What is the Typical Asian Diet?

A place to discuss health and fitness, including healthy diets, etc.
User avatar
Mantrik
Former staff member
Posts: 2248
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:55 pm
Contact:

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Mantrik »

Queequeg wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:21 pm The fact that the whole sravaka thing could emerge speaks of the massive wealth and food surpluses that Indian civilizations have enjoyed from time to time - to have the resources to let able bodied young men, en masse, loaf around chasing "enlightenment" with a free lunch ticket?
You really believe that the cycle of wealth experienced by the higher castes permeated to the untouchables, to the villagers who would probably have starved themselves in order to fill the bowl of a monk?

You may be conflating the patronage seen in China, for example, with the monks supported by the relatively poor folk in India.

Food surpluses mean nothing without meaningful transportation and the will for compassionate distribution.

Sorry if I've hit on a sore point, but just as there is no 'typical Asian diet' there is no 'typical Asian society' and you seem to be taking offence on behalf of all Asians when it really isn't that simple.
I'm a bad man too. :)
http://www.khyung.com ཁྲོཾ

Om Thathpurushaya Vidhmahe
Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath

Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
User avatar
Queequeg
Former staff member
Posts: 14454
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 3:24 pm

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Queequeg »

Mantrik wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:42 pm
Queequeg wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:21 pm The fact that the whole sravaka thing could emerge speaks of the massive wealth and food surpluses that Indian civilizations have enjoyed from time to time - to have the resources to let able bodied young men, en masse, loaf around chasing "enlightenment" with a free lunch ticket?
You really believe that the cycle of wealth experienced by the higher castes permeated to the untouchables, to the villagers who would probably have starved themselves in order to fill the bowl of a monk?

You may be conflating the patronage seen in China, for example, with the monks supported by the relatively poor folk in India.
Nalanda, Takshashila, and the rest of the Buddhist universities in India. These Buddhist institutions were not dependent on alms from ordinary lay persons - that was state support. Notwithstanding, the fact that ordinary people could support sravakas speaks volumes. People are people - they're not really going to starve to feed a monk. Even in the Buddha's time, when there was famine, the best the sangha could receive was horsefeed. This idealized view of the good Indian upasaka is more of this bigotry cloaked in idealization.
Food surpluses mean nothing without meaningful transportation and the will for compassionate distribution.
Yes - what is remarkable are these documents providing Buddhist advice to rulers - for instance Nagarjuna's Letter to a Friend. The ideal king makes sure everyone is fed, the prisons don't stay full, roads are lined with trees and wells for the comfort of travelers, etc. etc. etc. Feeding the poor and sravakas has, based on Buddhist literature, apparently been an ideal in Indian society since ancient times. They also failed to live up to ideals, apparently. WHAT? THEY'RE HUMANS?!!!!
Sorry if I've hit on a sore point, but just as there is no 'typical Asian diet' there is no 'typical Asian society' and you seem to be taking offence on behalf of all Asians when it really isn't that simple.
I'm a bad man too. :)
Bad. And reading comprehension is poor, too. You should go back and see if I really wrote the things you suggest I wrote. You'll see my comments were more nuanced than you give me credit for.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
User avatar
Mantrik
Former staff member
Posts: 2248
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:55 pm
Contact:

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Mantrik »

Queequeg wrote: Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:04 pm And reading comprehension is poor, too. You should go back and see if I really wrote the things you suggest I wrote. You'll see my comments were more nuanced than you give me credit for.
No. They were not. One of your initial remarks was a bald, unwarranted insult, an accusation of 'bigotry', seemingly driven by some personal need to feel aggrieved at statements not directed at you at all.
You then progressively reined yourself in. Well done for that.
My reading comprehension is just fine, and is not obscured by the veil you seem to be pulling over your own words. ;)
http://www.khyung.com ཁྲོཾ

Om Thathpurushaya Vidhmahe
Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath

Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
User avatar
Yavana
Posts: 1158
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 5:15 am
Location: Trumpaloka

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Yavana »

Accusations about reading comprehension aside, what I would like to know as someone speaking (albeit in "English") on behalf of New World peoples, is what the benefits of this diet of Asians are to us in our respective countries? How can we practice this diet given culturally biased legal restrictions imposed across the board and how do we deal with the limited supply in an age of both increasing tariffs and immigration caps? Who is their representative here and what is this man's response to these pressing questions?
User avatar
Grigoris
Former staff member
Posts: 21938
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 9:27 pm
Location: Greece

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Grigoris »

Enough meta-discussion people. Keep it on topic or face the consequences!
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
madhusudan
Posts: 238
Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 5:54 pm

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by madhusudan »

Whoa, heavy thread, man...

