Chinese kids eating American junk food

[johnmck]

What is so American about taking potatoes and deep frying them?

This reminds me of a story I heard about the time JFK went to Berlin and announced in German, "I am a Berliner" to which he received an almighty roar. In Germany a Berliner is a large tea cake. He might as well have gone to another German town, Hamburg, and announced, "I am a Hamburger". A Hamburger like a Berliner is not an Americian invention but is named after the town that created it.

[JamesGoff]

Just because the food was named after a place in Germany doesnt stop it being an American phenomenon.

The internet was invented by a Brittish man .

Does this make the internet an English Phenomenon ?????

[td36285n]

Giving up junk food is perhaps one of the hardest thing to do, at least for me. Apparently, many Chinese kids (in addition to adults) are finding places like McDonald's and KFC irresistible. When temptation comes knocking, there are little means of resisting one's desire, I suppose. But that doesn't mean it isn't possible.

To quit my craving for fast-food, I used my desire to quit smoking as a motivation. The process of "weening" myself from both these bad habits worked hand-in-hand. If I can avoid smoking for a week, I can avoid eating a Big Mac for a week. The logic being that quiting smoking is much harder than quiting fast-food, or junk food for that matter. So maybe Chinese kids should start smoking earlier, and try to use that to quit their junk food habit, right? (j/k) In their case, they should quit video games alongside fast-food. This is, of course, completely unscientific, but...

"it doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice" -Deng Xiaoping.

To each person his own method of living and quitting.

[Jo-Ann]

JohnMck - When you ate those breakfasts, and then walked out the door, you probably walked to school and back. There was probably recess at school where you ran and played, and after scool, you ran and played again.

What has happened to all the walking and running and playing? Sure some kids are in organized sports. I see parks full of kids kicking soccer balls, but for the most part kids just don't work off all those calories anymore.

[smalltownfart]

Internet

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Just because the food was named after a place in Germany doesnt stop it being an American phenomenon.

The internet was invented by a Brittish man .

That's an interesting comment, can I assume this is a common British perception?

You must be referring to Donald Watts Davies, who is credited with being a co-inventor of "packet switching". I believe there was concurrent research done at the same time in the US and UK, independent from each other. Paul Baran (ARPANET, US) is also credited with inventing "packet switching".

It is a bit of a stretch to say that a Brit invented the Intenet, one can argue that ARPANET contributed more and probably a bit earlier than everyone else.

Moreover, there were other important contributions other than packet switching than seeded today's internet, lots of people contributed to it, so it's kind of unfair to pick one pioneer over another.

[deezy]

"They both like the American food....I cannot stop that." is completely irresponsible

Agreed, as an ABC, my rents never took us out to eat fast-food, and so we never developed those habits to begin with.

I mean sure, if you supply your kid with drugs, porn and video games - I'm sure they will like that too - but it doesn't mean you "cannot" or SHOULDN'T stop that!

As far as Chinese vs American food - the real problem with American food is all the processing - which depletes nutrients - and subsequent additives, which are not healthy. This is done for profit, not health - as homogenized brandname products with long shelf-lives have a far larger profit margin than non-name raw produce or freshly-cooked food. Meanwhile, Chinese food tends to be made from fresh ingredients grown locally - not shipped from states or countries away. Which may be far less profitable - but far healthier.

Of course, all this healtheir food is grossly counteracted by the really ridiculously epidemic Chinese vice of SMOKING.

[JamesGoff]

smalltownfart , you cant assume this is a common British perception because not many people in the UK are smart enough to know about packet switching.

but point taken.

[yingguoguy]

you cant assume this is a common British perception because not many people in the UK are smart enough to know about packet switching.

But lots of people get confused with Tim Berners-Lee who was English and who invented with World Wide Web. I've seen even 'quality' newspapers make this mistake on more than one occassion.

[Green Pea]

Personally' date=' I find the idea that McDonald’s or Coca-Cola is “American” to be slightly misguided and even a bit offensive. What is so American about taking potatoes and deep frying them? Just about every country figured out that mysterious recipe. What is so American about sugary, bubble-y water? These food products are to American food what 方便面 is to Chinese cuisine.[/quote']

I agree and think your comment is an important. The debate here seems to classify American/Western food as fast food delivered by MNCs vs. Chinese food classified as home cooked or small restaurant food. I think the comparison is not appropriate. I have to laugh when people say Western food is McDonald's. That's a big umbrella. What about salmon and asparagus? That's a Western meal and healthy. America has chains of Whole Food Market. No one mentions that. You can choose to eat much healthier in America than in China.

