The Asian Diet

Hi (new here),

I was wondering if there were any Asians around/ (Asian, for the purpose of this thread, = rice as staple food) It’s terribly difficult, if not totally impossible, to go low-carb when food sold always has a carb component or two (I’m from Phil, where rice is everywhere. Personally, I still find it difficult to give up rice altogether.

To alleviate this carb-toxicity, I minimize my rice consumption to half a cup per small meal, thrice a day (though the rest of the 6 meals I get involve chicked/tuna/beef wraps/sandwich). This may be a tad difficult to understand for the most of you non-Asians here, but just to give you an idea, people here consume 2 cups of rice, 3 times a day.

So I guess the question would be, (for the Asians here, or those who have to suffer through over-availability of carbs in the food supply in their areas similarly), what do your daily meals look like? Thanks for the feedback.

Philippines?

Yeah I know what you mean, my fiancee’s parents are filipinos, and boy did I have to get used to eating rice. I went from eating the occasional fried rice to eating alot of rice every week. About six months into it I developed a taste for it.

I have to say I haven’t felt a need to go for some strict low carb diet yet so I haven’t given it much thought. There are worse things in my diet than rice.

I think as an Asian, if you want to cut out rice you are doing pretty damn well with the level you are eating now. They eat it with everything, it’s unavoidable.

Yeah, I live in the Philippines too… everyone at home eats rice, but for some weird reason… I developed a taste for the sweet potato instead, I only eat rice with sushi or Indian food. Here’s what I eat on a workout day (M,W,F,Sun)

6.45 am, Breakfast:
1/2 cup oatmeal (measured before cooking)
1 cup 1.5% milk
1/2 banana (mixed in with oatmeal)
1 tbsp natural pb (mixed in with oatmeal)
2 slices of cantaloupe
2 egg whites

Go to class

11.45 am, Snack:
3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt mixed w/:
2 tbsp toasted wheat germ
1/5 scoop whey chocolate protein powder
1 banana

1 pm, Lunch:
1 medium sweet potato
2 cups of vegetables
6-8 oz of fish or chicken breast

4.15 pm, Pre-workout:
Smoothie made with 1 cup skim milk, 1.5 scoops of protein powder, 1 banana, ice, 1 tsp glutamine powder

5.40 - 6.30 pm, workout

Dinner: (within 30 min postworkout)
1 medium sweet potato
2 cups of vegetables
6-8 oz of fish/chicken/steak

10.20 pm, Snack:
Smoothie made with 1 cup skim milk, 1.5 scoops of protein powder, 1 tbsp ground flaxseed, 1 tsp glutamine powder

Hello,
I completely agree with the overload of rice in Asian diets. My parents are from the Philippines and they force fed me rice for years! I still can’t eliminate it from my diet, but what I can suggest is to use Berardi’s massive eating/don’t diet guidelines. In otherwords, eat protein/carb meals and protein/fat meals.

I always eat chicken or some other lean protein with my rice, but never excess fat. I am trying eliminate rice altogether because it isn’t that great for you, but I suppose if I can’t, this is the next best thing.

Hi there, and welcome to T-Nation.

I’m not Asian, but I looove rice. I’m from Spain, and there are quite a lot of dishes there that are based on rice. However, we don’t eat it 3 times a day.

I’ve had the same problem as you when going low/mid carb, because I used to eat tons of rice when I first started living alone. I’ve simply sucked it up and made do with 50gr of rice with my lunch. If it’s a gym day I might go for 100-150gr.

However, I think there is a genetic/metabolic/physiological (call it what you will) component to the whole carb eating. I’ve discovered that I’m carb sensitive, which means my body is good at storing carbs as fat. As soon as I drop my carbs and increase protein I start to lose fat. Not everyone is like this; for example, at university I lived with quite a few Chinese and Koreans, and I swear those guys ate 200-300gr of rice 2-3 times a day, and they weren’t fat!!! I was so envious…

I’m sorry I can’t offer any practical solutions!

