Looks like Chinese food is in the crosshairs for restaurant foods that are unhealthy. The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report declaring the typical Chinese menu is loaded with calories, saturated fats and sodium. A few weeks ago, another study targeted chain restaurants such as Ruby Tuesday and The Border as particularly similarly bad violators. What else is new?
This article should have been titled, Eating Out Every Day Can Be Unhealthy. Let’s see, today I’ll have Chinese. Tomorrow will be Mexican. For the rest of the week, it’s gotta be American, Italian, and Japanese! If I did this every day — and millions of people do — it’s certain that my waistline will be bigger than it already is! The sad fact of the matter is the convenience of eating out has trumped making your own meals.
I grew up around the restaurant business all my life. Growing up, I’m sure I would have liked to have fried shrimp and egg rolls every night, but my parents wouldn’t have any of that. They prepared healthy and nutritious meals for us at home. Because of that, I would rather cook than eat out, provided my fridge is fully stocked. As the saying goes, you not only have to eat smart, you have to cook smart! I see eating out at restaurants as a nice thing to do once a week or on special occasions, not an ever day occurrence.
What do you all think?
tow.com 
Hard to disagree with you :) If my stomach had its way, i’d be eating indian food, falafal and boba every day of my life. How anyone could be surprised that restaurants by and large serve food that is unhealthy both in content and in portions is beyond me.
That said, I welcome the continuing trend of having at least a few healthier menu options. All in all, if I was forced to eat out for every meal, I don’t think it’d be all that difficult to maintain a reasonably healthy diet if that was my goal. Self-restraint and healthy choices are amazingly effective regardless of venue in my experience.
Not that I often actually abide by those rules when I eat out ;)
I was pretty incensed when I saw the local news channel running a “story” about Chinese food being bad for you. It seemed unfair to target Chinese food. You’re right, it’s about eating out too much in general, not just eating a specific ethnic food.
The media has run out of things to sensationalize, and so I guess this is what they came up with. I actually had a patient tell me about the story first and ask me what I thought about it, and I pretty much told her the same thing you’ve got here. I can just imagine the hordes of ppl who now think, “omg Chinese food is so unhealthy” but not about anything else …
For me, I don’t eat out on a daily basis not only for health reasons, but also to save up funds for hobbies and other stuff.
Also, I know that deep down it’s a knock on the Asian pride that has me a little miffed. :)
syndromes: agreed on yay for healthier menu choices. Did you know that Subway now gives you a choice to add apples or raisins to your meal deal rather than the chips / cookies? And that they are introducing juice / milk as well that you can choose in place of pop / soda? Now it’s just a question of the consumer’s choice …
To quote some Johnny Carson imitations Caro, “I did not know that” :) Apples and raisins and fruit, oh my! My last experience with “healthy eating gone awry” was when I attempted to order a side of steamed broccoli instead of the french fries that came with my veggie burger. I got the broccoli alright, just with some buttery junk all over it :P I could’ve used Subway right about then ;)
I agree with you on this. I try very hard to stay home and select a well balanced meal plan. I even have started cutting up fresh veggies so that when my daugther is hungry, she can all all the sancks she wants…as long of course they are healthy.
Go figure, Chinese Buffets are my favorite place to go when eating out. I am overweight but I would not say that I am huge. If I continue these bad habits, I know it will only get worse for me. For the most part, I think where I go wrong is I am either in a hurry and want to eat now or just too lazy to cook. It’s not that I don’t know how to cook but someone else’s food seems to taste better. Thanks for this article!