Chinese kids eating American junk food

[animal world]

Cooking IS fun!

This is particularly true when you don't have to cook every day. And it doesn't have to take much time. When you live alone, you typically make enough for 3 meals. Eat one and put two in the freezer. Big, hearty soups in winter can last for 5-6 meals. Seems a good investment of time.

Most meals can be made in half an hour while you listen to pleasant music, sip a glass of pleasant German wine or watch the news. You could put your laptop on the counter and work on your Repetitions while stirring the pan!

In my automatic rice cooker i make rice to last four days. With the addition of different vegetables, spices, interesting mushrooms (or a handful of prawns or what have you) this can be turned into tasty pilafs. A simple omelette will take at most fifteen minutes to prepare. Add a little salad. Add a thick slice of Oberlander bread with a pat of butter. Pour yourself a second glass of that white wine. And ... Mahlzeit!

[renzhe]

Add in the washing up, and you end up with at least half an hour a day.

I get maybe 5-6 hours free per day, factor in other stuff I have to do (like learning Chinese) and there's only a couple of hours left for relaxation. I'll be damned if I spend one of them cutting cucumber It's not worth it to waste an hour of my day to save a couple of Euro.

Cooking is fine, if you have time, if you're not living alone, and if you actually enjoy it. Sometimes I have to cook, but it's always something that takes 20 minutes at the very most, including the washing up. I absolutely hate it. It's one of those household chores that you simply have to do from time to time, like vacuuming, washing the windows, and washing clothes. In terms of enjoyment factor, I rank it slightly below scrubbing the toilet.

[XiaoXi]

Its true, people don't really seem to cook very often in China at all. In England its the norm to cook your own food and eat out now and again (a few times a month or less) but here in China it seems the norm to buy stuff ready to eat from markets or eat at restaurants and only cook for yourself occasionally.

Chinese food is actually extremely low on proteins and nutrients.

A typical Chinese meal contains far less lean meat than in the West. It also has much more carbohydrates and fibre and far less fat...as I'm sure any of you can attest to (my lunch at the school everyday is 85% Rice).

Plus, any meat is does have, is usually skimpy and low grade....and is composed mainly of innards, which have little protein at all.

So, a western meal is actually far better from a nutrition standpoint......but due to the relaxed lifestyle in the west (compared to the last few hundred thousand years of evolution) it ends up being far TOO good for many people.

I couldn't agree more. I don't know why people have this idea that Chinese food is so healthy, maybe they're confusing it with Japanese food which is very healthy. I find For example Chinese people eat a lot of simple carbs. In the same meal they will eat a potato dish and still find the need to have rice or noodles with it as well.

Regarding meat, they seem to much prefer pork, beef and lamb over Chicken and the meat is invariably fatty. Chicken is far more healthy, its more lean and has more protein. To top it all off, the food is more often than not incredibly salty and/or very sweet. The flavours are so rich its like you can barely taste the natural flavours of the meat and vegetables contained within the dish. Also they eat a lot of prawns and such which is high in cholesterol and many dishes are deep fried. Most dishes are floating in oil even if they're not deep fried.

I'm referring to Tianjin and Beijing cuisines here, I can't speak for the rest of China. The vast majority of Chinese food is basically junk food with the exception of jiaozis and baozis. I wouldn't at all be surprised if eating at McDonald's is actually healthier than most Chinese dishes!

Actually KFC is harmless if you peel the fried skin off. It is the skin that kills you. I haven't eaten KFC for more than a year, but that is what I always do before taking a bite.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Do you go to Mcdonald's too and remove the burger from the hamburger 'cos that's the most unhealthy bit?

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".

No he "must be" referring to Tim Berner's Lee. Just look up who invented the internet.

[imron]

I don't know why people have this idea that Chinese food is so healthy

A lot of modern Chinese food in a mainland Chinese restaurant is not healthy and most of the dishes people seem to love (宫保鸡丁、鱼香肉丝等) contain handfuls of sugar (yes handfuls), plus copious amounts of salt (taking a local Chinese cooking course is very instructive). Despite these shortcomings, at least the food is unprocessed, rather than the majority of fast-food and also doesn't contain preservatives, artificial additives etc, which makes it a step up from McDonalds and the like.

Home-cooking however is not like that. I'm not sure where you get the impression that people rarely cook/eat at home. Among my Chinese friends, it's mostly cook at home and occasionally eat out.

[imron]

Just look up who invented the internet.

And it wasn't Tim Berners Lee. Sir Tim invented the world wide web - which runs over the Internet.

[xianhua]

but here in China it seems the norm to buy stuff ready to eat from markets

What kind of things do you mean? Most of the supermarkets I have visited in central China consist mainly of fresh fruit and veg, meat and then a stunning array of packets of sweets/snacks/candy.