Your Food Is Fooling You by David A. Kessler M.D

Author:David A. Kessler, M.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

CHAPTER 15

It’s All American Food Now

In some places in the world, people still eat traditional food. Those are foods whose recipes have been handed down from generation to generation. Whether they are the traditional foods of China or Mexico or the Middle East, they all have one thing in common. The foods and spices may be different but the meals are meant to satisfy your hunger and make you feel full.

But something strange happens to food from other countries when it travels to the United States. The meals become Americanized. Extra sugar, fat, and salt get added to the recipes. The food may look like something they’d eat in China or Mexico, but it no longer tastes like the original.

From Taco Bell to the nearest Japanese restaurant, the world’s food is turning into American food. And it works the other way, too. We are exporting our high-sugar, high-fat food to other countries. American fast food chains are busy spreading across the globe. For example, China now has more than 3,800 Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut locations.

American style food, high in sugar, fat and salt, is spreading across the globe.

Fat Sushi

Sushi is a classic Japanese dish. It is basically raw fish served on rice. Sometimes it is wrapped in seaweed. Traditional sushi is about as fat-free a meal as you can have. But in the United States, sushi has mutated. Now you can get sushi made with cream cheese (called Philly rolls). There’s also sushi with battered and fried shrimp topped with mayonnaise. American teriyaki sauce has far more sugar than anything you’ll find in Japan.

Chinese food has also become more “American.” Traditional Chinese dishes have more vegetables and less sugar than “Chinese” food in the United States. That’s why some Chinese restaurants in the United States have two different menus. One is for Chinese customers and one for Americans. The Chinese customers want real Chinese food, not American style. As the owner of a Chinese restaurant in Connecticut told me, “When I look at American Chinese food, I think it is not Chinese.”

The dish we call “General Tso’s Chicken” was invented in China in an area called Hunan. But cooks in America load the dish with sugar. The chef who invented General Tso’s Chicken says it’s not the same in the United States. “The dish can’t be sweet,” he says. “The taste of Hunan cuisine is not sweet.”

And, of course, Chinese-style fast food is even worse. Panda Express is the nation’s largest Chinese restaurant chain. In 2007, it sold more than $1 billion worth of food. But is it really Chinese food or is it just more high-sugar, high-fat, and high-salt American food?

The Orange Chicken they sell is made in the Panda Express factory. The dark chicken chunks are injected with water, oil, and salt. Then they are battered and fried in oil. At the restaurants, the meat is deep-fried in oil again for at least five minutes. Then it’s coated with a high sugar sauce. In the end, your “Chinese food” is full of the same old trio—sugar, fat, and salt.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.