Yes that's the most obvious reaction most people have but I think there's a lot more that we just ignore and pass it off as something else.

There is a "traditional" Chinese restaurant where I live. It's pretty high-end and popular. But it's all "traditional" cooking, meaning MSG and loads of sugar. Who is cooking without that stuff when the trendy, hip Chinese place is all circa-1950? It's SO good, though, and you can ask for no MSG (but not no sugar - that they won't do).

That's because:



They don't have chefs in the kitchens, they have untrained cooks (qualified to work at McDonalds) who know nothing But using the Red or White stuff...

So-called Chinese food is an entirely American invention, which is where we get the sugary sauces and breaded meats.

Mr WereBear, when he's feeling up to it, learned to cook from the show Yan Can Cook, and the real Chinese stuff tends toward bite-sized pieces of meat and veg, stir fried, and with very piquant (in Hunan and Szechuan, quite hot) sauces. Most of the real Chinese cooking has no wheat flour at all, except the regions who grow wheat, and have noodles.

One of the reasons people don't get attuned to it is because they're eating so many unhealthy things. For years I would get horrible muscle & joint aches - drove me crazy. Assuming it was something I was eating, I would not eat something for a while, but nothing happened. It wasn't until I had restricted my diet enough with lc that I was able to pinpoint it to cheese - the one dairy food I would binge on (and still do at times ). Turns out that allergies to dairy protein are a thing.

As long as I don't binge, I'm OK, but I do better when I don't eat any cheese at all. Butter & cream don't seem to do anything, but I don't eat either in large amounts.

The hot and sour soup, I think they buy it pre-made by the gallon can full and warm it up and throw in a few pieces of tofu. It's exactly the same every where you go. Then if you refrigerate it, you realize that it's chuck full of thickener (corn starch) because it solidifies into a jelly like blob.

I do stir fry too. Very high heat stirring constantly and that's when I use sesame oil because all of the bottled stir-fry sauces on the grocery shelf are sugar laden, every single one.
Fresh sliced ginger, garlic and sesame oil go a long way to create flavor without the sugar.

Har! I just googled "low carb hot and sour soup" and the one I got back was 20 net carbs a serving.

Don't think so.

Egg drop is good if you make it yourself. Chicken broth (homemade is best but canned can do in a pinch) warmed really hot and just drizzle and stir in some scrambled egg.
Probably pretty close to 0 carbs this way. Or 1/2g carb for the egg.

I always thought that, too, but I don't think it's true after talking to a friend who is a Chinese food expert. Chinese cooking has been a highly developed cuisine linked to wealth. Everything about it is unhealthy from the sugar and grains to the fact that everything is cut up small (leads to jaw issues). And it is like that in China, too, except for the poor (my friend grew up in a very poor village) It is a cuisine of civilization (ie. chronic disease) that Americans have somehow been able to market as "healthy" via transforming it into just stir fry meat and vegetables which is not really the authentic high cuisine. Szechuan cooking almost always has sugar, as far as I know - traditionally. A lot of China bases its cuisine on wheat. It is the staple in the north.

Ah, this must be what Mr WereBear is basing that on. Thanks!

It's another way that Ancel Keyes stuff got shoved down our throats! My friend is really interested in healthful eating. Totally different approach than low carb but at least no sugar, etc. But she grew up with nothing.

I'm from mid southern coastal California, where there is an immense amount of food from around the world, and the people making it are generally from that part of the world.

I now live on the flat edge of the Ozarks, where the palate is completely different. If you took the blandest food you know, and then removed most the salt and pepper even, that's about the midzone here. It boggles my mind.

As a result, what little 'foreign' food (?! as if anything is foreign in today's age) there is, is completely tasteless, because they cannot offend locals by infusing it with something frightening like real flavor.

So all the chinese places operate just like the one you mentioned meme. I have one right across the street from me. By this I mean literally right across the street... 10 steps from my driveway is the back driveway of that place. The smell is so incredibly good. But I know what it's like in ingredients.

One thing I recently did was buy some legit ingredients for more Thai food (galangal, lime leaves, Tamarind (Imli) paste, lemon grass, etc.) so I could have more food that is wonderfully spicy and yummy in my own way. That way when "the smell of black pepper pork I love so much" is wafting in my front window (gaaaahhhhh!) I can at least make my own food!

PJ

PS and I'm pretty sure there is no Thai food within hours of me

heart breaking, none of my family members also change their diet. Especially my brother and sister (both obese ) Eating good high carb junk food is a part of their social life.
some friends tried it after 3-4 days they just turn back to normal eating .

Yes, I have family members with diabetes diagnoses who believe their doctors instead of me. And okay, that’s fair: but what about when doing what their doctor tells them doesn’t work?

I like Janet's observation that eating and drinking are socially driven. It's very obvious to me that along with the social dynamic, some, like myself, become carb addicted along the way to make this dynamic even more powerful and difficult to change. When one starts a low carb journey, the change in eating is very dramatic, and unless one realizes that this change is powerful enough to save one's life, improve health, and extend one's lifespan, the journey will be very short. Not for the faint of heart, so, again, no disdain from me at all.