Chinese Family Meals

Status
Not open for further replies.
N

Nanny

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Anyone here have a Chinese family?

I am half Chinese. Every family event revolves round eating Chinese food. I don't think we socialise anyhow else. Since diagnosis, I have not been going, mostly cos I love the food but it's so carb heavy. I'm feeling very cut off.

I am newly diagnosed. I haven't told them - the reasons are very complicated...
 
Nanny said:
Anyone here have a Chinese family?

I am half Chinese. Every family event revolves round eating Chinese food. I don't think we socialise anyhow else. Since diagnosis, I have not been going, mostly cos I love the food but it's so carb heavy. I'm feeling very cut off.

I am newly diagnosed. I haven't told them - the reasons are very complicated...
Click to expand...
One for @Lanny, possibly?
 
As you are newly diagnosed, it might not be relevant at once, but eating a low carb diet can be very effective in reducing levels to normal, but it also restores, to some extent the ability to cope with some higher carb meals.
There is also the option of trying to restore normality by eating a low calorie reducing diet to lose weight - the Newcastle diet with or without meal replacements has its own thread, I think.
These days, almost 5 years from diagnosis, I would cope with more carbs once in a while - though if a severe high carb day I would then spend several days to a week getting back to normal.
If you are an ordinary type two and able to get into normal numbers for a considerable time, feel your metabolism improve and recover, brief encounters with carbs are OK.
I have an ice cream maybe twice a year, eat fudge once a year - these are at annual events with the morris side I play music for, but the rest of the time I eat low carb and need no medication.
 
I have just about completely cut out carbs. Miserable but 1.5 stone lighter!!! Sugar was easy but rice is not.
 
Nanny said:
I have just about completely cut out carbs. Miserable but 1.5 stone lighter!!! Sugar was easy but rice is not.
Click to expand...
If you like noodles then there are some alternatives which are made from edamame beans or black beans which are much lower carb, some people have tried Konjac rice but I found it inedible. Cauliflower rice is a not bad alternative to rice with the right flavours.
 
Tried Konjac noodles. They were ok but you really can't eat much. Cauliflower rice is the root of all evil!!!! Can't stand it.
 
Hi Nanny, I'm with you on the cauliflower rice, I can't get on with it lol.

I'm not Chinese but come from a food centred family where carbs seems to be the base of choice! I think the first thing to remember is that the odd carb isn't going to do you harm. I truly believe managing diabetes well is about balance and it's helpful not to isolate yourself due to food options.

There are a few apps, the Nutracheck app being one that help you understand the carb amount in food so if you wanted to go down that route you can.

I'd focus on meat and veg with a small side of carbs if at all once in a while. Try and plan a really good food week prior and walk as much as you can after your meal. Drink plenty of water and take any opportunity you can to have fun and 'shake a leg'.
 
Haha. I'm not much of a walker... My current new exercise regimen involves madly dancing to loud music every time I get the house to myself.... Until I'm knackered and breathing heavily... God knows what the neighbours think.
 
Hi, @Nanny Welcome to the forum! 🙂

Yes, I’m Chinese & my family had a Chinese restaurant for over 30 years. While I waited tables at the front of house I could cook everything on our menu of over 100 dishes: just not at speed; didn’t have the arm muscle either to toss the woks! 🙄

I’ve been diabetic since I was 29 & by the end of next month I’ll be 50! I’m type 2 & started on blood sugar lowering tablets right away & took them for 11 years but, have been on insulin now for the last 10 years. It was REALLY tough as a newly diagnosed diabetic working in my family restaurant surrounded by delicious food all the time! But, as you probably know, even we Chinese don’t eat like that every day! 😱

And cooking at home I learnt, over time, a new balance by seasoning less so, less, & eventually no sugar for most dishes, needs to be added to balance the flavours: that’s the main thing about Chinese food in general; balanced flavours of savoury with sweet, hot with sweet, hot with sour, sweet with sour, bitter with sweet etc. I can make dishes at home that taste just as good as the restaurant stuff with a lot less seasoning as the flavours are still balanced & the subtle natural flavours of food, meat in particular, comes through as well: an extra nuance that’s lost if over seasoned! 🙄

I became so good at balancing flavours that the chefs in our restaurant used me to fine tune the sauces they cooked every morning as my palette could taste the imbalance more sensitively than they could: it’s the balance that makes things taste good; just adding more salt dose not make it taste better as THAT will need to be balanced out!