The typical American diet of processed, high sugar, high carb diet is unhealthy. No doubt about that. But that doesn't mean if you are Western/American you eat that three times a day as most Chinese believe. (As an aside, McDonald's doesn't really sell food. It sells convenience and clean restrooms.)

A lot of Chinese food is healthy, and a lot is garbage. Eating huge amounts of rice doesn't do much good either. The Chinese diet also tends to be low in protein. So, Chinese people may be generally slimmer but also have lower levels of muscle mass. If you are eathing a typical Chinese diet, you are not as heathly as you could be. Visceral fat is also an important consideration. I see fat, weak, out of shape people everyday in China. Rarely do I see anyone who I consider fit. Being slim is not necesarily fit. In fact, in my opinion, if you are slim you are not fit.

[bhchao]

I have to laugh when people say Western food is McDonald's. That's a big umbrella. What about salmon and asparagus? That's a Western meal and healthy. America has chains of Whole Food Market. No one mentions that. You can choose to eat much healthier in America than in China.

lol. No one said Western food is McDonald's. Chinese kids in the US (particularly Flushing or in China) are not eating Whole Foods, nor asparagus, nor salmon. Sure they're nutritious, but are the Chinese kids in the article eating what you described? No, they are eating McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, which are all American establishments regardless of the method of cooking involved.

There are many American aspects that are admirable and even good for China, for example a democratic system, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly; or American clothing like blue jeans; or American entertainment. Not so American junk food.

BTW, a perception of McDonald's as junk does not equate to perceiving Western food in general as junk. They are completely two separate issues.

Let me know if you are still unable to figure it out.

[geraldc]

Another of my random theories:

I think climate has a lot to do with eating. In the past Southern Chinese summers were so hot and humid you really didn't feel like eating, especially not something very fatty or something with a lot of meat. They prefered more vegetables i.e. something lighter.

As a result people from the hotter and humid South were thinner and had less muscle mass than people from the North. With the increase in air conditioning, climate now affects people's eating habits less.

When you're in a 100% humidity and totally drenched in sweat you can still eat a bowl of noodles, but burger and fries would be a struggle.

[deezy]

^ Well, climate has a bigger impact...in what can be grown and produced.

Southern cuisine is rice-based, because it is wet and hot enough to grow rice paddies there. Not to mention vegetables and hot spices. But it may be too wet and hilly to tend much livestock.

Northern cuisine is wheat-based, because it is too cold and dry to grow rice up there. And the flatter land is probably better for tending livestock, too. Their land being less arable also means their cuisne tends to be simpler (meat & wheat) and blander.

[wushijiao]

America has chains of Whole Food Market

I'm an ex-vegan (but still love a mainly plant-based diet), and I love Whole Foods, Wild Oats and places like that. I think vegans, vegetarians, and others have been able to create diets based on traditional Western food that is healthy and fairly delicious (at lest in my opinion).

The obesity epidemic in the US, and most of the world, is a fairly new epidemic that has many reasons. Some of them that I can think of:

1) Modern workers don't do much excersize and the rise of an automobile culture

2) The decline of the home cooked meal

3) The popularity of soda

4) The introduction of factory farming, making eating meat and dairy a reality for more than just nobles and the rich

5) Huge subsidies to the meat and dairy industry, at least in the US. (Watergate, for example, uncovered how Nixon couldn't fight the power of the milk industry.)

6) The rise of processed foods. (I just watched 5 minutes of commercials on CCTV, nad at least half were for Chinese made processed junk foods)

All I'm saying is that in order to prevent diseases like diabetes from occuring, we should try to eradicate the root causes, or at least be aware of them. These trends, for the most part,are happening in every country, not just America. I think China has the extra challenge in that some people still don't have enough to eat, and thus heavily value foods high in calories like oil, sugar, and meat products. But then in just a few years of economic development, those same people can find themselves with the ability to afford all sorts of foods, but they still might be conditioned to value certain foods, and then start to eat them in excess.

I think what deezy pointed out might be interesting. Most rice is 8% protein. Wheat, potatoes, and other foods used to make noodles tend to be higher- like 10-17%. I think that grains made for noodles are healthier as staples than white rice. I have often wondered, when there is not much too eat, historically speaking (due to famines or political reasons), to what degree does the nutrition of the staple foods of an area have on things like height, bone strength...etc.

In any case, I also hope Chinese-Americans in the US can learn to limit their intake of American junk food.

[Ian_Lee]

wushijiao:

Another reason why it is hard to stay as a vegetarian nowadays is: Veggie are much more expensive than meat.

