Have you ever wondered why most Asian people who live on their traditional diet are quite thin and slender? Are you curious to know why the only Chinese you seem to see at the medical centre and hospitals are the doctors and nurses, and not so often the patients? Genes play their part in helping to keep one of the oldest civilisations healthy, but take a close look at how all Asian cultures eat and you will find they have one thing in common — they eat and drink more water.
Water is the essence of life for every living creature and plant, but the Chinese have worked out that humans need more water in their diet than animals. Insects and birds need minimal water to survive but are unlikely to be pigging out on a nice big green leaf or nut until they can’t walk or fly.
Whereas a human’s love of food goes beyond instinct and nutrition, and many of us will happily stuff our tummies so full it looks like we’re carrying a little lovo, chop-suey or roti parcel baby! We need to drink and eat more water to flush out our over indulgence of food.
EATING MORE WATER
The Chinese have had tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years to finetune an optimum way of eating more water by eating more fruits and vegetables with every meal. Fruits and vegetables are made up mostly of water, so eating more of them means you are actually eating more water.
Most Asian stir fry dishes and salads have more vegetables than meat for this exact reason. So if you thought that your local Chinese restaurant was just adding more vegetables to make more money, another reason may well be more symbolic of healthy eating (although some do put too many onions!) The next time you see an Asian family eat, take notice of the proportion of meats to vegetables.
And do you know why the Chinese and Japanese drink hot, unsweetened, no-milk tea during their meal? It is to help flush excess oils and food particles out of the body.
HARMONIOUS ASIAN SALADS
In traditional Asian foods, a side portion of garden salad of lettuce, cucumber and tomato is rarely seen. Salads play a different role in Asian cuisine. Asian salads are built around layers and layers of flavour and a combination of textures and colours.
The colours are like a rainbow and the ingredients seem lively and contrasting. They are often designed to provide a contrast or balance with other dishes, since the harmonious blending of textures, colours, and flavours is one of the hallmarks of Asian cooking.
The crunchy texture of lightly blanched or raw vegetables may balance grilled meats, and like a sorbet in European cuisine, a salad may be used to clear the palate after a particularly spicy dish. Asian salads are often sweeter than western salads, but balanced out with aromatic fresh herbs like mint and basil, making them perfect for the sweeter Fijian palate.
They often don’t contain refined white salt, drawing their subtle saltiness instead from small amounts of fermented sauces, which is another reason Asian salads are perfect for a NCD-fighting diet.
THE DRESSING IS THE KEY
The most common salad dressings known to most Fijian households can probably be limited to thousand island dressing; Italian, French and balsamic with olive oil, a legacy of the colonial and Australian influence of days past. But Asian salad dressings are slightly more complex and adopt the principle of harmony and balance with the five elements theory of Chinese culture.
Ancient Chinese doctors believed that the five elements of energy — wood, fire, earth, metal and water — can be directly related to the five taste sensors of sour, bitter, sweet, spicy and salty.
Many Asian dressings are based on this same principle. If you get all five balanced correctly, you will have created an amazing dressing to match the salad ingredients.
Rice vinegar is the Japanese answer to balsamic vinegar. Rice vinegar is much less acidic than other vinegars, with a slight saltiness. It has a gentle flavour that is unlikely to overpower a dressing and is a great addition to your kitchen pantry.
CRUNCHY TEXTURE
What I love about Asian salads is the addition of crunchy components.
They add texture to the dish, complementing the softness of other salad components. You can use toasted nuts, fried shallots (from Chinese stores), fried noodles, legumes like chick peas or kidney beans, or simply raw crunchy vegetables like carrot, celery or cabbage.
They also provide fibre to help sweep and broom your intestines to remove food particles that should be pushed out of the gastrointestinal tract, and not left inside the body to potentially rot.
WARM SALADS AS A MEAL
Try telling your family that they’re having salad for lunch or dinner and you’ll probably have a war on your hands! In most Fijian homes, a salad is something you serve on the side and not as a main meal.
They will probably also think that you’re going to give them a garden salad; a few slices of cucumber or tomato; or coleslaw. But not all salads are cold, with many Asian salads served warm by adding grilled meats, seafood or cooked vegetables. They are often bulked out with carbs like rice, noodles and even root crop vegetables like dalo or sweet potato — kumala.
Getting the family to eat more healthy Asian salads is a step towards changing the way your family eats for health and quality, not quantity.
So the next time you see the family lying down after a huge meal unable to move because their stomachs are too full, ask them: when is that baby due?
* Lance Seeto is an award-winning food and travel writer, and executive chef of Mana Island Resort and Spa. He is also the host of top rating Taste of Paradise which begins on August 30 on Fiji One TV.