'm thinking losing 12lbs with a conscious effort shouldn't be too hard.

Yes, it's all possible and it's all just a matter of making choices when we can, based on information if we can find it. 

Original Post by rubyblue12:

 

When I was talking about fatty pork, fried, etc., I didn't mean that's what YOU are eating. I meant that's what my school serves everyday. So if someone ate that everyday, they would be unhealthy, which is why I don't eat my school's food. I have no idea what you eat but it's great to add fruits and veggies to it. There's definitely not enough of that here!

 

I'm just replying to what you said:  "In the cafeteria, it's all white rice and other rice products, fatty pork, various fried items and kimchi (which is super healthy). There's almost no nutritional value. So you might be losing weight but I can't see how it's a healthy diet."

And I'm just curious. You said there's definitely not enough of eating fresh fruits and veggies? Do you actually know any Koreans or are you just observing what your coworkers eat at lunch? I'm not trying to be catty but every Korean I know eats vegetables like it's going out of style, rarely eats meat (except for the occasional galbi/samgyeopsal night) and eats fruit for snacks and deserts over ice creams, etc.

daryl-- I do see chubbier Korean students. Like I said, I teach at a hagwon so I don't deal with 'served lunches' but I see my students constantly snacking on chips and I'd have to put that on the Western influence here. This is happening in all countries... not just Korea. It's up to the parents to limit that intake just as it is in the West. I do agree Koreans exercise more but I've found that of the girls my age, they don't exercise. They starve themselves to lose weight instead of eating healthily and exercising. They think this is easier. I live near the Han River so I do see all of the people exercising there. Riding my bike on the path is a pain because so many people are down there walking, however, it's mostly middle aged and older people I'm seeing... not people in their 20s. 

One thing I love but don't have a clue about how 'healthy' they are or their calorie content is o-deng, not necessarily the street bought stuff, but just the pressed fish that can be bought in a bag in a supermarket.  I'm thinking fish=healthy and low fat, but processed=potential oil, sugar and whatever.

Does anyone know?  Also how about just straightforward raw fish? 

When I said there wasn't enough eating fruits and veggies, I was saying there weren't enough served at my school. My Korean friends do eat them as snacks and at non-school meals, but there are rarely any as part of the set school menu.Today for example, lunch was fried pork cutlets in brown sauce, white rice, french fries, kimchi (a veggie!) and gelatinous noodle soup with just broth and noodles. Even when we eat Korean food out, it's not usually vegetable-packed meals.

I'd love some recommendations for delicious and veggie-filled Korean foods, because I'm really at a loss most of the time. It's possible to avoid pork, which I do, but I honestly don't know what to order (besides kimchi meals) that would have the veggies I crave.

And I agree with everything else you said. The younger generation (like our students) seem a lot less fit than their parents and especially grandparents. My kids get winded walking up 2 flights of stairs sometimes, and it's because they are constantly snacking on chips, chocolate, coffee, etc etc etc. It will be interesting to see what happens to this generation in 10 or 20 years.

My school's lunches are on the whole pretty healthy, though there are off days with fried stuff and my personal bugbear, spam/hotdog combo.  There's always a veg option, at least once a week an entirely vegetarian menu and once or twice a week it's fish.  I have never seen french fries here ever, and the only concession to Western food I recall is the spaghetti like stuff. Super bad days are jjimjangmyun which I don't like at the best of times and stir fried rice - both being an eat it or starve option.  Life's too short to starve, so I eat just as much as I need.

Have you ever had school lunches back home (the US I'm guessing?)  I was a high school teacher before I came here and my kids are both grown up now so I heard their opinions about lunch at school and despite best efforts by the government, lunch in British schools are absolutely dire, or at least they were 4 or so years ago when I was there.  I wouldn't feed that stuff to a dog I didn't like.  It's nice to see the kids here eating everything they are given (not that they have a choice) and sad to find that many of them hate it and would much prefer burger or pizza.  I'm sure that this generation will grow up with the same health issues that the West is facing now, not just because of the diet but also as I work in a boys school I see so many boys who happily admit to computer game addiction and rarely leave the house evenings and weekends to do anything else.  I'm not exactly a health freak, but it's pretty scary seeing the high-speed nose-dive into the fast food computer game life style that is happening here.

We alternate Korean and Western meals at my school, with the western meal being a fried meat or spaghetti. Part of my "problem" is that I was spoiled with food at home. When I was younger, my middle/high school had fantastic school lunches -- there was a nutritionist on staff who created fantastic and healthy meals, so I never had to worry about getting stuck with something bad. There was always a healthy, delicious option to substitute for the always-present pizza and hamburgers.

And in college, I got used to being able to choose from a million healthy options at the dining hall. Again, there were plenty of unhealthy things too but worst case, it was always easy to get salad or a wrap. Even after college, I lived down the street from a Whole Foods and Trader Joes -- again, easy and healthy meals were easy to be found.

Then I came to Korea last year and all my options changed. I'm not obsessive about calorie-counting but, like you, I want to know what's in my food and that's my biggest difficulty.

Original Post by darylmorgan:

It is interesting that Koreans are generally very thin despite eating loads.  Having said that I've seen young female teachers here eat like birds and complain of being fat when to me they look underweight.  There is a lot of pressure to be thin and pretty in this culture.  

I know the main focus of this discussion is Korean food, but I'm actually much more alarmed with the Korean media's perpetuating their idea of beauty, which has lead to rampant plastic surgery. Just last week, I was reading about some celebrity getting his nose done (paid for by his management company). When I looked at the before and after photos, all I could think of was "Why?"  http://www.allkpop.com/index.php/full_story/m inhos_shinee_new_nose/

Ruby-- What about eating things like bibimbap? There is rice there but it's also full of veggies. I think most Korean meals aren't necessarily full of veggies so it's supplemented with veggie banchan (sidedishes). Most of the banchan is not full of corn syrup. Also, the school lunches served at my school were absolutely atrocious-- hamburgers, pizza, fries, chips, ice cream and soda every day and then there was a separate supposedly "healthy" lunch served, as well. With fixed budgets I wouldn't expect much from school lunches. I'd just start bringing your own. And something like bibimbap is super easy to make and would transport well to work.

daryl-- According to the site, odeing has 70cals per 50g.

sauvignon-- Nose jobs and eyelid surgeries are the mildest forms of plastic surgery that run rampant here. You have no idea. haha It's very common for celebrities to have surgeries and their companies foot the bill. Often when it's on the news that "X person" is going on vacation to the US to 'study English', they're actually going for an enormous amount of plastic surgery and are taking a few months "holiday" in the US to heal. Many celebs have their noses, cheeks, eyelids, etc done. Also, Korean girls seem to have stick-thin legs or chunky legs. There's a surgery that's fairly popular here where girls have muscle removed from their calves to make their legs thinner. However, this is a whole 'nother can of worms to open.