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ICAN Exclusive Personal Training Cheshire > News > Eat out, lose weight
Eat out, lose weight - Sunday, March 08, 2009
Eat this, not that: The Thai restaurant
Eat out and don't pile on the pounds by following this ICAN guide
Thai food
If you're in the mood to go Asian then Thai is a better overall bet than Chinese. Most meals are lighter, fresher and doesn’t contain (MSG). Thai dishes offer an abundance of vegetables and where there is fat in peanut sauces for instance it is often of the healthy unsaturated kind.
That said, the taste of Thailand is a particularly sweet one and recipes do tend to get weighed down by an abundance of sugar, so it's important to cast a vigilant eye over dips and sauces.
Know this
Herbs
The many herbs, roots and spices used in Thai cooking are what give it such freshness. Some are virtually exclusive to Thailand (holy basil, lemongrass), while others are found all over Asia (garlic, ginger, turmeric, coriander and chilli). Few cuisines boast such a bumper pack of free radical-fighting antioxidants.
Nam pla
This fish sauce is ever present in Thai cooking. Made from fermented anchovies and/or shrimp with salt and water, it smells rotten but lends a moreish taste to soups, curries
and stir-fries. It's high in iodine and aids production of the thyroid hormone.
Chilli
As well as speeding up your metabolism, eating chilli may stop the sweet cravings that come with finishing a meal, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Incidentally, this was especially true among participants with a body mass index of 26.3 or higher so if you're carrying excess pounds, eat Chilli!
Order this
Soup
South East Asia has a very low rate of cancer. A joint study by Thailand's Kasetsart University and Japan's Kyoto and Kinki Universities put it down to, at least in part, soup. They found Tom yum goong, a shrimp soup, was 100 times more effective at inhibiting the growth of cancerous tumours than other foods.
Stir-fries
Where Thai stir-fries go one better is in extra ingredients such as sesame oil (lowers cholesterol) and lemongrass (detoxifies organs).Galangal is a close cousin of ginger and is abundant in Thai cooking and used extensively in Ayurvedic medicine. If you see it in a dish, order it.
Not this
Green curry
Yes, you'll benefit from the detoxifying effects of the coriander, lemongrass and chilli, but the villain in this dish is coconut milk, which is full of saturated fat.
Iced tea
Thai iced tea is made sweet to counteract the hot cuisine. Good for dousing the flames,
bad for your teeth.
P.S
Coming soon:
Lose weight at the curry house.
Eat this, not that pub grub.
Eat this, not that Italian.
That said, the taste of Thailand is a particularly sweet one and recipes do tend to get weighed down by an abundance of sugar, so it's important to cast a vigilant eye over dips and sauces.
Herbs
Nam pla
and stir-fries. It's high in iodine and aids production of the thyroid hormone.
Chilli
Stir-fries
Where Thai stir-fries go one better is in extra ingredients such as sesame oil (lowers cholesterol) and lemongrass (detoxifies organs).Galangal is a close cousin of ginger and is abundant in Thai cooking and used extensively in Ayurvedic medicine. If you see it in a dish, order it.
Not this
Green curry
Yes, you'll benefit from the detoxifying effects of the coriander, lemongrass and chilli, but the villain in this dish is coconut milk, which is full of saturated fat.
Iced tea
Thai iced tea is made sweet to counteract the hot cuisine. Good for dousing the flames,
bad for your teeth.
P.S
Coming soon:
Lose weight at the curry house.
Eat this, not that pub grub.
Eat this, not that Italian.