And you can get quite a bit of natural sweetness from things without adding any sugar at all by just adding a tiny bit of salt: the key is just enough to bring out the sweetness; too much & it’s salty!

Rice, on the other hand, IS indeed trickier as it does spike my blood sugars more than the other starchy carbs, rice, potatoes, pasta, & while the resistant starch method works to cut down on that with pasta & potatoes it doesn’t work with rice. If you cook pasta or potatoes then, cool them down completely & reheat again before eating it creates resistant starch that affects your blood sugars less.

I’m not too keen on cauliflower rice either as it tastes slightly bitter to me & only use it with curry’s that disguise that! I prefer broccoli rice but, it is a bit harder to find & you may not like the metallic taste of it! Broccoli has always been one of my favourite vegetables & I love that metallic iron rich taste: love spinach too because of that taste!

But, noodles are kind of like pasta in that cooking, cooling & reheating may affect the blood sugars less unless, of course, if it’s rice noodles? I only learnt about resistant starch from forum members who posted about frozen mash potato affecting their readings less than freshly made mash! It works for some & doesn’t for others: try it with the starchy carbs to see if it works for you?

Something else I learnt that means I season less is to use herbs in my cooking. Chinese food uses spices but, doesn’t use a lot, if any, herbs! I use dried for convenience & it’s surprising how much flavour you can get from adding in some mixed herbs into dishes: works very well in curry’s as it helps to balance out the heat more so, less sugar needs to be added!
 
Oh yes! Just read your other thread, newbie intro, & yes cornflour is usually used to thicken sauces in Chinese food! I tend not to & just have the thinner sauces! But, in things like soup or noodles in soup I use the soufflé effect of eggs to thicken! I use whole eggs but, have read that just the whites will work too. Just as in making soufflés the longer you beat the eggs the more air gets incorporated the paler it becomes & it grows in volume! I beat the eggs with a fork while the soup is cooking the whole time & alternate moving my hand going one way until I tire then, go the opposite way: feels strange at first & can’t beat it as hard; gives your arm muscles a rest as you use your biceps going one way & your triceps going the other way! I beat it for about 15 to 20 minutes until it’s more than doubled in volume. Then, switch off the heat when the soup is done before adding in the eggs with one hand & quickly stirring in the eggs with the other hand. The idea is NOT to over cook the eggs & to ensure that you can take the saucepan of soup off the hob altogether before adding the eggs! You should only get tiny bits of egg in a semi gel like texture that’s not as thick as you get with cornflour but, is a lot more stable: cornflour thickening thins down quite quickly especially with more stirring; the soufflé effect of beaten eggs, on the other hand, stays in a semi gel like consistency! If you get large clumps of eggs, if too slow in stirring it in, they overcook & you don’t get that semi gel texture!
 
Wow. And thanks. I love the tricks to get round stuff!
I suppose I'm just railing against the whole diabetes thing and what I'm losing.
The whole thing is a very lonely road to travel, very isolating. It's nice to know I'm not the only person.
 
You can thicken sauces with flaxseed powder, if your other flavours can overwhelm it. You need to use half as much as you would with cornflour or arrowroot, but you will have that ever so slightly gritty mouthfeel while happy in the notion it’s doing your bowels good.

Im T1 so I’m happy with arrowroot. Doesn’t need cooking like cornflour
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top