How to be on diet
By admin on 2014-12-26

Oprah, Atkins, South Beach, Cabbage Soup, move aside… there's an old diet in town

Oh yes, we hear your question, dripping with skepticism and marinated in disbelief:'Can I really lose weight eating Chinese food?'
 
The short answer is yes. And not just yes, but a resounding YES! What's more, you can keep the flab off for good. Forever. Ad infinitum. Till kingdom come. We're serious.
 
Yes, we know, we know, there's an obesity epidemic sweeping the nation. People are becoming fatter than pandas these days. But, as we point out in our special report on obesity, one of the reasons for China's expanding waistlines in recent decades is that the Chinese have steered away from some of the more traditional aspects of their age-old food culture. Now they eat more on the run, eat more meat, eat more fast food; eat more of everything, in fact. More on that here.
 
But the fact is that the traditional Chinese diet does work and has worked for thousands of years. Mind you, it's not a quick fix. Like most things in China it requires time and inordinate patience. But give it that and you'll be pleasantly surprised at the benefits the Chinese diet can have to your health and the positive contributions it can make to the body beautiful.
 
Lorraine Clissold has spent years cooking – and studying – Chinese food. She ran a successful Chinese cookery school for foreigners in Beijing, and then wrote a book called Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories, which distills the essence of her acquired knowledge. In it she reveals the age-old secrets of the Chinese diet. So here it is, the wisdom of the ages: a 12-step program for modern times. No more diet books, no more weight loss programs. You won’t need them on The Chinese Diet…
 
1. Stop. Counting. Calories.
The first and fundamental difference between the way people eat in China and in the West is one of attitude. The Chinese traditionally treat food as something that will nourish you, not as a source of unwanted calories. Food, good food, eaten in the right way, in the right environment, makes you fit, not fat. Fact.
 
Says Clissold: "Instead of seeing food as the enemy and focusing on what not to eat, often depriving the body of nutrients, the Chinese focus on making food taste good and meeting the body's needs."
 
2. Don't fear the fan
In China, a meal isn't a meal without a substantial element of fan. "Carbs!? That stuff makes you fat!" we hear you cry. It doesn't, in fact. But our Western obsession with protein-loaded, fat-ridden Atkins-type diets has hoodwinked us into believing it does. Forget that poppycock and believe in the fan. It's the white stuff.
 
Says Clissold: "Remember this is not a diet plan, but a style of eating that is a way of life, has more than 3,000 years of Chinese history behind it and more than a billion slim people on its side."
 
3. Liquid diet
Alas, not what you're thinking. We're talking about fan's liquid equivalent, called zhou. In the West, we know it by its southern Chinese name, 'congee.' It's usually eaten for breakfast in China, right across the nation. There’s all different types of zhou – sweet and savory, with nuts, fruits, pulses, meats and fish and just about every Chinese vegetable you can imagine. It's tasty, good for you and… you can get it at KFC.
 
Says Clissold: "Try to acquire the zhou habit for breakfast. It has a cleansing effect which rids the body of toxins while preventing dehydration."
 
4. Treat veggies as your BFF
The traditional Chinese diet is mostly based around vegetable dishes. That's a stark contrast from our 'meat and two veg' Western diet model. By making veggies the focus, you're getting all those essential vitamins and minerals and avoiding the fat. Of course meat's important, just don't load up on it. The traditional Chinese diet is carnivore-lite. In short, do what your mother said, eat all your veggies – they're good for you.
 
Says Clissold: "Chinese food culture is so nutritious and healthy not only because of the minor role played by meat, but also because of what Chinese people eat instead of meat. Animals don't produce anti-oxidants in the same way, so they need to get them from plants, which is why the Chinese worked out thousands of years ago that 'the vegetables are the dishes'."
 
5. Mix it up
Chinese meals don't have a centerpiece. The dishes arrive on the table in random order so everyone can take a little from each dish. No single ingredient is ever served in large quantities; the preference is always for a large number of different foods served in manageable amounts.
 
