chinese food

Chinese food is a genre of food with various flavors and sauces that can be very yummy, but also pack a punch in terms of calories. Depending on where you go for your Chinese food, you can in many instances find buffet options and quick serve restaurants in your local mall or shopping center. Beware of buffets, as with any genre of food, because this type of eating provides too many temptations for over-filling the plate and repeat visits.

Popular dishes such as Sesame Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken and General Tso’s Chicken should not be kept on your list of go-to options. These types of meals are fried – a major offense right off the bat and then covered in sauces that are full of sugar and in some cases MSG, which is not something you want to be ingesting. Check out my newsletter article from June 2008 where I highlight the negative effects of MSG.

Who doesn’t love egg rolls? Crispy on the outside, stuffed with soft veggies and spices and dipped in a sweet sauce…they are a Chinese take-out staple. But considering that an average egg roll packs about 400 calories and 16 grams of fat, they kind of sabotage the lean calories in your well-intentioned steamed Buddha’s Feast.

Food manufacturers have been hard at work creating low-fat and low-cal egg rolls that serve up heaps of taste, but not heaps of weight. When it comes to store-bought egg rolls, we love both Kahiki’s new veggie egg rolls and Trader Joe’s. So we’ve decided to pin them against each other in a food fight. Here are how their stats stack up: