Healthiest Chinese Food Options & Key Ingredients to Use | Chili House (2024)

FAQs

Is home cooked Chinese food healthy? ›

While Chinese takeout has a reputation for being unhealthy, using traditional Chinese cooking methods at home can help you enjoy delicious dishes without excess salt, sugar or fat.

Chinese takeout can be a lifesaver on busy weeknights, but choose carefully to sidestep cholesterol and sodium. Hot-and-sour soup, steamed dumplings, and entrees that are steamed or lightly stir-fried are better choices than fatty egg-drop soup, egg rolls, or deep-fried specialties.

Steamed Fish and Vegetables

Takeout menus tend to offer a mild-tasting variety of protein-rich white fish, such as sole, and it's paired with mixed vegetables. The veggies add fiber, a key nutrient for digestion and heart health. If you have the chance to choose or add Chinese eggplant as a veggie, go for it.

Worst: General Tso's Chicken

Named after a Chinese war hero, this fat-laden dish won't help you win any weight loss battles. The breaded, fried chicken is smothered in a sugary sauce. One order clocks in at around 1,500 calories and 88 grams of fat, and it delivers more sodium than you should get in a day.

Traditionally, steamed vegetables have been a main staple of Chinese food. These steamed vegetables and tea, combined with only occasional red meat and minimal fried food, led to immense health benefits for Chinese people.

Grains and carbohydrates – Rice, Noodles, Buns

Rice and noodles are a very important part in the Chinese diet. Rice and noodles are equivalent to potato and pasta in the western diet. Handfuls of bite-sized meat and vegetables accompany the rice and noodles. Almost every meal uses rice.

Choose lean proteins

Some lean protein choices include chicken, lean ground pork and fish. These proteins are often used in Chinese main dishes such as Kung Pao Chicken with Bell Peppers. Plant-based proteins, such as tofu, are also found in Chinese dishes.

steamed dumplings or grilled fish, instead of fried dishes. have large amounts of vegetables, such as beef with broccoli. Chicken, General Tso's Chicken, Mu Shu Pork, or fried egg rolls.

High intake of foods containing unhealthy fats (saturated fats and trans fats) – such as fatty meats and deli-style meats, butter, cream, ice cream, coconut oil, palm oil and most deep-fried takeaway foods and commercially baked products (such as pies, biscuits, buns and pastries).

Is shrimp bad for cholesterol? ›

Shrimp are notably high in cholesterol. You'll take in about 130 milligrams if you eat 12 large shrimp. But at only 2 grams of fat, shrimp are plump with B vitamins, protein, and the nutrients selenium and zinc. Check with your doctor, but you can likely enjoy them once or twice a week.

Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, a common amino acid, and could conceivably play a role in increasing leptin levels.

Some specific dishes that are particularly low in calories in Chinese cuisine include steamed vegetables, steamed fish, Buddha's delight (a vegetarian stir-fry), and moo goo gai pan (chicken with mushrooms and vegetables). These dishes are typically prepared with minimal oil and are packed with nutritious ingredients.

Your best bets for lower-glycemic Chinese meals are egg drop soup, tofu with vegetables, curry tofu or chicken, dim sum (chicken or fish with vegetables), barbequed pork with mustard and seeds, chicken or scallops with vegetables, stir-fried chicken, shrimp, or tofu with vegetables, Moo Goo Gai Pan, and shrimp and snow ...

Points-friendly garlic sauce, black bean sauce, and brown sauce are good choices. Vegetarian options like Chinese vegetables with tofu or vegetable lo mein are also good bets. Other noodle options to explore? Chow fun, a stir fried broad flat noodle, with chicken or beef.