Says Clissold: "Try to adopt a multi-dish way of eating and listen to your body's response. By taking a little from each of the dishes the diner soon feels satiated."
 
6. Eat until you're full
You mean I can eat as much as I like? Yes, we mean exactly that. 'Full' doesn't mean 'Oh, I would love some more but I won't because I'm watching my weight.' It means comfortably full. No, it doesn't mean you can stuff your face at Macky D's; it only works with a balanced Chinese diet. All you can eat. Go for it.
 
Says Clissold: "The key to success with the Chinese diet is to eat promiscuously. Try everything. Be adventurous. Close your eyes and take a bite. Chinese people know when they've had enough, and that's because they have had enough. When ordering at restaurants, just remember that the general Chinese rule is one dish per person. Six diners, for example, means six dishes. And remember, without fan it's impossible to chi bao (eat until you are full)."

7. Make a meal of it
Make an occasion of meals. Chinese-style dining means families and friends come together to eat. In the West, we've lost that custom and now eat on the run or miss meals altogether.  Lunch, we’re told, is for wimps. Bullshit. Three proper meals a day. Every day of the year. That's how to do it.

Says Clissold: "The whole nature of the traditional multi-course Chinese meal is designed for a number of people. Also, three meals a day in China means three meals, not two over-processed dry snacks with a token garnish of shriveled lettuce and something out of the microwave for supper."
 
8. Balance the flavors
The traditional Chinese diet incorporates, whenever possible, five flavors into every meal: sweet, sour, salty, pungent and bitter. According  to Chinese dietary theory, each element 'enters' one of the organs. Sweet enters the spleen/stomach. Sour finds its way into the liver/gallbladder, bitter enters the heart/small intestine, pungent enters the lung/large intestine and salty enters the kidney/bladder. No organ left behind.
 
Says Clissold: "After finishing Chinese-style meals, most diners just don't have the same desire for a sweet course as we do in the West. The stomach has been satisfied, and, because of the mix of flavors in the meal, the other organs have too. Adopt the Chinese style of eating and your chocolate craving will eventually go away as the new range of flavors in your diet helps the body discover its own natural balance."
 
9. Keep it real
The basis of the traditional Chinese diet is freshly picked, freshly prepared foods. Real food grows, it lives! Our bodies are living organisms, so we should nurture like with like, namely, real foods.
 
Says Clissold: "Eating in China is all about real food. If you have to eat processed or prepared food, take it for what it is – a food substitute, not real food and certainly not a meal."
 
10. Go green
Drink green tea. Unlike black tea and coffee, which provide a quick fix often followed by a slump, the natural enzymes in green tea make for a refreshing, thirst quenching and gently stimulating cuppa. Apply not-quite-boiling water, the way the Chinese do, to preserve the anti-oxidants in the leaves.
 
Says Clissold: "As your body begins to feel the benefits, you may find that the caffeine-loaded stimulants you have relied on until now begin to lose their appeal."
 
11. Use food to keep you fit
Chinese dietary therapy is all about eating foods that prevent disease, improve health and immunity and, by toning the organs, prolong life. Ginger helps digestion and disperses cold. So do chillies. Garlic counteracts harmful toxins.
 
Says Clissold: "Fortunately, many of the ingredients that make Chinese food taste so delicious are also good for the body."

12. Respect…
… the body's climate. In modern Western society we quite happily put substances into our body at temperatures that our interiors can't tolerate. There's no place in the Chinese diet for iced drinks or frozen delicacies or for piping hot meals and beverages. In China, beverages are drunk warm or at room temperature and there’s a strong preference for cooked food over raw food.
 
Says Clissold: "Don't be dismayed to find all those years of rabbit food and diet drinks have been doing you more harm than good. Try, instead, to keep your body in harmony with the natural world, and don't subject it to extremes."