Not all Chinese restaurants are created equal.
So next time you decide to just order out, remember these things you should never order
from a Chinese restaurant.
Named after a 19th-century military man who was long dead when this dish was invented,
General Tso's Chicken started out life in the Hunanese style, and it wasn’t sweet.
When the dish appeared on the menu at a restaurant in New York, the chef added sweetness to make
the dish more appealing to Americans.
It's not like General Tso’s Chicken was a diet option to begin with, since it’s
battered, fried meat covered in a sticky-sweet concoction made of sugar and soy sauce.
That means salt, and lots of it.
Eat a standard portion of General Tso's, and you’ve put away over 1500 calories, and
more salt than you should eat in a whole day.
Unless you’re a 19th-century fighting soldier, don't eat it.
And if you are, welcome to the 21st century.
Sorry about the mess.
“Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Yeah!”
White rice has the lowest nutritional value of any rice option available, so when you
throw it in a pan of oil, things just go downhill.
The oily, starchy, undeniably delicious results are an unnecessary calorie addition to your meal.
And when you've just eaten 1500 calories of General Tso's favorite, the last thing you
need is several hundred more on the side.
Calorie counts vary depending on the oil used, but start at around 200 calories for just
a cup-sized portion, which isn’t much.
And if the chef isn't deliberately aiming for health consciousness when he rustles up
your order, the calorie count, and your doctor's eyebrows, could easily get much higher.
Whether you call them "cream cheese wontons," or "crab puffs", crab rangoon is basically
crab and cream cheese, stuffed into a dough wrapper, and like most other things on this
list, are deep fried.
Truth be told, it doesn't even matter what’s in the dough once it's deep fried, because
that's the culinary equivalent of a mic drop — and not in a good way either.
Crab meat, imitation or not, can make for a healthy meal, but cream cheese has never
been considered the poster child of anything but indulgence...and it's definitely not Chinese.
This unholy marriage is a Chinese-American invention that's laden with calories and fat.
Instead, go for the spring rolls.
If you're going to overindulge, you might as well do it with something that's actually Chinese.
They’ll still kill you, but at least it’ll be an authentic death.
The beefier cousin of General Tso's chicken, orange beef is similarly bad for you, and
it's not hard to understand why.
Most nutriti onal data assumes that a takeout container has two servings, but it's not uncommon
for people to order a container just for themselves, so all those numbers should probably be doubled.
Orange beef is somewhere in the neighborhood of a frightening 1200 calories, 50 grams of
fat, and 1900 milligrams of sodium.
If you can hold yourself to just half the container, and absolutely nothing else, you're
probably doing all right.
However, if you're a normal human being who simply can’t resist the siren song of that
free egg roll, you might avoid going over your recommended calorie limit for the whole
day… but probably not.
And don’t think that trading out chicken for beef will help.
The secret is in the sauce, and that sauce will kill you.
Combine delicious, tender, roasted pork with a mouthwatering glaze of salty sweet barbecue
sauce, and you have a dish fit for your inner Neanderthal.
Unfortunately, just because something sounds good to your personal Flintstone doesn't mean
it's good for you.
The only positive thing that can be said about spare ribs, other than the taste, is that
they’re a good source of protein.
However, that protein comes from pork, which rarely goes anywhere without a whole bunch
of fat, and you’ll find around 950 calories in an 8-ounce serving, as well as 1,200 milligrams
of sodium, which is dangerously close to your daily recommended amount of 1,500 milligrams.
And if that weren’t enough, here’s one last nail in the coffin of your deadly dinner.
Noodles would never lie to you, right?
Lo mein is a popular takeout dish that contains noodles, vegetables, meat, and a soy-based sauce.
In the traditional Cantonese style, lo mein is a solid option, but order it in an American
restaurant and you'll get something completely different.
A standard serving of lo mein with your choice of meat can have as many as 1,100 calories,
most of which come from the carb-heavy noodles and fat.
You'll just have to accept that obesity and heart disease are also a signature element
of lo mein … or just eat something else.
"Woo!
Look at that blubber fly!"
Sweet-and-sour chicken is one of those dishes that you probably won't find in China.
While sweet-and-sour sauces do exist, they're mostly eaten with fish — and served on the side.
But Stateside, not only is the sauce itself extra sweet, considering it's drowning battered
and fried chicken, the amount of sugar you consume goes through the roof.
"It’d be like eating sweet or sour chicken … what is this."
"Sour chicken.
It's good right?"
A normal portion can net you over 1700 calories, and over 130 percent of your daily recommended
fat — and that doesn't even include a side of rice.
Egg rolls often play the role of doorman to the calorie palace that is your Chinese meal.
But while a single egg roll is just a 222-calorie treat, how many people can just eat one?
Sure, egg rolls do typically contain a few grams of protein.
But since that's coming from the meat that's also contributing to the 11 grams of fat your
egg roll is packing, it hardly makes it worth it.
"I feel like just walkin over there and takin some food off of somebody's plate."
"I'll tell ya what.
There's 50 bucks in it for ya if you do it"
You might think lemon chicken doesn't sound too bad.
After all, chicken is pretty healthy, and lemons are found in basically every healthy
"cleanse."
But a more accurate name for lemon chicken would be "battered fried chicken in lemony
sugar sauce."
"Give them a little piece, a taste" "No, you don't have to do that"
"No, we're at dinner"
Check out any recipe for lemon chicken and you'll notice large quantities of oil, sugar,
and soy sauce.
And those are the healthier homemade versions.
Hit a restaurant, and the numbers top out around 1,500 calories and 75 grams of fat.
