The Fat Diaries: Losing Weight on the Chopsticks Diet
I occasionally go to Chinese buffets. With a little discipline and a few rules, one can eat well without throwing their diet out of whack.
In a recent medical study, researchers examined the behavior of obese and normal weight people at a Chinese buffet. The article noted that obese people were prone to sitting closer to the food, sitting facing the food, and would forgo browsing before serving themselves. It also stated that obese people would eat their Chinese food with forks, while normal weight people used chopsticks. (Note: of the people observed, 0% were Asian/Asian-American.)
It was interesting reading this, because in the two behavior patterns I was able to identify myself as both kinds of diner. While by FDA standards I am not “normal weight,” I noticed that my behavior at buffets now reflects the normal weight group, while it used to resemble the obese group’s behavior. There was only one incongruity: I’ve always used chopsticks.
My mother gave me my first pair of enamel chopsticks when I was nine years old, and I mastered eating with them almost immediately afterwards. Not only could I pick up most food substances, including rice, but I mastered the art of “shoveling,” a technique perfected by young Asian teenage boys the world around. Shoveling is achieved when you hold the chopsticks almost parallel to each other with a narrow gap of a half- to a quarter-inch between them. You then pick up your bowl or plate and use the chopsticks as sort of a narrow “spoon” to get your food into your mouth quickly and with minimal mess.
I continued to hone my chopsticks skills in college where, as the vice president of the Anime Club, I found myself at a Chinese buffet or Japanese sushi restaurant at least once a week. I was eventually broken of the shoveling habit when I realized something important: shoveling was rude (and it turned guys off). Being a little more conscious of how I was projecting myself, I used proper chopstick etiquette and my eating slowed down substantially. Since the food was delivered to my mouth in smaller amounts and with more pauses for breathing/swallowing I started to feel full sooner. I began to realize that an order of unagi-maki with a beef teriyaki bento and green-tea ice cream for dessert was a LOT of food, and that I was throwing away money on more food than I could possibly hold. The same held true at the Chinese buffets. Instead of three plates, I was eating one plate of food that I carefully chose and ate slowly.
I occasionally go to Chinese buffets, usually when one of my hypermetabolic brothers are in town, but with a little discipline and a few survival rules, I can manage to eat a sensible amount of food without throwing my diet out of whack. In addition to the habits mentioned by the article, (sit further away, don’t face the food, eat with chopsticks, pick what you want to eat) here are some tips I’ve crafted for my needs.
My Tips:
White rice: If you’re one of those people who need to fill the plate, use a smaller plate and dedicate a good portion of it to white rice, it’s steamed, has some good carbs, and at least is better for you than the fried stuff.
Go veggies: Everything will be loaded with oil; there’s no escaping it. But choosing green beans, peppers and tofu over pork, noodles and fried nuggets is slightly healthier.
Sushi: Sushi is filling, unfried, and delicious. Go for cucumber rolls and tuna rolls if they’re available. Skip the shrimp, artificial crab and mayonnaise ones.
Tea: If you’re at a place that has teapots with free refills, go for it and drink plenty of it. It will fill those empty corners and its better for you than sugary soda.
Pick one dessert and commit: Stake out which dessert you want to have at the beginning of the meal and take ONE.
Talk: Go with someone who’s an excellent conversationalist. The more you talk, the less time you have for shoveling and the longer pauses you take between bites. I love going to the buffet with my brother, Dave. I’ve talked so much during lunches with him that my food got cold and I barely ate any of it.
Again, these are my tips, and they don’t work for everyone, but they’ve proved pretty useful to me in the last few years. I’m kind of grateful that I’ve been able to avoid my local Chinese buffet. I’ve only been about three times in the last two years. Last month it was bought by another franchise and is now a buffalo-wing-themed sports bar (Like there aren’t enough in Leesburg).
I’m a little sorry to see it go, but I can do without it. I bought a great Chinese/Japanese cookbook last year and I’ve been making a lot of my favorite dishes at home. My favorite dish is chirashizushi, (egg, tuna-salad, and smoked salmon on a bed of sushi rice) and it’s much better for me than egg rolls and crab Rangoon. The problem is that while I’m at a restaurant I make more of an effort to be polite and not shovel, but at home, in front of just my family those needs for social niceties are gone. I’m also noticing that my kids are becoming shovelers. I need to nip this in the bud.
Chopsticks might not be the key to eating more slowly, but I think etiquette is. If we take time to mentally make that effort, to sit back, chew slowly, pause between bites, and make polite conversation with our friends and family, it makes a big difference in how much we eat.
There is one thing about the medical study, concerning normal weight chopstick users, that makes me question it. Did the survey consider that the normal weight people are really bad at using chopsticks, and they’re all skinny because none of the food makes it to their mouths?
