But Wait....there's hope!


Remember how I lamented that my illusion of healthful eating at the local Chinese eatery was dashed with the statistics contained in the newly released report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest? Well, Victor Huang of Fremont, Calif., responded online to the Associated Press story. The brouhaha that Chinese food was akin to eating fat-filled American food was overblown and misleading, Huang said. And this is what he had to say.

“Hey, no one in their right mind is going to have a whole dish of General Tso’s chicken or have nothing else to eat with it. To coin Clinton, it is the steamed rice, STUPID! – which is salt-free and fatless. You are supposed to do it the Chinese way: take the dish with lots of steamed rice. Without it, the dish will seem saltier and fattier.

If you redo your arithmetic, that is a balanced meal. The report has to be balanced and intelligent. I have seen a billion more healthy and fit Chinese than the advocacy report seemed to stupidly suggest.

Now that common sense has weighed in, those folks who spoon up as much rice as the other items on the Chinese buffet, you are seemingly in no danger. However, you folks who pick the meat out of the dishes leaving behind the broccoli, bamboo shoots and 50-cent sized mushrooms for the rest of us, you need to apply a little balance. Or don't blame us if your socks won't fit over your swollen ankles!