I can confirm, eating local “healthy” food I gained a lot of weight, then with exercise + food I’m more used to (and that some people would consider less healthy) I dropped quite a few kilos.
theres plenty of healthy non greasy food. most taiwanese stuff is pretty soupy too, so you can avoid the oil. unless you add la you. wontons, beef noodles, lu rou fan, zha jiang mian, shui jiao, hot pot ect. all of these basic types of food are fine. the problem is most of them are 90% carbs. the noodles/ rice ratio to meat and veg is way out of wack if you don’t want to eat a shit load of carbs all day. of course you can go to those buffet restaurants and choose whatever you like, you can skip the rice. but those places ain’t exactly tasty.
preparing your own food is always going to be the best option if you want to be healthy though.
Yeah for sure. Like many of us, I work long hours but also try to get my socialising in at the same time. So a trip down to the pub with mates often ends in a few beers. More than I used to back home. I’ve calmed it down a bit, but yeah as it is the primary way I socialise, I probably drink too much.
I’ll start giving the buffets more attention and/or start getting into the habit of cooking more and fitting exercise in.
I’m just so exhausted by the time I get home, I’m often too tired to both cook and exercise. Many people manage to do it, and I had no problems back home but here the long work hours have been a tough adjustment.
This is why we avoid carbs in low carb diets - we already eat too much of them…
If you eat more calories from carbs or other sources than your body can use, the cells store the excess as fat.
… and if you don’t change this state of health, then you risk becoming diabetic later in life.
…people with diabetes or prediabetes often track the carbs they eat; eating too many carbohydrates, especially sugars and refined starches, can cause blood sugar and/or insulin to spike to potentially dangerous levels in people with diabetes.
Do you drink those sugared ice tea drinks? Those things are bad news. I think the first survival Mandarin I learned was “Bu jia tang, xie xie!”
Healthy Taiwanese food? When I want some tasty stuff that will also keep my weight under control (more or less) I go for steamed vegetarian dumplings (su jian jiao)–the ones cooked in the bamboo steamers.
It’s not just the drinks, any kind of bread, buns, sauces, gravies, mayo, etc are loaded with sugar. You may not add sugar to your tea or coffee but still consume a good amount without realizing it. Study the labels.