And as far as the lemon goes, its inclusion in the recipe actually helps to disguise the
sweet flavors of all the sugar you're eating.
If lemon chicken were a book, you definitely wouldn't wanna judge it by its healthy-ish cover.
While it has fallen out of fashion, there was a time when chop suey was the most popular
dish to order in a Chinese-American restaurant.
In the '40s and '50s, neon signs would brightly boast that restaurants specialized in this
well-known dish.
Rumored to have been invented in San Francisco, and based loosely on an authentic Chinese
dish, Americanized chop suey is a stir-fry of various meats and vegetables, tossed in
a clear, cornstarch-thickened sauce.
Since there's no standard recipe for chop suey, the dish can be whatever the house chef
says it is, and it's developed a reputation over the years for being a way to use up leftovers.
In fact, its very name comes from the Cantonese meaning for "odds and ends."
Fresh crab can fluctuate wildly in price depending on the season, or the harvest that particular year.
Yet many Chinese restaurants seem to have plenty of crab-based dishes on the menu, at
reasonable prices, all year long.
So how do they do it?
By serving you imitation crab.
"Crab masters"
Imitation crab has been around since the '70s.
It's typically made from cod fish that has been made into a paste, along with starches
and sugars.
It's fairly standard in Japanese restaurants too — if you've ever eaten a cheap California
roll, you've had imitation crab.
This type of crab meat has less protein than the real stuff, and often contains gluten.
"We made fish taste like crab."
The flavor is crab-like, but the texture and look of imitation crab is easy to distinguish
for anyone who actually wanted to eat the real thing.
"People should be able to tell real crab from fake crab.
You gotta be a moron if you can't tell the difference.
That's what I think."
Chow fun is a Cantonese stir fry dish that is typically made with strips of beef, thick
rice noodles, scallions, ginger, bean sprouts, and dark soy sauce.
Like many other items on the list, it's far from a healthy option.
Fast Food Nutrition suggests that an 8.5-ounce portion from a popular Chinese takeout can
contain more than 410 calories, 73 carbs, and 1110 milligrams of sodium or 46% of your
recommended daily intake.
The senior nutritionist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest told Newsweek,
"The noodles are thicker, but they're going to do the same damage to your belly and blood
pressure as the lo mein."
Outside of the health aspect, it can also be difficult to find chow fun in the U.S.
that is prepared the traditional way.
There are two key aspects to cooking chow fun — "wok hei" and "pow wok."
Wok hei translates to breath of the wok, meaning that the noodles should be cooked in a wok
over high heat to create a specific savory flavor component.
And according to the website The Woks of Life, pow wok refers to continuously tossing the
noodles in the wok without the spatula to prevent the noodles from sticking and breaking
into pieces.
Unless you're lucky enough to find a restaurant that really knows how to properly prepare
this dish, there are better menu options to choose from.
Sweet and sour pork may be protein-heavy, but the deep-fried nuggets of pork drenched
in a sugary sauce are far from the healthiest option at a Chinese restaurant.
Livestrong reports that a serving of sweet and sour pork can contain up to 1,300 calories
per pop, not to mention the sugar and sodium.
The brand recommends sweet and sour tofu as a more nutrition-dense alternative, particularly
if it isn't deep fried in oil.
Another healthier option to enjoy sweet and sour pork is if it's made with grilled pork
rather than fried.
It's not to say that you should never enjoy sweet and sour pork, but maybe include some
vegetable-heavy sides and split some family-size portions with a group to get more variety
on your plate.
Lifestyle coach Tony Small told Stuff:
"When you're looking at the best nutrients, go for what looks like a real food.”
It's pretty safe to say that anything deep-fried should be enjoyed sporadically whether it's
from a state fair or a Chinese restaurant.
Pork dumplings that are totally deep fried are one of those items.
Many dumplings or gyoza are steamed and slightly pan-fried, which isn't as bad, but the ones
that are completely submerged in oil are high in cholesterol, sodium, and calories.
According to Spark People, about two pork fried dumplings contain more than 300 calories,
50+ milligrams of cholesterol, 45 carbs, and more than 600 milligrams of sodium.
In general, the oil from the frying process increases the fat content of any dish.
On top of that, there are healthier options than pork, like vegetable or chicken dumplings.
They still do contain protein and carbohydrates which are important, but that's about it.
Portion control is key and so is having variety in your diet, variety beyond just eating an
entire family serving of dumplings.
Accredited practicing dietitian Simone Austin, told Huffington Post,
"Although it depends on the size, aiming for dumplings to be no more than half of your
plate is a good idea — and then having vegetables or salad for your other half,"
"Remember that word, discipline."
Chow mein is another popular staple at Chinese restaurants that often gets misunderstood.
Mainly, there is confusion about the difference between chow mein and lo mein, as "mein" loosely
translates to noodles.
Essentially, lo mein contains noodles that are parboiled and stir-fried, while chow mein
noodles are fried after boiling so they are a bit crispy before being added to the wok.
By the time the dish comes together, the sauce gives the noodles and slightly chewy texture.
As you might expect, frying the noodles doesn't do them any favors when it comes to nutrition.
A serving of this dish from a popular Chinese takeout can have more than 500 calories, and
80 carbs.
When you consider the soy sauce that is added in, a tablespoon will add a whopping 880 milligrams
of sodium to the dish.
Don't fret, it doesn't mean you have to swear off chow mein altogether.
Livestrong reports that making chow mein at home with lean protein like chicken or tofu,
more vegetables than noodles, and low-sodium soy sauce is a much more nutrient-dense, and
possibly tastier, alternative to take-out.