I've spent some considerable time living in Nepal and Korea. Here are my experiences:

Nepal: Minimal breakfast (this was some time ago and breakfast really doesn't stand out in my memory), huge plate of rice, dal, potato & cauliflower tarkari, and some variety of pickle for both lunch and dinner every day. The rice would be piled very high. Friends commented on how little rice I ate, since I would only eat one or two plates. A small side bowl of stewed goat or chicken on special occasions & holidays. The meat was very fresh, killed that day and shared among the village for lack of refrigeration. Bones (soft enough to eat) and chunks of pure fat were ladled into the bowl along with the meat. Not much wasted. If the yogurt man made his rounds, I'd always buy one, but that wasn't every day. The rice portion two times a day was so enormous that after a while I had trouble actually swallowing it. My mind rebelled. Then I overcame it. Yes, in the home of one poorer friend the rice was occasionally on the other side of fresh.

Korea: Individual bowl of rice, shared side dishes - always kimchi, and then others such as fish cake, mini dried anchovy, other kind of kimchi, maybe a larger shared fish or some meat, and always a soup. There are a wide variety of side dishes. Water is drank from the rice bowl to get the last bits, or taken from a cup in one big draft after the meal.

Yeah, Asia's a huge place. Those are my experiences.
amanitamusc
Posts: 2124
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 3:32 am

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by amanitamusc »

I live in a small Arizona town and the Asian community consists of the group
that run the Chinese Buffet.I like the Mongolian chicken. :twothumbsup:
User avatar
Grigoris
Former staff member
Posts: 21938
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 9:27 pm
Location: Greece

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Grigoris »

Asia starts from the Korean peninsula in the East, reaches the shore of the Aegean and borders with eastern-Europe in the West, it includes Siberia in the North, the Arabic peninsula and stretches South as far as Indonesia.

Let's get serious here: there is no typical Asian diet.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
User avatar
Kim O'Hara
Former staff member
Posts: 7063
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:09 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Kim O'Hara »

Grigoris wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:49 am Asia starts from the Korean peninsula in the East, reaches the shore of the Aegean and borders with eastern-Europe in the West, it includes Siberia in the North, the Arabic peninsula and stretches South as far as Indonesia.

Let's get serious here: there is no typical Asian diet.
True, Greg, but if you go back to the OP and click on the link there - which is what prompted the question - you will find a "Traditional Asian Diet" which is an American health journalist's idea of something vaguely approximating a generic Asian diet:
Best Diets wrote:The theory: Folks in Asian countries tend to have lower rates of cancer, heart disease and obesity than Americans do, and they typically live longer, too. Researchers suspect that owes largely to their diet: a low-fat, healthy eating style that emphasizes rice, vegetables, fresh fruit and fish, with very little red meat.
:coffee:
Kim
Dharma Flower
Posts: 1035
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 9:03 am
Contact:

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Dharma Flower »

It's kind of sad that there aren't more popular films that promote a balanced diet, that includes a healthy balance of meat, vegetables, fruits, and starches. It seems that the popular diet-related documentaries these days promote veganism, the keto diet, or some other fad or restrictive diet.
User avatar
Grigoris
Former staff member
Posts: 21938
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 9:27 pm
Location: Greece

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Grigoris »

Best Diets wrote:The theory: Folks in Asian countries tend to have lower rates of cancer, heart disease and obesity than Americans do, and they typically live longer, too. Researchers suspect that owes largely to their diet: a low-fat, healthy eating style that emphasizes rice, vegetables, fresh fruit and fish, with very little red meat.
This is a Mediterranean diet too, minus the rice, plus pulses.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
User avatar
Mantrik
Former staff member
Posts: 2248
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:55 pm
Contact:

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Mantrik »

Dharma Flower wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 12:36 pm It's kind of sad that there aren't more popular films that promote a balanced diet, that includes a healthy balance of meat, vegetables, fruits, and starches. It seems that the popular diet-related documentaries these days promote veganism, the keto diet, or some other fad or restrictive diet.
Well, once you assume meat is needed you are being restrictive. Nutrition does not work that way - it is about balancing food groups to satisfy individual bodily requirements for specific nurtrients etc., and balancing calorific imput and expenditure.

All diets are restrictive - we are limited by what is available and when, and what we know exists and can prepare or buy.

Although across the globe many people have abandoned seasonal eating and local sourcing, because they have access to imported foods, frozen produce etc., in parts of the world there is no choice.

Diet and cookery programmes often simply reflecting their programme advertisers, personal sponsors, need for book sales etc. Of course it depends what programmes you see, but to me a vast number of them seem to be about meat, poultry and fish and it is very very rare to find them promoting anything which isn't smothered in fat and/or sugar.
However, if you regard them as expanding your knowledge and ability to use differing foods and methods you will lose the concept that they are about fads or restrictions.

