How Healthy Are Ethnic Foods? (The Diet, Month 2)

Healthy fast food is hard to find, and when it comes to 1) healthy, 2) American, 3) fast food, you usually have to pick between two of the three.  When I say American, I don’t mean strictly hamburgers and hot dogs; I mean everything that has fallen into the realm of standard fare for Americans on-the-go, including pizzas, tacos, and breakfast sandwiches, none of which I have consumed over the last two months (minus a late night, alcohol-induced trip to King Taco on New Year’s Day).  Instead, I have been relying on ethnic fast foods to get me through those busy days, which got me to thinking, how healthy is a sweet corn tamale from Mama’s, or a bowl of Daikoku ramen, or a “xiao long bao” from Din Tai Fung.  How healthy, really, are the ethnic foods that I’ve been eating, and how have they been affecting my diet.

I don’t know the exact recipes that these places use, but I have found standard recipes for the aforementioned foods, and this post will be based on that information.

Corn Tamales (as prepared by the Too Hot Tamales, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger) from the book Mesa Mexicana

10 ears corn
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
pinch of sugar, if necessary
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup hominy grits
1 recipe Salsa Fresca, see recipe

Immediately, two ingredients jump off the list in terms of health (particularly, cholesterol): butter and heavy cream.  My guess is that most places substitute butter with some kind of cooking oil, and they might avoid the heavy cream in sweetening the corn, but assuming that most tamales are prepared in a similar way, corn tamales are going to have to be taken out of the picture for the rest of my diet.

Daikoku Ramen (with Kurobuta pork)

Most of the online ramen recipes provide simplified instructions for what is really a labor of love for ramen chefs.  Daikokuya’s soup base is made from a pork broth that is simmered for over a day, and I can’t really find any online instructions for making a similar broth, so I’m not too sure what goes into that.  It should suffice to say that I don’t think broth of any sort is unhealthy.  What’s easier to see is what else goes into a bowl of Daikoku ramen: kurobuta pork, generic ramen noodles, a hard-boiled egg, and a sprinkling of green onion, bamboo shoots, and bean sprouts.

First off, the center of the hard-boiled egg is avoidable.  Leaving a slice of chashu in the bowl is almost impossible.  That tender, fatty slice of heaven known as kurobuta pork taunts me to no end, but that marbling will raise my cholesterol and needs to be left behind.  Ramen noodles can be made with or without eggs, and I’m not sure with the variety they serve at Daikokuya, but noodles are mostly just flour anyway.  The vegetables are so sparse that they really do nothing to help or hurt my diet.

Steamed Pork Dumplings
I found this recipe on Cooking.com, which uses The Heritage of Chinese Cooking as its source.

For Filling:
1/2 pound fresh ground pork (should be fatty)
3 oz fresh uncooked (green) shrimp, shelled, deveined, and minced
3 oz water chestnuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped bamboo shoots
1 cup finely chopped scallions
1/2 cup minced celery

Most of the recipes online don’t vary too much, and my aunt makes them using a similar recipe, with no glaring ingredients when it comes to unhealthiness.  The nice thing that comes with dumplings (and tamales for that matter) is that they’re always steamed, which is probably the healthiest way to cook something.  (That might be wrong, but I don’t really care).

So what does all this diet “research” amount to in this crazy world?  I’m going to try to get some nutritional information on the tamales I have been eating, and in the meantime (at least until this diet is over) will stick to steamed dumplings.

Worm Update
I dumped some of the scraps from the meal I prepared on the day I got the worms, and I just checked on them today.  The little guys are actively eating and pooping out nutritious soil, but they’re eating much slower than I expected.  They’re still working on that first meal, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to add more scraps.  In their defense, it has been unusually cold in Southern California, and they do slow down a bit when it gets nippy.  I’ve moved them indoors for the time being, and hopefully that will help them go to town.

The War Has Just Begun (The Diet, Month 1)

Recap
Before this little experiment began, I was heavy on the greasy fast foods, and low on the fruits and veg.  I took my cholesterol medication sparsely and showed little concern for my own well-being.  One month in, as according to the plan, I’ve had no fried foods, no red meat, and no fast food, while eating a healthy amount of fruits and vegetables.  I still forget to take my medication about once a week, which I’m working on, but the regularity of my medication has improved significantly.  And the results?  I’ve got my cholesterol level down to 161, HDLs at 66, LDLs at 80, and most importantly, my coronary risk ratio is at 2.43, putting me at low risk.

