It seems a common occurrence after eating at Indian restaurants is a painful, bloated full feeling after the meal. This seems to be a different kind of “full” than most other types of food, and seems to happen even when I eat far less than I would with other foods. I’ve heard similar reports from nearly everyone I know who likes Indian food, and seen it happen many times to people I dine with.
I’ve heard rumors that many Indian places put baking soda in their food to fill you up faster. Since many Indian restaurants have buffet style lunches, this would seem to make some sense, as far fetched as the claim may be. I even have an Indian friend, whose family owns a restaurant, who says it is true (although he claims his family’s place does not practice it). The idea is the baking soda expands in your stomach, making you feel “full” faster, and eat less.
Has anyone heard anything similar? Is there any chance of this being true?
Have never heard of this before. How would it profit them for you to eat less, assuming it’s not at an all-you-can-eat buffet? I’ve always assumed the bloating is from lots of spices, creamy sauces and tons of veggies (especially onions). Having ruined baked goods by adding too much, wouldn’t most people be able to detect any significant amount of baking soda?
Baking soda is sometimes recommended as remedy for an upset stomach, so why would it make you feel more bloated?
I also vote that you’d be able to taste any significant amount. My guess is the spices, copious amounts of onion and/or the use of beans, lentils and similar ingredients in a lot of dishes are what is doing it.
It’s not really possible for baking soda to be added to food, especially saucy food served at a buffet, such that it would fill you up with gas. All it’d do is neutralize some of the acid. The CO[sub]2[/sub]-producing reaction will only last a few minutes in a warm liquid. I’m guessing your friend was putting you on, or if they do add it, it’s not for this purpose.
I think the biggest factor is when it’s eaten with rice. In Indian cooking, the rice is commonly a bit dry to absorb the sauce - and that may occur in the stomach, leading to a more bloated feeling. A lot of pulses and high amounts of fat probably also contribute. I think (from personal experience, so take it with a grain of sodium bicarbonate) eating it with naan is slightly less likely to give you that feeling, but I’ve never really checked.
Is Indian food traditionally very acidic? I might think that if it is, then it would help cut that a little to ease the impact on the stomach. If not, wouldn’t it combine with the HCl in the stomach and make gas, making you full earlier?
I’ve seen some people use Baking Soda to achieve a spongy texture in dishes such as Mysore Pak, but that’s a desert, so you wouldn’t eat much of it anyway, and the expansion has already taken place before you eat it. In any case, you only need a pinch of baking soda to do that–I can’t imagine it would give you a bloated feeling.
The way I heard it was that places would load up the soup with CORN STARCH, and sampling the egg-drop soup at a few chinese buffets, I can believe it. It has a very slimy consistency that is not in the egg drop soup I make at home or get in finer establishments.
I’d guess it’s a combination of drinking more due to spiciness combined with the somewhat dry rice, that makes the rice swell up, and you feel bloated.
I question the premise. My group of co-diners considers Indian food one of the least filling options. We always make sure to get appetizers or dessert since the meal (non-buffet) never seems to quite do it, fullness-wise (although always deliciousness-wise).
We don’t call for baking soda in most of our recipes. If you’re claiming that lots of Indian restaurants do this then I don’t really have any proof they don’t, except if you know anything about cooking you’ll know that baking soda will change the texture and even the flavor of the food. And I wonder why it’s only Indian restaurants and not American…hmm.
It’s creamy sauces, the bread, lots of oil, and no skimping on the good stuff. Real butter, not margarine, etc.
…Now I’m hungry.
NaHCO[sub]3[/sub] is very salty tasting. More than a sprinkle would make most food too salty to eat.
I haven’t had Indian food in years, but I don’t remember it being especially salty.
Agreed. A few months ago I had some hot-and-sour soup that was almost thick enough to stand the spoon up in it.
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I never found Indian food over-filling, except for being so good I would eat too much. (I need a good Indian place somewhere nearby. I used to be in Vancouver working at locations with Indian places right across the street. Here in my part of DFW, the nearest is half an hour away. Sigh.)
I’ve never thought of Indian food as either overfilling or underfilling, and I’d never heard that view expressed by anybody until I opened this thread.
When I eat Indian food, I always end up stuffed and bloated, but that’s because it tastes so good that I eat way too much of it.
I’ve got a few authentic Indian recipes that call for baking soda in the sauce, and I’ve never understood why. But I don’t think it’s anything to do with feelings of fullness.
Indian food does not use any more baking soda than any other type of cuisine, and probably less than French. You would definitely taste baking soda that was put into a dish in such quantities that the OP describes – it’s not a flavour you can hide easily.
With regard to the comment about Chinese food, corn starch is a staple to most Asian cooking. Virtually every reasonably well-stocked kitchen in Thailand, China, Korea, Japan and Singapore will have corn starch. I suspect Vietnamese kitchens would be the same, but I can’t say that I’ve done much cooking of Vietnamese dishes (I just go to a Vietnamese restaurant once a week, instead :)).