Oddly, whilst there may be no such thing as a typical 'Asian' diet, a 'World' diet is rapidly establishing itself and, from Ulaanbaatar to Madrid, the Big Mac and Fries, KFC, 4 Cheese Pizza and Budweiser culture is becoming incomprehensibly and indigestibly gastronomically ubiquitous.
http://www.khyung.com ཁྲོཾ

Om Thathpurushaya Vidhmahe
Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath

Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
User avatar
Grigoris
Former staff member
Posts: 21938
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 9:27 pm
Location: Greece

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Grigoris »

Mantrik wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 6:46 pm...4 Cheese Pizza...
drool.jpg
drool.jpg (82.36 KiB) Viewed 4063 times
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
User avatar
Mantrik
Former staff member
Posts: 2248
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:55 pm
Contact:

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Mantrik »

Grigoris wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 7:36 pm
Mantrik wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 6:46 pm...4 Cheese Pizza...

drool.jpg
OK, ya got me. It popped into my head. I tried not to think of anything, like in Ghostbusters, but it just happened.....and now it is cooking in the kitchen and about to destroy my gastric community.
If only I'd thought of Durian fruit instead!
http://www.khyung.com ཁྲོཾ

Om Thathpurushaya Vidhmahe
Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath

Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
User avatar
Grigoris
Former staff member
Posts: 21938
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 9:27 pm
Location: Greece

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Grigoris »

Mantrik wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 8:12 pmIf only I'd thought of Durian fruit instead!
Which would destroy the surrounding community for about a square block!
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
User avatar
Mantrik
Former staff member
Posts: 2248
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2017 8:55 pm
Contact:

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Mantrik »

Grigoris wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 8:23 pm
Mantrik wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 8:12 pmIf only I'd thought of Durian fruit instead!
Which would destroy the surrounding community for a about a square block!
Yes, but at least it is part of a 'Typical Asian Diet'!

I first came across them in Singapore. I was horrified at the racism being directed at the Durian ethnic group, banned from the metro, with huge signs warning about them.
A girl offered to take me to one. They tasted delicious, and are apparently an aphrodisiac....for anyone who likes the smell of necrophilia. lol :)
http://www.khyung.com ཁྲོཾ

Om Thathpurushaya Vidhmahe
Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath

Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
User avatar
Kim O'Hara
Former staff member
Posts: 7063
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2012 1:09 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Kim O'Hara »

Grigoris wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 3:11 pm
Best Diets wrote:The theory: Folks in Asian countries tend to have lower rates of cancer, heart disease and obesity than Americans do, and they typically live longer, too. Researchers suspect that owes largely to their diet: a low-fat, healthy eating style that emphasizes rice, vegetables, fresh fruit and fish, with very little red meat.
This is a Mediterranean diet too, minus the rice, plus pulses.
:focus:
(Although I did enjoy the durian detour :lol: )

It's a typical pre-industrial agricultural community diet, really. Pretty much the same everywhere, except for the choice of grain and the influence of climate.
It worked really well for over 10 000 years - :reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution - and then we took advantage of fossil fuels to produce ever-richer diets and a population boom at the expense of environmental degradation and ... here we are.

:thinking:
Kim
Dharma Flower
Posts: 1035
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 9:03 am
Contact:

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Dharma Flower »

Anthony Bourdain made the point that people in the third world eat whatever they can get, and don't have the luxury of choosing a vegetarian diet. When the nutrients in meat aren't as easily found in other sources, then perhaps we shouldn't judge, especially if a country eats much less meat than the West does.
User avatar
Grigoris
Former staff member
Posts: 21938
Joined: Fri May 14, 2010 9:27 pm
Location: Greece

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Grigoris »

Dharma Flower wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 1:46 pm Anthony Bourdain made the point that people in the third world eat whatever they can get, and don't have the luxury of choosing a vegetarian diet. When the nutrients in meat aren't as easily found in other sources, then perhaps we shouldn't judge, especially if a country eats much less meat than the West does.
1. Who is judging? 2. What makes you think 3rd World people can get meat to eat??? Generally, poor people tend to live on pulses, legumes and grains. Some fish, if they happen to live near an unpolluted body of water, maybe some game (if they are not living in an urban center) and insects.

Meat eating is just as much a first world luxury as being vegetarian/vegan is.

You know which country has the highest rate of vegetarianism?
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
Dharma Flower
Posts: 1035
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 9:03 am
Contact:

Re: What is the Typical Asian Diet?

Post by Dharma Flower »

Grigoris wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 1:53 pm Who is judging?
All I am trying to say is that Buddhist compassion should extend to all people, regardless of their diet. I'm sorry if I've given a bad impression.
Post Reply

Return to “Wellness, Diet and Fitness”