[quote]loctite_zexel wrote:
Yeah, I live in the Philippines too… everyone at home eats rice, but for some weird reason… I developed a taste for the sweet potato instead, I only eat rice with sushi or Indian food. Here’s what I eat on a workout day (M,W,F,Sun)

…[/quote]

HAH exactly what I was looking for…are you Filipino as well or do you just live in Phil, and do you cook your own food? I was thinking of learning how to cook myself, as I think my mom’s cooking is a bit too rich for me.

I bought one of those 1.7KG cans of tuna in water, and after feeding on it for 3 breakfasts, the rest ended up in Tuna sandwich LMAO

I don’t think rice is all that bad for you. First of all because most people I know that eat a lot of rice, myself included, are not fat at all. In fact, I eat a lot of rice and have a hard time these days getting heavier in the first place anyway. I think I may need even more than I already eat.

It’s also a well documented fact that many bodybuilders from the low-fat age ate a lot of rice. Even though it has been pointed out that low-fat is not the way to go some of those individuals were very lean indeed. Adding a lot of vegetables for fiber is also a good idea.

Furthermore from a non-bodybuilding perspective people who eat a lot of rice generally look younger. I have noticed this myself too. Even though I am 25% Asian, so it might be genetic. I highly doubt it though.

[quote]Miserere wrote:
Not everyone is like this; for example, at university I lived with quite a few Chinese and Koreans, and I swear those guys ate 200-300gr of rice 2-3 times a day, and they weren’t fat!!! I was so envious…
[/quote]

My roommate and his brother were half Chinese. They ate white rice with almost every meal. They both lifted seriously and had to eat everything they could get their hands on just to keep and retain muscle mass. Both naturally skinny and with high metabolisms. I hated them. :slight_smile:

Another good friend of mine is Filipino and I know he consistently ate rice while bulking and only cut back if he wanted to lean out a little.

[quote]exonerator wrote:
loctite_zexel wrote:
Yeah, I live in the Philippines too… everyone at home eats rice, but for some weird reason… I developed a taste for the sweet potato instead, I only eat rice with sushi or Indian food. Here’s what I eat on a workout day (M,W,F,Sun)

HAH exactly what I was looking for…are you Filipino as well or do you just live in Phil, and do you cook your own food? I was thinking of learning how to cook myself, as I think my mom’s cooking is a bit too rich for me.

I bought one of those 1.7KG cans of tuna in water, and after feeding on it for 3 breakfasts, the rest ended up in Tuna sandwich LMAO[/quote]

Yup, I’m filipino. I make every meal except for lunch and dinner… hehe, by the way, even though my lunch and dinner descriptions look bland, theyr really pretty tasty.

For instance, the two cups of vegetables are sauteed in olive oil and garlic, same with the chicken/fish/steak… yeah, at first my cook would only make dishes like ‘adobo’ and ‘kare-kare’, but then i taught her the fine art of sauteeing… and well, she’s learned, hehe

maybe you can convince your mom to start cooking that way as well. Good luck with your diet.

White rice has a fairly low to medium glycemic index and is really not that bad. But I wouldn’t eat it eight times a day. Add some variety, if you can.

its good for bulk :D.

[quote]bikemike wrote:
White rice has a fairly low to medium glycemic index and is really not that bad. But I wouldn’t eat it eight times a day. Add some variety, if you can.[/quote]

The glycemic index is kind of a funny thing. I’ve seen foods go from low to high, white rice I usually see around 90. So I’m not surprised that you mention it ‘low’. GI is a measured response that is different for everybody. Be nice to find my individual profile. THat wouldn’t be cheap, though!

You really shouldn’t eat Asians. I mean, I know they’re abundant, but still … Another problem is that about 30 minutes later …

Similarly I told my friend Kevin, a Chinese guy, that although I like hanging out with him, I always want to hang out with someone else about a half an hour later. He called me a “wacist.”

