In our continued series on the benefits of eating like our ancestors, Chef Seeto explains how his Chinese people learned a long time ago the links between food, nutrition and health. The traditional Chinese diet is more than just about eating, it is careful balance of foods packed with natural medicines designed to keep you young and living longer.
I once took my mother and father to a fancy French restaurant and had an expensive dinner to celebrate their anniversary.
We ate some fancy and delicate dishes; but when we got home dad immediately put a pot of rice on the stove.
“Are you still hungry after that expensive three course meal?” I asked.
“Son, I am Chinese. I need my rice to feel satisfied.”
It was at this point that I learned that my people are from Guangzhou, the capital and largest city of Guangdong along the Pearl River.
The old city of Canton is the home to all Cantonese-speaking people, and was the Southern most trading port where my ancestors left aboard British ships to find opportunity in the colonies. They brought their knowledge of eating food as medicine, and the special technique of eating water to flush the gastrointestinal tract, with rice being the key starch found in steamed grains, porridges and noodles.
Eat anything with a heart beat
The ancient Southern Chinese ate a diet of rice as their major starch, herbal broths, lots of vegetables and almost all edible meats.
There is a saying that the Chinese eat anything with a heartbeat and every part — and that is true when you consider my people love chicken feet, duck’s tongue, snakes, wood fungus, shark fin and snails.
Lamb and goat were hardly eaten, and wheat was rare compared to their Northern countrymen.
They learned to steam, stir fry, braise, roast and deep fry.
There was no widespread use of fresh herbs in Cantonese cuisine in days gone by, as the cooks wanted to preserve the flavours of the ingredients and not mask them with spices.
The glutinous texture of the chicken feet webbing was thought to provide extra collagen to strengthen joints and blood vessels; and the organs of animals like tongues, livers, heart and blood provided essential vitamins and minerals.
Located on the South coast of China, the Cantonese people also loved seafood, especially steamed whole fish with ginger, spring onions, fragrant sesame oil and a little sweetened soy sauce.
Mmmmm!
The five elements of Chinese cuisine
Another traditional Chinese saying is “Eating is as important as the sky”.
Food for the Chinese is so much more than just breakfast, lunch or dinner — it is a carefully orchestrated, you could even say a religious, banquet of ingredients and dishes that are made up of the five elements of life — wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
Each element has a corresponding flavour: sour, bitter, sweet, hot and salty.
Balancing the elements by eating strategically from the different flavour groups is an important component of the ancient Chinese diet.
If you have diarrhoea, sour foods like lemon or food pickled in vinegar can help. The sweet taste of honey and many fruits, offers mood-elevating effects; and ginger and garlic in the diet helps to strengthen the immune system against cold and flu.
For the Chinese, food is seen as nourishment that is healthy and fulfilling; fights illness and disease; and prolongs life. 1.2 billion Chinese, who commonly live into their 80s and 90s, can’t be wrong.
Clear broths to revitalise
Chinese cuisine has some pretty clever ways to eat for health, and is based on the age-old philosophy of eating foods as medicine.
Whenever I cater for the Chinese, there must always be a clear soup to start with, and on many occasions, a hot sweet soup to end the meal.
The ancient physicians and herbalists taught my ancestors to eat more watery foods like cabbages, lettuce and watermelon, as well as soups to do a simple task — cleanse and flush our internal organs.
Green and black teas, without sugar and milk, are drunk throughout a meal to wash down the oily foods and help to eliminate toxins and aid in digestion. Rather than leave undigested foods in the gastrointestinal tract, the ancient Chinese believed the gut should absorb the nutrients of the food quickly, and then dump the rest — fast! The water also acts to rehydrate and provide a balance of bodily fluids.
More vegetables than meat
The traditional Chinese diet also included more vegetables than meat, with Buddhist eating a completely vegetarian diet based on Dharmic principles of non-violence to not eating living things.
Whether it’s Cantonese, Thai, Vietnamese or Korean cuisine, vegetables and steamed rice are eaten in abundance.
A Chinese stir fry has lots of onions, ginger, garlic, vegetables and a small portion of meat.
A Thai beef salad is filled with fresh herbs, onions, bean sprouts, fried shallots and a few slices of grilled beef.
What happens when Chinese don’t eat their ancestoral foods
For the mainland Chinese and Chinese living overseas, perhaps the lesson is that prosperity and Westernisation of their food brings its own problems.
With China getting wealthier there is a danger that the familiar diseases of coronary disease, obesity, high blood pressure could start to take hold there too because we are eating less of our ancestral foods.
It seems that the ancient stress on frugality, simplicity and balance is just as relevant now as it has ever been.
Next week in the final chapter of this month’s series on ancestral eating, Chef Seeto takes a glaring look at the Western diet for Caucasian people; the kaivalagi. Their traditional foods of grains, dairy, red meat and eggs are not the same as what their ancestors enjoyed as functional foods; many are now allergic to them. If you’re of European ancestry, what should you be eating to stay in optimum health?
* Lance Seeto is the executive chef, author and food writer based on Castaway Island, Fiji. Follow his adventures on www.lanceseeto.com. Through his culinary eyes, the world looks delicious.
