4 Tips For Ordering Healthy Chinese Takeout
Posted on: 19 December 2014
If you're trying to give up unhealthy eating habits in pursuit of weight loss or just a healthier lifestyle, you're doing a good thing for your body. However, you may feel like you're giving up all of your old favorite treats and comfort foods, as well as being stuck in the kitchen all the time. If you don't enjoy cooking, you can lose your motivation for healthy eating fast. Luckily, there are ways to order in and still eat healthy. Take Chinese food for example. The menu isn't all deep fried eggrolls and battered chicken. You can find healthy choices on the menu if you know what to look for. Here are some tips for ordering healthy Chinese takeout.
Start With Soup
Starting your meal off with an appetizer isn't a bad idea. Filling up a little on a tasty starter will cut down on the amount that you eat during the rest of the meal. However, not all starters are created equally. Forget eggrolls, dumplings, chicken wings, or ribs in heavy sauces. Instead, order wonton, egg drop, or hot and sour soup.
These tasty soups will give you a good start to your meal and keep you from overfilling yourself on your entrée, without packing on the pounds or making you feel full and sluggish.
Ask For Chopsticks
Most Chinese food places hand out plastic forks and spoons with their takeout for Western customers who don't know how to use chopsticks. Next time, tell them to skip the Western utensils and only send the chopsticks. If you don't know how to use them, this is a good time to learn. Not only will you have a new skill under your belt, but eating with chopsticks will also slow you down. You'll find that the slower you eat, the less food you'll need to feel full.
Learning to use chopsticks isn't as difficult as you think. Use both hands to line up the chopsticks and hold them in place, while moving the hand you'll be using into the correct position for holding the chopsticks. You should be holding the upper chopstick like a pencil, and moving the lower chopstick with your middle finger, thumb, and index finger to pick up the food.
Look For Balance
A traditional Chinese meal strives for balance. That means that the meal should have a variety of ingredients and flavors. Starch and meat-heavy entrees, like General Tso's chicken and rice, aren't very well balanced. Look for dishes that list the vegetables that are included with the meal, like beef and broccoli or chicken and snow peas.
Also, order a variety of different dishes. Include vegetable dishes and tofu dishes along with meat and seafood. Chinese food is better if you share, but if you don't have anyone to share your order with, go for a variety anyway and just save the leftovers for later meals. You'll find that ordering a variety gives you a better balance.
Drink The Tea
Instead of buying a two liter of soda or a jug of lemonade, have the Chinese food place send along a container of hot tea. Green, black, white, and oolong tea all have a number of different health benefits for the drinker, which makes the beverage a great complement to a healthy meal.
Tea is more than just a hydrating hot beverage. It may provide protection against many different types of cancer and conditions like Parkinson's disease. It also helps keep waist circumference and BMI down. Just keep in mind that tea contains caffeine, so don't overdo it if you're sensitive to it.
When you learn to order healthy Chinese takeout from restaurant like Bamboo Palace Restaurant Delivery, you'll be doing yourself a favor. Not only will it help you maintain your new, healthier lifestyle, it will also give you a break from the kitchen.
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