How China Taught Me to Eat Better
Despite my aversion to diets though, I lost close to 10 kg (22 lbs) on in my first year in China! A lot of this can be attributed to more walking,
a better sleep schedule, and the occasional post-restaurant stomach virus I like to call Mao’s Revenge, but I think there was a little more at work here.
After a couple years living abroad, I came to the realization that although I was never officially on a diet while living in China, I was definitely learning how to eat better. Ever since I began this “China Taught Me…” series (kicked off with the “How China Taught me to Drive Better” article), I’ve been looking forward to writing out my thoughts on eating in China.
Not everything in China is healthy and quite a few of their old wives tales are over-the-top, but I believe there are some great Chinese eating customs that I have benefited from learning. These are just a few and I welcome you to add your own in the comments below:
Dish Size Matters
I distinctly remember the first time I sat down to eat a plate of DaPanJi. This enormous dish of food was set down in the middle of the table and then each person was handed a plate the size of a Chinese mooncake (i.e. about 3-4 inches in diameter). There were pieces of potato bigger than the plate I was eating off of!
I think I would describe the plate in China as serving two different functions: 1) A pit stop between the dish and my mouth or 2) a discard pile for bones and other things I don’t want to ingest. Very rarely did a plate serve as my personal buffet.
Obviously a small plate can’t stop me from gorging myself, which I was still able to occasionally do with DaPanJi, but I did learn that I don’t feel quite as obligated to continue eating when my plate is often empty. I can find no official study to back this up but I’m going to go ahead and say it anyway…
Lesson Learned: the bigger my plate, the more I’m likely to eat.
Learning to Share
“You need to finish what’s on your plate or you can’t [insert some sort of fun kid activity here]“. I remember one time years ago when I defiantly sat at the table for an extra hour testing my parents’ resolve. Forget that I had just eaten dirt while playing outside, the line had to be drawn somewhere and there was no way I was going to allow that mushy green stuff into my picky mouth!
I eventually ate it, of course, because…well, I found out my dad’s more stubborn than I am. But besides that, it was my responsibility to finish it because it was on my personal plate. Now I have mixed feelings about how to balance the need for a kid to eat healthy versus the need to teach them restraint, but I think the solution lies somewhere between sharing dishes and using smaller plates.
Sharing dishes at a Chinese restaurant is common and usually ends up decreasing the amount of food I consume. Unfortunately western food doesn’t always lend itself to sharing but my wife and I have learned a simple lesson that has been both cost-effective and healthy: when going out to eat in America we either split a plate (restaurants serve more than enough food on a plate nowadays!) or we get our own plates, split them and take half home as leftovers.
Lesson Learned: There’s not as much urgency to finish my plate when I’m sharing it with others
Dessert isn’t a Given
It was both a shock and a disappointment to me when I first realized that Chinese restaurants don’t serve desserts. Sure, a couple of them serve dishes of fresh fruit to end the meal but I think we can all agree that’s not most people’s idea of “dessert”. It’s not mine, anyway.
After a little bit of time, however, I learned to appreciate a desert as its own special occasion. If my wife and I won 5 RMB scratching off our receipt we would treat ourselves to an ice cream bar on the walk home, but that didn’t happen often (for those unaware, some receipts in China take the form of a scratch lottery ticket for reasons not quite clear to me).
Lesson Learned: Dessert isn’t a reward for finishing my meal
What’s to Drink?
Did you know that beverages account for almost 21% of the calories the average American consumes in a day? Even outside America I’m sure that number is quite high. I come from a place where the cups are extra-large and the refills are free…I was NOT happy being served hot tea out of an 8oz. shot glass during meals.
It was good for me, though. China helped me kick my habit of compulsive drinking. It’s true. I used go to a restaurant in America and tip a waiter based on how well my glass was kept full…and I worked them hard! Glass after glass of either Dr. Pepper (oh, such sweet nectar!) or iced tea, both of which contained more sugar than I probably needed for the entire week.
No restaurant in America could get away with serving drinks in the small glasses (or bowls) I had in China but again, the lesson learned was similar to that of the plates above:
Lesson Learned: I hate tiny cups…but for me they’re necessary
Eating Slowly is the Key
This seems like such a common-sense idea, yet somehow I fail to catch onto it. Take, for instance, the Uyghur wedding I wrote about last week: there was so much eating involved, it was unbelievable. Same goes for a Chinese banquet. Some leaders attend 7-8 banquets per week. How do they survive?
I once sat next to a vice-mayor in our city during a banquet and asked her that exact question. Her response? “Watch me…I’ll look like I’m eating but in reality I will eat very little tonight“. Sure enough, she didn’t eat more than 10 bites throughout the entire banquet.
This isn’t a mind-blowing revelation or anything, but I think that because I’m using chopsticks and because I’m reaching into the middle of the table to grab my food, I end up eating much slower than I do in America.
Lesson Learned: Eat slow, eat less
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So there you have it. Just a few of the things I’ve learned about eating while living in China. Are there any others that you would add to the list?
