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How are you able to maintain a healthy diet while living in Chengdu? I will be moving there soon and have some concern about the availability of ingredients, whole and unprocessed foods, and restaurants that cater to those who prefer to eat healthy. Do you find that you must cook at home to ensure a healthy diet, or is eating out practicable as well? Is it harder or easier to maintain your healthy diet than in your home country?
Others may disagree, but i find it definitely more difficult to eat healthy here. I buy “organic” rice, flax seed and other products from Ito supermarket, and am laughed at by my Chinese friends who say its fake. I’m told not to eat chicken as it’s pumped with growth hormones. Perhaps you’ve heard of the fake eggs scandal. If you’re gonna eat Chinese, be prepared for very oily dishes, MSG and high salt content. Fruits and vegetables must be soaked in a safe dishwashing liquid for at least 15 minutes to remove pesticides and “growth chemicals” (apparently expedites the ripening of them). Low fat milk is claimed by some to be merely watered down. Don’t wanna sound alarmist, but food safety is a major concern here. You can maintain a relatively healthy diet here (i think i and some friends do) but its tougher than back home. Good luck!
Quote:How are you able to maintain a healthy diet while living in Chengdu?Perfect opportunity to bump the Eggs & Cholesterol thread. Get past all the brotastic posts and there’s some good coverage of nutrition in there.
It’s not as difficult as you might imagine to eat well in Chengdu, but it definitely requires some effort. Over time I’ve managaed to source just about everything between searching, stumbling across, or being directed to different stores and markets in the city. Anything I haven’t found in a physical store I’ve tracked down on Taobao. I recently found someone making homemade 100% natural peanut butter on there, something I hadn’t been able to locate in Chengdu anywhere.
Ray, are multi-vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes, and probiotics readily available at the supermarkets in Chengdu?
If you can cook and know what/how to eat, you’ll do find in Chengdu as soon as you piece together a few pretty simple things. Like Ray said, food in Sichuan restaurants is delicious but filled with salt, simple carbohydrates, and doesn’t have much protein. It’s best to cook at home at least a few times a week if you have the means. I cook a lot of chicken and it seems to be working fine for me, I also buy large quantities of steak, bacon, and salmon regularly.
Quote:I recently found someone making homemade 100% natural peanut butter on there, something I hadn’t been able to locate in Chengdu anywhere.I’ve been getting that on Taobao, too. Low prices, good stuff. Search for 无糖花生酱 but make sure you don’t get the kind that’s intended for use as a hotpot dip.
Quote:Ray, are multi-vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes, and probiotics readily available at the supermarkets in Chengdu?Watson’s has these, but otherwise they’re difficult to find. It’s best to find a trusted Taobao seller, in my experience. I take daily vitamin D, creatine, whey, and fish oil supplements and have been experimenting with some others. Co-Q10, glutamine, piracetam, etc. I’ve been taking a handful of supplements with breakfast on and off since high school, basically.
Quote:Search for 无糖花生酱 but make sure you don’t get the kind that’s intended for use as a hotpot dip.You need to go one step further than that and make certain there’s no hydrogenated fats in there. It won’t always be listed on the ingredients, and will sometimes only show up as (for example) Palm Oil. I always chat with any seller before purchasing, and do my best to know fully what I’m buying.
Quote:Ray, are multi-vitamins, minerals, digestive enzymes, and probiotics readily available at the supermarkets in Chengdu?Yes, but they’re either insanely overpriced, or crap. I now have a couple of trade accounts with sport supplement companies in Beijing, sourcing all my supplements with them directly at much lower cost than retail. I’m also purchasing raw pharmaceutical grade ingredients from a manufacturer so I can tailor my own concoctions. These include Glutamine, BCAA’s, AAKG/OKG, etc.
China does make things like this complicated, but it’s also manufacturing heaven. Essentially if you do the research, anything you want or need is available.
Good to know, I’m only going to be in China for around 5 months so I think it may be cheaper to stock up on everything I need before hand…it shouldn’t be a problem getting them in the country right?
Quote:Good to know, I’m only going to be in China for around 5 months so I think it may be cheaper to stock up on everything I need before hand…it shouldn’t be a problem getting them in the country right?I would bring any nutritional supplements you want with you. You can get everything you need here, but buying that stuff here requires more scrutiny and hassle.
Hey Jessica,
It depends what you mean by healthy- if you mean super healthy like no oil/ carbs/ salt then I think you would find it hard, but if you mean just a normal healthy balanced diet then I think you will have no problem.
Since moving to Chengdu I am eating more vegetables than I have ever eaten in my life, and generally the dishes here are heavier on veg content than meat, which for guys is probably a bad thing but for women I think its pretty healthy. There are many supermarkets selling western products so you can always cook western food at home if you prefer. I eat a lot of fruit here and what is great is the sheer variety of fruti available. Also its a lot cheaper than back home. Not sure you should worry too much about the pesticides on the fruit- I eat all my fruit after a quick rinse under the tap and I have NEVER got sick from it.
Finally, it is pretty healthy in terms of the low usage of dairy- something which I had a lot of before I came here. I have found some low fat milk in Hong Qi supermarkets, and to me it tastes fine, a lot better than the full fat version that is readily available.
I think people worry about the food here but at the end of the day Chinese people are on the whole slim and active, and I believe have the longest lifespan ?! so i’m sure the food can’t be all bad!
@Elizabeth: the pesticides are dangerous long-term. kinda like people who lived with asbestos for years: “But i feel fine” they said. Is a 15 minute soak so hard?
Quote:Salmon source?I’ recently picked up some huge packs of ‘Norwegian’ salmon from the same guys I get my beef and lamb from, but to be honest I think the best salmon is still to be found at IKEA. They sell 200g packs for 29 RMB, and the quality is great.
Brendan, a suggestion, if i may: rent a van and buy every goddamned piece of fish they have. And save some for me. And pick me up some of those aromatic candles too, please…
I second both Ikea and QingShiQiao salmon. QingShiQiao 2nd floor in the corner has a good shop with some frozen stuff, usually big chunks of frozen salmon which are good and it’s pretty cheap although fluctuates depending on market price. Ikea is great too, I didn’t realize it’s half price – heading there this evening to stock up then 😀 I always sift through like a rummaging old garbage collector to try to find equally sliced pieces so filets cook evenly when cooking multiple, otherwise the quality/price there is fantastic imo compared to anything else available here.
@Elizabeth
Quote:I believe have the longest lifespan ?May be easy to imagine that since there are seemingly so many old people – but there are SO many people that it’d actually just be a perception issue…China is quite low in the pack, just below Jordan and Colombia according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
Also locals soak some fruit for a while also. I don’t personally, and I think it’s absolutely unnecessary, but it’s a common practice 😀 My dad always says, he’s never washed a piece of fruit in his life (and eats a _lot_) and has one of the best constitutions, ie. never seen him sick, ever.. and is pretty healthy for an old guy 😀
There are so many other factors here (like, the air quality..for one of many) that while it’s important to be conscientious about health in general, spending _too much time_ throughout the day which may end in very little actual measurable difference might just be a waste of time that could be better used elsewhere 😀
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