When I was a kid, we had a lot of meat like whole chicken only on certain festival, i.e. Chinese New Year. In the ordinary days, my mom just sliced tiny portion of meat to stir-fry with veggie.

But nowadays meat is damned chearp, i.e. Tyson chicken at $0.99/lb.

But veggie is comparatively very expensive, i.e Shanghai Pak Choy, at $1.79/lb, in Chinatown stores.

So naturally more meat is used nowadays if you have a limited budget.

[wushijiao]

Another reason why it is hard to stay as a vegetarian nowadays is: Veggie are much more expensive than meat.

That's very true. I think that's one reason why poor people in the US tend to have higher rates of obesity compared to people in the top income brackets. At least in China, a country that doesn't subsidize the farmers on a huge scale, veggies are still cheaper than meat.

(There are lots of books showing how close American politicians have worked with the meat industry. Clinton gave Tyson a bunch of preferential deals when he was govenor of Arkansas. Getting rid of subsidies in the 1st world would also be great for developing agricultural countries in the 3rd world. I don't want to get too far off topic).

[bhchao]

Actually Korean cuisine tends to be more healthy than Chinese cuisine because the former incorporates a diet rich in vegetables like soy bean sprouts, spinach, seaweed, garlic, or ginseng; along with seafood like sliced fish stew, clams and oysters; combined with tofu. In the old days meat was rare in Korea and only the affluent could afford it. While Chinese today consume a lot of pork, Koreans predominantly eat beef.

I consistently see more people eating galbi (beef short ribs) in Korean restaurants than any other meat item, surpassing bulgogi (which is thinly sliced and marinaded with the fat removed, compared to the big chunks of steak pieces commonly found in restaurants like Outback or Claim Jumper)

Korean food is also far less greasier than Chinese food since the latter uses a lot of sauces and stir-fried methods. In contrast, grilling is used very frequently in Korean cuisine.

Some of the Chinese food items I cannot stand are kung pao chicken, fried rice/noodles, sweet and sour pork, and chow fun noodles. (Yes, I am very picky).

In Korean restaurants various kinds of vegetable side dishes almost always accompany your main entree. The range and quality of these side dishes, or hanjeongshih, depend on the type of restaurant or the number of guests you are serving in a traditional Korean home.

If you ever tasted galbi tang or soup made with oxtail bones, it feels very refreshing and energizing. Sam geh tang also carries a wide range of nutrients like ginseng, garlic, and onions in a herbal soup with a whole chicken to add to it.

Also based on this link, http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/korean_beef.html, Korean women have the lowest cancer rate in East Asia.

[xiaocai]

Actually Korean cuisine tends to be more healthy than Chinese cuisine because the former incorporates a diet rich in vegetables like soy bean sprouts, spinach, seaweed, garlic, or ginseng; along with seafood like sliced fish stew, clams and oysters; combined with tofu. In the old days meat was rare in Korea and only the affluent could afford it. While Chinese today consume a lot of pork, Koreans predominantly eat beef.

I havnt tried Kroean food, but those materials mentioned above are also abundant in Chinese dishes except for ginseng. That is because Chinese consider ginseng as a very potent tonic which is not recommended for healthy especially young people.

And the "Chinese cuisine" here is quite an inaccurate conception coz the methods and things incorporated in cooking really varies a lot from province to province in China. I think in most foriengers mind "Chinese cuisine" means Canton and Fujian food. However, there are at least 8 differents rigional styles of cooking in China, not to mention the high variation in each subgroup. Like me myself never heard the "chow fun noodles" before.

Korean food is also far less greasier than Chinese food since the latter uses a lot of sauces and stir-fried methods. In contrast, grilling is used very frequently in Korean cuisine.

Girlling is not healthier than stirfrying. Since grill produces much higher temperature than stirfrying, it means the loss of nutrients and the possibility of generation of carcinogens could be higher in grilling than in stirfried food.

Also based on this link, http://www.westonaprice.org/traditio...rean_beef.html, Korean women have the lowest cancer rate in East Asia.

Japanese women have the longest life expectancy in the world, but it doesn't neccessarily indicate that Japanese food is the healthiest in the world. The health status based on people's life style, environment and many other factors. Food only takes a small percentage in these.

[xiaocai]

What I think is that every country and rigion has its own healthy cuisine as well as junk food. There is also tons of "chinese junk food" enjoyed by Chinese in their everyday lives. They are not that "notorious" as those Amerian counterpart maybe just because of the prominence of American culture export. As KFC and McDonald can be seen almost everywhere in the world, those Chinese junk food may only appear in China and oversea Chinatown. But definitely they're harmful enough to inflict serious health problems if the comsuption is not controlled.