Enjoyed your post! I also learned these same lessons while living in China. I lost almost 35 lbs. in just 4 months from walking everywhere and modifying my eating / drinking habits drastically. It was for the good, then I returned to America and gained it all back. Curses!
Side note: the receipt that had the scratch-off window is actually a lure for customers to ask for them. The reason being is that if they are issued then the restaurant is responsible for paying taxes on that income. Most restaurants will either not give them out at all or will bribe you with free drinks or something so as not to report the income. Monthly the tax agent will come around and check the number of receipts issued that month and demand payment as necessary.
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Josh says: June 9th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
I had a guess that those scratch-offs had something to do with tax evasion. One of the first phrases I learned how to say in Chinese was “Would you give me a discount if I didn’t ask for the fapiao?” Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes we got 5 RMB!
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Baoru says: June 10th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Really it does? Have to learn this technique then!
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Joel says: June 11th, 2010 at 7:50 am
I just innocently ask for the fapiao, and then they usually offer us free bottle of whatever. Happens all the time, when I remember to do it.
Josh says: June 11th, 2010 at 7:55 am
That’s interesting. I never got offered anything, I always had to ask. They’d usually take off 2-3 RMB if I didn’t grab the fapiao.
Great post Josh and I only wish the same was true to me. Unfortunately I’ve gone the opposite way and gained about 10-20KG in my half-decade here. But the logic of the items above is bang-on… I just need to follow them more (and eat more Chinese food).
One change I’ve noticed from my early days here until now is that I don’t walk nearly as much as I used to. I used to walk, bike or bus everywhere because I was poor. I’m still pretty poor, but for the amount I go out, I rarely do it in anything but taxi-style… and I know that’s had a huge effect on why I’ve gained weight.
I guess the trick will be now that you’re home — can you maintain it or get supersized? ;-)
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Josh says: June 9th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Very true, Ryan…since getting back in America I’ve definitely gained. Not good. Everybody keeps baking us all these huge meals, though! I swear its not my fault.
Also, as far as walking goes, I was also guilty of walking less. My excuse wasn’t a taxi, though…it was my motorcycle. Why walk around sweating when I can run around on a sweet bike? :)
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Can’t remember if I actually put online what I wrote about the lessons from food in China (ah, yes, this at least: http://www.positive-ecology.org/blog/2010/02/02/food-rules-china/), but I concur fully.
Chinese cooking has a somewhat bad reputation for using too much oil, for example, but – home-style – it is truly a world treasure: yes, hearty, but fitting most lifestyles; kinda simple, but tasty; and truly made to be well-nourished without getting too little or too much.
I just started writing about simple Chinese cooking on my http://www.chilicult.com/chillilabor …
Of course, it’s still a matter of things working together. Witness the popularity of KFC and the rising obesity amongst kids.
Oh, science talk: There are quite a few studies on how (or whether) people choose how much they eat depending on how much is on their plate or by their sense of satiety. Scientists went so far as to make secretly re-filling soup bowls. French, for example, came out rather well, Americans were found to want to eat until the plate is empty, not until they are sated.
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i love this. i gained 25# when i lived in japan for a year – i think it was all the carbs (rice) that i wasn’t used to eating. that said, the part about the dish being a pit stop makes me laugh. great post!
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Thank you for bringing back fond memories of China. What you have written is so true. Eating was often a fun event in China yet I lost 20-22 pounds while there for four years. Like others have experienced, I gained it back in about six or seven months after I was back in the US.
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Josh says: June 12th, 2010 at 5:03 am
Glad you had such fond memories!
I know exactly what you mean about losing in China and gaining it back in the US. It’s so difficult to do otherwise!
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Glad you had such fond memories!
I know exactly what you mean about losing in China and gaining it back in the US. It’s so difficult to do otherwise!
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First, I want to thank you for your great posts about Xin Jiang. If you’re interesting in more of the psychology behind some of your observations, the book by Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink goes more into depth about several psychological studies behind these principals.
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Josh says: July 26th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Thanks, James! I’ll definitely look into that book, although I’ve never heard of it before.
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just thought you might like to know the reason behind the scratch-ticket receipts. Basically it is an attempt to increase the tax base. The potential to win prizes is an attempt to induce people to ask for official receipts with every purchase. When a restaurant issues an official receipt the purchase previously made goes on record and the restaurant will later pay taxes on it. Without official receipts, the government would have to rely on restaurateurs to report their monthly revenue and accordingly determine how much is owed in taxes. If not for the scratch offs, most customers — with the exception of receipt collecting businessman and party officials — probably wouldn’t pay much attention to whether or not they received a receipt, allowing a restaurant to under-report revenue and essentially evade paying taxes.
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Josh says: August 1st, 2010 at 5:17 am
Thanks for clearing that all up! I had my suspicions but this definitely makes a lot of sense.
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FarWestChina is a website dedicated to opening the door to Xinjiang, China's most mysterious province.
My name is Josh Summers and I have an unexplained passion for this region. Although I now reside in the US, I spent almost 4 years living and traveling in the region and I continue to research the history and stories Xinjiang has to tell. If you're interested there's plenty to read about Xinjiang on this website, or learn about me on my about page.
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