I've enjoyed learning how the Chinese believe food affects your health. Every food is categorized as hot or cold, and they believe you need to eat a balance of these foods in order to be healthy. (Not hot or cold by temperature, but by the effect the food has on your body.) When the seasons change, you should adjust what you eat so your body stays in balance. Hot and cold foods should be eaten in a certain order to take advantage of the the temperature effect on your body. For example, at Chinese banquets, someone knowledgeable about hot and cold dishes orders for everyone, and the dishes are served in a precise order. There is an art to how food is eaten here. I think it's pretty neat, so different from our "make it cheap and filling" food mentality in the West. (I also wonder if this is one reason people here are so thin? Perhaps they eat in a way that makes maximum use of their metabolism by keeping everything in balance. I have no idea, just a thought.)
They also believe humidity in the air can build up in your body and can cause poor health, so there are certain fruits you should eat to get rid of excess humidity. If you have skin rashes, it means you have too much heat and need cooling foods. Most meats are considered hot foods, which I think is very interesting because I always thought meat made my eczema worse. If this Chinese way of eating can be believed, I wasn't making it up when I thought being a vegetarian was more healthy for me personally, due to my propensity for eczema and skin rashes. Who knows? But it is interesting to learn about this part of the culture.
And for those that have never attended a Chinese banquet, here is a camera phone pic of our table after a banquet. Dishes get stacked on top of dishes.
SOunds like the Chinese believe the human body to be an entropy, and then go on and attempt to keep it in that state via food. Almost as if their is a spiritual aspect to their food. Body's a temple. I could see myself subscribe to this school of thought.
ReplyDeleteWhat a banquet! I love their view on food. It explains why there's little or no obesity in China.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the hot and cold foods and their effect on our bodies. I'd like to learn more about their teas.
I'm craving tea now, and I'll probably suggest a Chinese restaurant for dinner. If only they'd pile up the plates and serve us a feast like the one you've shown here...I'd love it!!
I'd love examples of hot and cold foods and the order they should be eaten... very interesting. I imagine the Chinese have access to alot of fast food, fatty fried foods, etc but as a nation on a whole they don't suffer the weight problems that we do in the West, right?
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting and I love that you can relate your skin issues to eating meat. I think they are on to something here...and really, how many obese Chinese people do you see?
ReplyDelete2006 Engel Coefficient (% of income spent on food) in China was 36% for urban and 45% for rural residents.
ReplyDeleteFor comparison, in the U.S. today it's slightly under 10%.
And it was 20% in 1940.
Now think of how much money we "waste" today on highly processed foods and eating at restaurants compared to 1940 when much more food was prepared at home from raw materials instead of just popping a TV dinner into the microwave.
I bet if we ate like we did in 1940, we'd spend under 5% of our income on food (at the cost of more time to prepare and preserve it at home).
Not that everything was roses in 1940, there was a lot of young men from both urban and rural poverty who ate their first good, regular balanced and high calorie diet in either the CCC or later the Army. While today the U.S. Military has to run fat camps to slim down new recruits, the challenge in 1940 was bringing undernourished folks up to weight.
We spend 20% of our income in the U.S. on entertainment.
So consider it -- the average American spends less on food and entertainment COMBINED then the average urban Chinaman spends on food alone.
BTW, I know I've told Becca this, but for the other readers...
ReplyDeleteBest wedding I've ever gone to was a Vietnamese co-worker's who had it the reception at a Chinese restaurant (it sat the 200+ guests...they *had* planned for a bigger hall but ended up with a conflict in the extended family with another wedding that day that cut the guest attendance in half DOWN to 200!)
During the day the restaurant served good but typical American Chinese fare.
BUT OH MY GOD...they served the *real* stuff at the reception. The table looked a lot like the one pictured.
One of the guys who was at my table (and we were the only table that spoke English that night) still shakes his head and recalls that he won't eat anything that has feet, never mind the feet being part of the meal.
Ok, so now I am just plain hungry....(been craving Chinese Food for two weeks!)
ReplyDeleteThe whole hot vs cold theory is fascinating. Can you get us more info Becca?
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in learning more.
Matt, interesting statistics. But, 10% of our income might be 100% of a chinese income, literally. So I don't know that we spend less, but we definitely have more disposable income than the average Chinese, who don't make much more than their basic needs. Sad statistics.
ReplyDeleteI posted something to answer the questions. Hope it helps.
That's amazing looking! Interesting view on hot and cold foods. I'm looking into that in more detail. I agree with yrautca.
ReplyDeleteThat really is so amazing. I think, no I know I too often just eat to fill a void or because it's dinner time, or because I'm bored, or because it is easy. I really admire the thought that goes into the hot and cold food choices you posted about.
ReplyDelete