Excerpt: “Thai fish cakes had excessive amounts of salt, while Pad Thai contained 11.3g of fat per 100g and beef penang contained 8.8g, including 6.1g of saturated fat.”
It’s a Great Truism among newbies here in the kingdom that Thai food is healthier, but you start to question that after a while when you see how everything is actually prepared. Deep frying is the norm. Vegetarians never realize their “healthy” meal has been fried up in animal fat, not vegetable oil, because of the cheaper price. Thais can’t get enough of sugar either and pour it into virtually everything; it’s even standard to get a small packet of spicy sigar to use as a dip when buying regular fruit.
Interesting to me, That Australian Chinese food is that healthy. American Chinese food is about as unhealthy as you you can get, with loads of salt, fat, and Sugar in most popular dishes.
I wonder if Thai places elsewhere are as bad? Most Thai places in the US seem to be sitdown; it often seems to be thought that takeout is less healthy for most places. Anyway, good thing that I don’t like Pad Thai.
Not peanut sauce? Peanut sauce is a pretty different beast from peanut butter, being thinner and spicier. It’s fantastic on pizza, too; the Thai pizza from CPK uses it as the sauce.
I’ve never met a non-Thai that actually eats Thai fishcakes. Also, most of the more tasty Thai food uses coconut cream. The oil can be peanut oil but it tastes most excellent with palm kernel oil. Both coconut and palm kernel oil are very high in saturated fats, iirc.
Ironically, Thai people weren’t fat before western foods started showing up. Even now I’d guess most aren’t. I’m betting it’s “western” (read Aussie here) portions plus Thai ingredients that make it worst.
Yeah, it’s really peanut sauce, but it’s more fun to think of it as peanut butter.
Haven’t tried the CPK Thai; I luuuuurve CPK pizzas, but stick to the meatless options (usually the tostada, the gorgonzola-pear, or the vegetarian with Japanese eggplant & goat cheese).
Well, the article is about takeout food, and pizzas from takeout places are pretty unhealthy. Here’s the nutritional facts for Dominos (and I’m sure they’re similar for other companies)
Then you’ve never met my wife and her family, although they don’t eat them all the time. Just in restaurants.
Yes, the major health problem in the Central region, which includes Bangkok, is obesity. (Each region has its own main health problem. In the North, it’s iodine deficiency; in the Northeast, liver fluke; in the South, hookworm.) This is because of the relative prosperity in the area.
I once knew a Peace Corps Volunteer who was stationed in the Central region’s Lopburi province. She was a nutrition volunteer tasked with fighting child malnutrition. She couldn’t find any there among all the little porkers running around, but her office, pleased about having an American on site as proof they were doing something, told her not to worry about it, just sit around for a couple of years and have a good time. She demanded to be moved or else she was packing up going back to America. So the Peace Corps moved her to a destitute area of the Northeast where there really was malnutrition.
As for that survey, myself I’m always pleased to see anything that can even remotely justify my eating pizza. There are plenty of “Thai food” toppings over here – tomyam kung, chicken satay (although satay is really a borrowing from Malaysia) and many others – but the wife and I prefer the standard pizza toppings. Meat Lovers and Bacon Delight especially.
Your wife is Thai. I said I never met a farang that eats those. I’m sure some folks do, just not many in the USA. In fact, I’d guess that most Thai restaurants in the States don’t offer them. I’m guessing Australia has more Thai immigrants since it’s much closer to home for them.
I was told by a nutritionist that a single slice of vegetarian pizza is close to a perfect meal in terms of both micronutrients and the balance between fat/carbohydrates/protein.
