How healthy is your average Thai food?

[Guest]

"Aluminium woks can't be a good thing - isn't there a correlation with alzheimers there?"

 

 

 

good reason not to use deoderants with Aluminum chlorohydrate, gets into your system quickly.

 

( choice between smell ok now, or loose it later in life if you ask me)

[Guest]

As mentioned above, the connection with aluminum was discredited years ago, but it continues as an Urban Legend.

[Guest]

I would venture you can eat as healthy or unhealthy in Siam as anywhere. My concern is the distribution, storage, sanitation, and preparation of fresh product. Does Bangkok have food and restaurant/foodstall inspections?

[Central Scrutinizer]

PaleRider,

 

This also is a concern of mine as well. Sanitation control and hygiene and refrigeration is often minimal at best.

 

One day many years ago a friend of mine and myself were staying in Pattaya at a high-end beachfront hotel. We were sitting on the balcony of our room quaffing a few cold ones and shooting the shit until it was time to hit the nightlife areas. The balcony we were on over-looked the parking lot and loading dock of the hotel's kitchen. While we sat there I noticed a large unrefrigerated truck pull into the lot and park. As we sat their yarning and sipping we bagan to watch, not in any scrutinizing way, just that it was there and within sight as we spoke, that the truck guys and some kitchen staff were unloading shitloads of crates of eggs. The truck was unrefrigerated, an open stake-bed truck really. They proceeded to place these open cartons of eggs directly onto the tarmac of the driveway. It was like noon time then. It was at least 90 something degrees out. There was no shade in this lot at that time of day. Once the truck was unloaded everyone left, leaving this huge pile of fresh eggs lying on the tarmac in the broiling sun, for the whole three hours my friend and I sat there. They were still sitting there when we went inside to shower and grab a nap.

 

I distinctly remember looking at my friend, nodding to the pile of eggs below and telling him, "Remind not to order anything with eggs in it from the hotel kitchen will ya?"

 

Then there is always the open-air markets where you see the meats on display, crawling with flies. Or the guy cooking at the soi foodstall you just saw picking his nose grabbing a handful of whatever you'd ordered with his bare hands and plopping it in the wok.

 

Cent

[Guest]

Everytime I return from Thailand (2 to 3 week stay) the first thing I notice is how fat and obese my fellow American is. It seems like the average american is overweight compared to the average thai. Is it the food or the amount of food consumed. What gives?

Chok dee,

HOKS

[Central Scrutinizer]

Hoksipkau,

 

I think there are many factors involved in this really. I do see many fat Thais around as well, and quite a few obese ones as well. But on average most of the Thai men and women are slimmer than our fellow Yanks. One thing I think that does affect this is the way Thais eat. We eat three meals a day usually, a lot of it high in fats. The Thais eat more meals and smaller meals usually every 3 or 4 hours if they have the money from what I've seen.

 

Plus many Thai jobs are very physical in nature. Most of them are not sitting behind a desk and computer terminal. They burn their calories taken in with strenuous physical labors. We Americans need to go to a gym to do that, a lot of us anyway. Our work force now-a-days and the jobs a lot of Americans do is far less physical then a century ago, especially the past 20 years I'd say.

 

I imagine genes may play a big role; sweets and breads and pastas and potatoes I think play a large role as well. Look at our intake of sugars and fats in our processed foods as well, plus a high consumption of beef, which is fine grilled with the visible fat cut off, but ground burger meat, even lean, is pretty high in fat content. Plus the sauces we eat, salad dressings, MAYO, are all high in sugars and fats and cholesterol (unless you specifically buy and use no-fat or lower-fat substitutes).

 

Just some of my thoughts and opinions on this. I rarely see a fat rice farmer in the villages. But in the cities and in Bangkok I see quite a few overweight Thais. I have noticed recently something I never saw years ago here, gyms being used by Thais! Also where a lot of us Americans used to walk a lot a few decades ago, most rarely do now. We are much more sedentary then years ago, as are our jobs. Percentage-wise anyway.

 

Cent

[thalenoi]

<<<but supposedly shrimp is high in a bad cholesterol and shouldn't be eaten a lot. Well, shrimp is eaten here quite a lot, way more than in the west.<<<

 

Seems also to be urban myth.

I am a heart patient and my dietician corrected this, saying shrimp contains HDL or good cholesterol, can be eaten with moderation.

But the question remains on hygene and additives, The EU banned importation for thai shrimps last year, problem being time from harvest to freezing, insufficient equipment in LOS. Only factories enablimg fast freezing are allowed exporting from what I understand.

[Central Scrutinizer]

Thalenoi,

 

Good to hear. I remember years back there was some question as to the cholesterol in shrimp. I eat a lot of shrimp/prawns here, 3 or 4 times a week. Love the damn things really. I also love most seafood. I do only eat the fresh farm-raised prawns which I pick live and kicking from the tank. Absolutely delicious. But there are or have been problems with these farm-raised buggers as well I've read over the past couple of years.

 

Give me a bucket of those fresh Gulf shrimp steamed in beer that I used to love in Florida! And an ice cold brew with some cocktail sauce and fresh lemon slices and I'm a happy camper.

 

Cent

[Guest]

Cent,

All your reasons make so much sense. And it is true their are some chunky thai's around. But having taken Thai Air, then jumping on United Airlines to the states, it really hits you. Big round flight stewardesses, yuk......

Kop khun kop,

HOKS

[Central Scrutinizer]

Hahahahaha! That sir has more to do with age discrimination and union rules and lawsuits than anything else! Used to be the airlines could set weight and age limits on their flight attendents. Lawsuits changed all that, also the FA's BID on their flights and schedules and trips, and that goes by seniority. A lot of the older, more senior, uglier and chunkier FA's love the long haul flights. Fills their quotas for the month quickly, and gives them opportunites to shop in foreign countries and stuff! I know, I worked for an airline for 22 years. Believe me, the young studs I worked with (and some were serious cunt-hounds as we called them) were seeing and dating, or just screwing, the stews left and right on their lay-overs. (Some naughty girls back then, and young and pretty.) Now it's mostly old cows! Discrimination and all that. Seniority now rules.

 

Cent