Ah … I feel my feet getting warmer as I get closer to hell.

To bag on myself, here’s this:

A big Oil and Gas corporation recently hired several cannibals in the interest of cultural diversity.

“You are all part of our team now,” said the HR rep during the welcoming briefing. “You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don’t eat any of the other employees.”

The cannibals promised they would not.

Four weeks later, their boss remarked, “You’re all working very hard, and I’m satisfied with you. However, one of our Geologists has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to him?”

The cannibals all shook their heads no.

After the boss left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, “Which one of you idiots ate the Geologist?”

A hand rose hesitantly, to which the leader of the cannibals continued, “You fool — for 4 weeks we’ve been eating Engineers and VPs and no one noticed anything, but noooooo, you had to go and eat someone who actually does something!”

Bastard!

Have you tried switching to brown rice? Once you get used to it, it’s not that bad. You can try doing mixes initially to help acquire the taste (and texture) for it (50/50 white/brown) and eventually go for all brown rice. I did it for a while and it did keep me fuller longer.

Lemme guess…You’re a geologist! Sorry, “Geologist.”

Make it brown if possible and try to eat along Berardi guidelines (P + F and P + C meals). If you do this and you’re not having any trouble with body composition, I see no reason why you would actually need to cut the amount of rice and other carbs you’re eating.

Yeah, I was just about to say to switch to brown rice as well. Seriously, filipino cuisine is very tasty already…

here’s a tip, don’t eat the rice and viand seperately. Put a small amount of brown rice in your fork and a small amount of meat → shovel it in your mouth => voila! you would not have noticed a diff! :slight_smile:

[quote]th_underdog wrote:
bikemike wrote:
White rice has a fairly low to medium glycemic index and is really not that bad. But I wouldn’t eat it eight times a day. Add some variety, if you can.

The glycemic index is kind of a funny thing. I’ve seen foods go from low to high, white rice I usually see around 90. So I’m not surprised that you mention it ‘low’. GI is a measured response that is different for everybody. Be nice to find my individual profile. THat wouldn’t be cheap, though![/quote]

It’s not THAT different. Everybody is a little different. But were still mostly the same. Otherwise we wouldn’t be people.

I am a chinese who lives in NZ and still eat asian food daily (I cook my own meals).

Too much carbs? Never happened to my cooking. How? Cook less rice and put more veggies/meat in your stir-fried dishes, depending on your fitness goal. And sometimes you just need your carbs for your workout.

Having said that, a lot of traditional chinese cooking is not very fitness-friendly e.g. too much animal fat/oil etc. I improvise them to suit my lifestyle.

And loctite_zexel is right — this is why Asian eat with bowls, not plates. You put the food into your bowl (with rice in it), pick up your bowl and shovel the “mixture” into you mouth.

Geek boy

[quote]BFG wrote:
You really shouldn’t eat Asians. I mean, I know they’re abundant, but still … Another problem is that about 30 minutes later …

Similarly I told my friend Kevin, a Chinese guy, that although I like hanging out with him, I always want to hang out with someone else about a half an hour later. He called me a “wacist.”

Ah … I feel my feet getting warmer as I get closer to hell.

To bag on myself, here’s this:

A big Oil and Gas corporation recently hired several cannibals in the interest of cultural diversity.

“You are all part of our team now,” said the HR rep during the welcoming briefing. “You get all the usual benefits and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don’t eat any of the other employees.”

The cannibals promised they would not.

Four weeks later, their boss remarked, “You’re all working very hard, and I’m satisfied with you. However, one of our Geologists has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to him?”

The cannibals all shook their heads no.

After the boss left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others, “Which one of you idiots ate the Geologist?”

A hand rose hesitantly, to which the leader of the cannibals continued, “You fool — for 4 weeks we’ve been eating Engineers and VPs and no one noticed anything, but noooooo, you had to go and eat someone who actually does something!”

Bastard![/quote]

You should really stick to penning romance novels… comedy is not your forte!