Choosing healthy food options from Chinese restaurants
Many of the items that you will find on the Chinese food menu are either high in sodium or fat. It is one of the reasons people try to minimise the number of times that they order Chinese takeout in a week. However, if you are a serious fan of the cuisine, you do not have to limit the number of times that you eat the food. Instead, you can learn how to pick healthier options from the menu. Below are a few tips and guidelines to help you keep enjoying your favourite flavours.
Getting more of the greens
When picking items from the menu, ensure that you pick the dishes which contain more of vegetables. The good thing about vegetable-based recipes is that they are low in calories but high in vitamins and minerals. You can choose dishes with a lot of vegetables and then mix them with a bit of red meat, seafood or poultry. This gives you the ideal protein to vitamin balance which you need in a meal without unnecessarily adding to the amount of fat content in the food.
Choosing the sauces
When giving the waiter instructions for how you would like your food prepare, ensure that you have told them that you need it made with the least amount of oil and soy sauce possible. If you are practising a low-sodium diet, it would be best to minimise the amount of bean and oyster sauce that comes with your food. Instead, choose the plum sauce, hot mustard sauce and other sauces that have less sodium. You should also instruct the person handling your order to serve the sauce on the side instead of mixing it with the food.
Going for the healthiest cooking methods
Deep fried foods and crispy foods have the highest fat content. When making your order, ensure that you have a great balance between fried foods and boiled, poached or roasted alternatives. If you do not enjoy roasted and steamed foods, you can ask for the foods to be stir fried and sauteed as this will give you the flavour you like without significantly increasing the fattiness of the food.
These are a few steps you can take to get the healthiest options from a Chinese restaurant. Always make sure that you have a conversation with the person taking your order so that you can understand all the available cooking options before making your order.