[bhchao]

Japanese women have the longest life expectancy in the world, but it doesn't neccessarily indicate that Japanese food is the healthiest in the world. The health status based on people's life style, environment and many other factors. Food only takes a small percentage in these.

I agree. Life expectancies are dependable on a combination of life style (like exercise and personal habits such as smoking) and diet. I think though that there is a more stronger correlation between food and preventing cancer.

For example research continuously show the positive effects of vegetables in fighting cancer.

What I think is that every country and rigion has its own healthy cuisine as well as junk food. There is also tons of "chinese junk food" enjoyed by Chinese in their everyday lives. They are not that "notorious" as those Amerian counterpart maybe just because of the prominence of American culture export.

Shandong cuisine is considered clean and not greasy. It also has a closer connection with Korean cuisine. I enjoy Shandong cuisine. The only thing I would avoid is the fish caught from the Yellow River that passes through Shandong!

There are many healthy aspects of Cantonese cuisine, while others like barbecue pork or certain dim sum items are not as healthy.

The big difference between meat homegrown and eaten in China (correct me if I'm wrong) versus the meat used in hamburgers is that the latter is processed meat, which raises the cancer risk considerably and explains why you still feel hungry shortly afterwards.

[deezy]

We can remain in health by consuming a diet that is 70-80% Alkaline and 20-30% acid. The more alkaline the better. * The "normal" American diet is the reverse of the above.

Eating "ACID-FORMING" Foods(or DRUGS) is like putting a BUFFER(filter) in your Brain, that WILL restrict YOUR "Connection" to the God head ("DIVINE ENERGY SOURCE").

Do NOT take Cocaine, Amphetamines, Coffee, Nicotine, Alcohol, or lots of Sugar. These make your Blood pH....Acidic. What ARE "ACID-FORMING" Foods? Acid forming foods include:

* asparagus, barley, beans (dried), beechnuts, BEEF, BREAD, buckwheat, BUTTER, cashew nuts, Cereals, CHEESE, chestnuts, Chicken, CHOCOLATE, cider vinegar, clams, cod liver oil, Cottage Cheese, Cornmeal, cottonseed meal, cow peas, crab, cream, EGGS, farina, FISH, FLOUR, frog legs, Halibut, HAM, hazelnuts, hickory nuts, hominy, HONEY, horseradish, Jello, kohlrabi, lamb, lentils, lobster, mackerel, Macaroni, maple syrup, Margarine, MEATS, mussels, Mushrooms, OATS, pasta peanuts, Peas, pecans, pistachios, pomegranate, PORK, prunes, quinces, Rice, rutabagas, Rye, sauerkraut, SALMON, scallops, smelt, smoked herring, sole, spaghetti, SUGAR, syrups, tapioca, turkey, walnuts, WHEAT, wheat germ & WINE.

Hmmmmmm Looks like, what MOST of Everybody is eating. I wonder if WE have been "Tricked" into this kind of Diet. Are "Corporate" heads(CEOs) really Reptilian "Hosts".

What is a list of foods that increase alkalinity in the blood?

FOODS: (ALKALINE-FORMING)...... Alkaline forming foods include:

* agar, ALFALFA(sprouts), almonds, APPLES(apple cider), apricots, artichokes,BANANAS, beets, beet tops, blackberries, blueberries, BROCCOLI(did you eat yours?), Brussel sprouts, burdock, cabbage,cantaloupe, carob, CARROTS, cauliflower, CELERY, celeriac, chard, cherries, chives, COCONUT, CRANBERRIES, cucumbers, currants (fresh), dandelion greens, DATES, dill, dock, endive, figs (dried), flaxseed, GARLIC, GRAPES, Grapefruit, greenbeans (fresh), guava, huckleberries, Irish moss, KELP, kohlrabi, leeks, LEMONS, lettuce, LIMA BEANS (fresh), limes, loganberries, loquats, mango, MELONS, millet, mint, molasses, mulberries, muskmelons, mustard greens, nectarines, okra, Olives, olive oil, ONIONS, ORANGES, papaya, parsley, parsnips, passion fruit, Peaches, Pears, persimmons, PINEAPPLE, plums, Pumpkin, radishes, RAISINS, Raspberries, rhubarb, Romaine lettuce, rutabagas, sea grass, sorrel, Soybeans, Spinach, squash, Strawberries, Swiss chard, tangerine, turnips, Vegetable oils, water chestnuts, watercress, watermelon. [* Take "Microhydrin"(Silica Hydride) to make your Blood pH ...Alkaline.]