Is Thai Food generally healthy?

[Gadfly]

But it is also relative...is Thai food healthier than a big mac & fries? Yes. Is it healthier than healthy meals from our native countries? No.

 

Habits also come into play. Thai food tends to be veggies with meat instead of the other way around. But I am often dismayed to see Thai's pick out the meat and leave generous amounts of veggies behind. So it depends what type dishes you order as well as what parts you actually consume.

 

I agree with Neo on this. Of course the problem is that Thais now also eat big macs and fries. Thais, particularly middle class Thais in Bangkok are starting to suffer from serious obesity problems. Of course Bangkok also now has a plethora of fitness clubs (e.g., California Wow, Fitness First, True Fitness, etc.) to fight obesity (female members seem to strongly outnumber male members).

 

Stickman is right about the way Thais tend to cook food. I taught my maid to substitute olive oil for the lard that she was using (and use less of oil generally), steam or bake rather than fry, white meat and fish rather shell fish or beef, more veggies than meat, substantially cut down on the sugar and salt, and not add MSG or any other additives under any circumstances. Seeing how she had cooked make me realize how she cooked made me realize how bad 'regular' Thai food can be (but then Americans also put all sorts of crap in their food).

 

Interestingly, she decided to start cooking food this way at home. Her husband and kids complained for the first several months, but eventually accepted and preferred food cooked this way (her salary includes a right to a healthy portion of the olive oil bought for my place, which she can take home.)

[bibblies]

As someone who tries to have a really healthy diet, I'd agree with you.

 

Like the average street food in farang-land, it's not that healthy. There are issues with hygiene, oils and additives used (Thais have a very liberal to all of these). Furthermore, I'd say lots of dishes were padded with pretty empty carbs (white rice and noodles have very little fibre) and comparitively few pieces of meat or vegetables.

 

Thais are (sadly) getting fatter but I'd put that down to the vastly increased number of junk food outlets here. If you go to Vietnam, you'll notice the difference.

 

As an aside to what Gadfly said about gyms, it's amusing to note in these places what Thais consider 'exercise'. Apart from Powerzone in Prachasongkroh, I've never really seen a Thai exert him or herself to the point of sweating. Instead, there's lots of lifting bars with weights so ridiculously small that it's pointless, then feeling muscles and social chatting for 15-20 minutes. I feel a separate post coming on about gyms...

[panadolsandwich]

I used to assume that Thai food by default was healthy, but after a couple of years, I don't think so any more. At least for the kind of default diet you might achieve as a typical tourist. To do better, you have to work on your own menu, and actually do some research and investigation. This can be fun, but also quite sickening...

 

The cheaper street side food is laden with oil, msg and salt. Combine that with the fact that they still use aluminium woks hence increasing your risk of alzheimers; and the pesticides and chemicals with that fresh fruit. Thais are blissfully unaware of these problems it seems.

 

Reheating old food is a major no no as it allows a utopian life for thriving bacteria that would kill you. You see the BBQ guys letting meats partially cook, then rest for hours (or days?) before they are reheated on the grill for sale. Eat one of these if the guy was in a bit of a rush, and you are dead meat or at the least very ill (everything coming out of every orifice).

 

I've also seen those mobile dried chicken and beef stalls, with the drying meats dripping onto the cooked meats below to form a food poisoning ala carte.

 

You could argue that you could easily avoid all this chaos by cooking for yourself, or finding a good restaurant you can trust. This is undoubtedly the way to get by here. Short list the places that are good and stick to them. Or / and cook for yourself (but be prepared to pay a lot more).

 

I tend to favour the soups and salads, like tom yum and spicy beef salad; and steamed sea bass with steamed rice. I try to avoid fried foods.

 

In Isaan my typical meal might be grilled fish with rice vermicelli and herbs and papaya salad; or even duck salad with sticky rice and seafood sauce. Singh beer appears to cut through the spiciness of the chillies quite nicely. A good Australian Chardonnay will also do wonders for this type of cuisine. I stock up when I'm in Bangkok on the finer wines and delicacies (to combat homesickness).

 

Thai cuisine is definitely worth exploring, yet take your time and make your own judgement calls would be my modest advise. Cheers!!!

[SatRai]

For me being a vegetarian, Thailand offers me more choice than restaurants in Europe (except perhaps Britain), especially during the Vegetarian Festival in October/November. Lot's of variety in (fresh) vegetables.

 

In BKK I had healthy as well as not so healty dishes. Latter were too oily; unnecessary in my view.

[mongatu]

I think if you use common sense, you can find some relatively healthy Thai food for very little money. Like was said above, you need to find some good places that cook well and relatively wholesomely and then order things that are relatively healthy. You don't have control over the type of oil they use, but I don't think that is that important if they don't use too much of it.

 

I've found a few places that I feel serves cheap, delicious and fairly healthy Thai food and I eat at such places a lot. Also, I go to the markets and buy things like fresh grilled fish, vegies, rice, to bring back to the room to consume. I basically feel that I manage to generally eat more healthy food here than back home for a heck of a lot less money.

 

Now regarding the pesticides and chemicals, I don't know. That is kind of scary.

[Al]

also, if you are veggie, there are a lot of Indian restaraunts all over BKK, some that are exclusively veggie. The ones I tried, the best ones were good quality.

[..]

Of course what you say PS makes sense, but the reality is quite different in my experience. I eat street food all the time and have never been sick from it.

 

I got sick once at a famous seafood restaurant in BKK. The other three times I've gotten "food poisoning" were from family-style restaurants in the States...

 

Cheers,

SD

 

PS -- "food poisoning" meaning being violently ill, spewing from top & bottom, with fever and aches; not just a minor rumble in the belly and a couple of hours of the shits.

[Encore]

>I notice when the family cooks now they tend to use those dodgy looking stock cubes in soups.

Buddha only knows what's in them.<

 

Same as in stock cubes in farangland but with a solid dose of MSG added. Very hard to find stock cubes without MSG in LOS.

[Encore]

>I am planning to study in bangkok soon and noticed that very cheap apartments can be had for 3,000 baht or less, catch is they are small (which is no big deal, I'm used to that) and come with no kitchen.<

 

Not sure how much apartment you get for 3K nowadays. Don't expect any mod cons. And it may not be the most exciting neighbourhood.

[panadolsandwich]

Like Ikrang says 3K would be a little bit low (if you are talking about an all inclusive price). 5 to 6K will get you a place in Ratchada Soi 13 or thereabouts, with air conditioner and good security (key card!, including electricity, water etc.). I know because my girlfriend's sister had a room like that - and very cosy too. When the sister went upcountry we moved in and I bought a fridge for the place even though we were only staying a couple of weeks. I paid the bill for the month too, and since I used the air conditioner so much it was about 5K.

 

The place was nice, not noisy at all even judging by the amount of footwear outside of some rooms you might expect six or more people living there. The place had greenery everywhere, the room itself flowering plants and ferns. It was actually quite a cheerful place to stay!

 

You definitely need to speak Thai at least a little bit (or be really good at sign language) if you plan to live around there as English is non-existent. You can't get an English newspaper for love or money around there either.

 

Still it shows it can be done (living so cheaply in Bkk). There is a beef noodle soup stand there that for 20 baht took care of the hunger pangs from time to time and was meticulously clean. Another place would sell Singha beer about 5 baht more then the 7/11, but provide ice and a glass and could masterly whip up seemingly anything you could actually communicate in Thai to them. Actually that two or three week furlough was one of my most enjoyable in Thailand...