Health Update
I have lost about 8 pounds due to the diet, putting me at a healthy 154.  I’m fine at this weight, but I am a bit worried that I might continue to lose weight.  Honestly, cutting out unhealthy foods hasn’t changed my energy on the basketball court.  Or I haven’t felt any different out there.

The thing about being at 161, is that I’ve been on a pretty strict diet.  Hopefully, with the addition of regular exercise, it can drop even further and I can take myself off the meds.  If my cholesterol levels can continue to drop, I know that after the three months are up, I can partake in the occasional pastrami sandwich, or prime rib, or french fries, or krispy kreme, or…

Pleeeeeeeeease continue to drop.

Delay
The earth will just have to wait a day or two.  I usually do my green updates on Wednesdays, but I was swamped at work, trying to get everything taken care of before the holiday, so I will be doing the green update on the weekend when I have some free time.  On a side note, I have been washing my hair before I’ve been getting in the shower, and the only problem so far is that when I’m standing in the bathroom with no shirt on in the morning, it can get a bit chilly.  Solution?  Just hang your towel over your shoulders and that should keep you from freezing your nips off for that minute.

The Big Cooking Post (The Diet, Days 13-30)

Cooking has always been a joy of mine, and the benefits of preparing your own food take a large part in trying to lower my cholesterol.  It helps to know exactly what is going into the food that you eat and lets you prepare food while considering the restrictions of your diet.  Over the weekend, a friend asked why I don’t put up recipes to help people who are on similar diets.  The fact of the matter is, when it comes to cooking, I only do as I’m told.  I’m no trailblazer in the kitchen.  I follow instructions and can usually follow them well.  I don’t possess a complex knowledge of what flavors and spices go together, only a decent understanding of how things should look and taste when I get to the end of the recipe.

Literary Resources
Truth be told, I own a copy of Giada’s Everyday Italian, but I’ve stashed it into the dark recesses of my cupboard.  But if a book like that, or even Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals, can get you back in the kitchen, I’m fine with it.  If you want to use the recipes I’m using, the following books occupy my kitchen shelf:

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller
Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book by Nancy Silverton
Les Halles Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain
The Elements of Cooking by Michael Ruhlman
The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

Of the four actual cookbooks, three are from California chefs.  I just had to have Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, even though I have yet to use it.  The bottom three serve more as reference manuals.

Internet Resources
There are basically three things that I consistently use from the internet.  Simply Ming is great if you don’t have the time to take a course on food prep and knife handling.  It has a small video library that includes breaking down a chicken, filetting a salmon, and many other basic tips for mise en place.  Although I’m not a fan of most of the programming on Food Network, their website is the best resource for looking up Alton Brown’s recipes and instructions.  And of course Youtube is an endless source for cooking videos.  Unfortunately, like the rest of the internet, Youtube is filled with clutter from every Tom, Dick, and Jane having an opinion about how to cook something, so I mostly use it to watch the cooking segments of Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word (this link is to a user profile that hosts many of Ramsay’s cooking videos, including a segment with Martine McCutcheon, the “chubby” hottie from Love Actually).

Back to the Diet
The point of all of this is to control what I eat, and it has seemingly been going well.  Of course, I’ll find out whether this has been working when I get my blood test results back (I’m getting it drawn tomorrow morning).  In addition to the diet, I am starting to work on a plan to train for a half marathon, which I’ll document on here as soon as I get started (hopefully next week).  Cross your fingers, folks… I should get my results on Wednesday if the lab stays open, otherwise it will be next Monday.

Cholesterol Meds, Eggplant Dip, & Berry Smoothies (The Diet, Days 6-12)

Things are going alright on the dieting front.  I’ve been taking Vytorin pretty regularly, and for the first time in my life, I am actually looking forward to taking my next blood test, which I will try to do on day 30.  Over the last seven years or so, I have been taking either Lipitor or Zetia, or a combination of the two.  Unfortunately, I was never able to stay on track.  Remembering to take pills once a day is not hard, but I never stayed consistent with my medication because I did not understand the significance of lowering my cholesterol and the ramifications if I continued to ignore my problem.

Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs
To shed some light on the aforementioned medications, I will once again turn to the ever-informative American Heart Association:

Statins (also known as HMG CoA reductase inhibitors) (Lipitor)
This class of drugs works in the liver to prevent the formation of cholesterol. Statins are most effective at lowering the LDL (bad) cholesterol, but also have modest effects on lowering triglycerides (blood fats) and raising HDL (good) cholesterol. 

Selective cholesterol absorption inhibitors (Zetia)
This relatively new class of cholesterol-lowering medications works by preventing the absorption of cholesterol from the intestine. Selective cholesterol absorption inhibitors are most effective at lowering the LDL (bad) cholesterol, but may also have modest effects on lowering triglycerides (blood fats) and raising HDL (good) cholesterol. 

Vytorin, as it was explained to me, works in both these ways.  Of course, if you are worried about your cholesterol and are interested in any of these medications, consulting your physician is always your first move.

Snacking
As I pointed out earlier in the week, the food that I have been eating has not been satisfying my hunger, so in the mean time and in-between times I’ve been eating a LOT of roasted eggplant dip with toasted sourdough bread courtesy of La Brea Bakery.  This traditional Middle Eastern staple is ridiculously easy to make and delicious, and if you find yourself looking around to nibble on something, you should definitely give it a shot.  There are about a million slightly different ways to make the dip, and what I make is simply based on what is available in my kitchen, but here’s a good recipe from Howstuffworks.com.

The recipe calls for Tahini, which I substituted with olive oil.  Just drizzle the olive oil into the food processor until you get the consistency you want.  The picture above is from a Weber-sponsored site, which suggests adding a can of white cannellini beans, something I will try next time as beans are a great and healthy source of protein.

I’ve also been drinking the same banana & berry smoothie every night.

Ingredients
1 Banana
1 handful of Raspberries and Blackberries
1/3 cup of Soy milk
Ice

Progress Report
On Tuesday, Oct. 30th, I broke my diet in a lapse of judgment as I nibbled on about a handful of tortilla chips when I went to The Prince in Koreatown (I hate linking to Yelp, but that’s probably the best link for their information).  The chips might have been baked, but I doubt it.  They had a nice little salsa on the side, and man were those chips tasty!

Aside from that incident, things have been going well.  I’m still hungry during the day, but the snacks I have at home have been a great help in the evenings.  Next up, setting up an exercise schedule.

336 & The Art of Simple Food (The Diet, Days 1-5)

On Saturday (Day 1), I went to get a blood test to measure my cholesterol, and the pastrami sandwich from Friday told me that it was probably going to be ridiculously high – not because a meal the day before affects your cholesterol so drastically, but because I had eaten a pastrami dip from The Hat and that wasn’t too uncommon of an indulgence.  The result: 336.  For reference, here’s what the American Heart Association says:

Your Total Blood (or Serum) Cholesterol Level

Less than 200 mg/dL: Desirable
If your LDL, HDL and triglyceride levels are also at desirable levels and you have no other risk factors for heart disease, total blood cholesterol below 200 mg/dL puts you at relatively low risk of coronary heart disease.

200–239 mg/dL: Borderline-High Risk 
If your total cholesterol falls between 200 and 239 mg/dL, your doctor will evaluate your levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol, HDL (good) cholesterol and triglycerides. It’s possible to have borderline-high total cholesterol numbers with normal levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol balanced by high HDL (good) cholesterol.

240 mg/dL and over: High Risk 
People who have a total cholesterol level of 240 mg/dL or more typically have twice the risk of coronary heart disease as people whose cholesterol level is desirable (200 mg/dL).

And so the diet begins.  But five days in and I’m already fighting off urges.  The convenience of driving to the burger joint down the street.  The satisfaction of devouring a prime rib.  The food coma.  I went home on Sunday afternoon only to find that my parents had eaten a Taiwanese breakfast and in front of me, basking in an aura of deliciousness, was a chinese donut (it was a yeo tiau, for my Mandarin-speaking people).  I thought to myself, “Self, who’s going to know if you take a bite out of this thing.  Just a small bite won’t do anything.”  But I resisted the urge, and four days later, I’m still thinking about it.

The Art of Simple Food
It’s not all desperate pining for fried goodies though - there have been some brighter moments.  I finally started training in the art of making risotto.  For instruction, I turned to one of my favorite cookbooks at the moment: Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food.

For any aspiring cook/chef or even a hobbyist such as myself, I think this book is a must-have.  Chef Waters explains every step thoroughly and makes the process clear to the reader, including common pitfalls, beneficial tips, and suggestions on making each recipe your own.  Here’s the link to it on Amazon.

Even though my risotto has been suffering from being a bit too gooey, the taste has been rather satisfying.  My stomach, however, doesn’t feel the same way my taste buds do, and two hours later, I’m usually hungry for something else.  So far, I’ve been able quell my stomach with an apple or an orange, but I don’t know how long that can last.

Progress Report
I am happy to report that I have stuck to my guidelines through five days, particularly including the 1 cup of fruit and 1 cup of veg, and as long as I can have a short memory of the things I’ve eaten, I should be able to stay on track.