pomozki

sorry about that - has anyone recommended a decent outfit in Thailand? One that doesn't insist on you paying before you get treated?

Hi, I live in Khon kaen and want health insurance - can someone recommend a good broker please?

I've already had dealings with Peter at AA Insurance, Pattaya and would like to find another broker - same company OK or another company

thanks!

Doi Kham brand. Pure fruit juice and no added anything AFAIK.

Their lychee juice is spectacular.

I was checking the fruit juice labels in the stores today, based on the standard amount of sugars per serving... if the labels are to be believed:

Basically, all the Malee brands I looked at all seemed to have 20+ grams of sugar per standard serving, usually in the 20-24 gram range, as I recall.

The Malee 50% raspberry/50% strawberry juice I've been drinking (with a big product labels saying "No Sugar Added," has 22 grams, according to the label.

The Tipco brands I looked at seemed a bit lower, ranging from the high teens to low 20s for grams of sugar.

The Doi Kham 100% strawberry label says its serving contains 8 grams of sugar.

Hmmm......

so they say "no sugar added" ... then admit the standard serving has 22 grams on a different label? strange - maybe the 22 grams is natural sugar? anyway, it's a shame, I was definitely gonna go out and buy some of that lychee version

Doi Kham brand. Pure fruit juice and no added anything AFAIK.

Their lychee juice is spectacular.

The Doi Kham strawberry juice in 700 or so ml cartons is pretty good too... though the price went up about 5 to 7 baht per carton immediately after the floods.... not sure why.

In the past news items here, I remember reading news reports about fruit juices that supposedly claimed to be 100% fruit but actually had sugar added. Unfortunately, as best as I recall the news reports, they never seemed to say WHICH brands had been analyzed or studied for that.

Lately at home, I've been drinking Malee strawberry and rasberry juice 1L carton, given that strawberry and rasberry juice are supposed to be very good for you...actually...berry juices in general....and not as high in sugar as things like apple juice.

But I've always wondered, which brands were the ones that were actually adding sugar while claiming they weren't?

You can see the sugar levels on the nutritional labels of the juices, and some are higher and others lower per serving. But if a seller is lying about the 100% juice label on the front of the package, hard to know if they'd be telling the truth about sugars on the nutrition label.

even 100% fruit juice is high in sugar. raises insulin, lowers growth hormone, adds body fat.

Just for a goof try cutting out sweet fruits and sweet fruit drinks for low sugar fruits like lime, avocado, grapefruit(pomello)

You can always go back to high fruit sugar but you might be surprised how quickly the body composition improves and corresponding decrease in inflammation.

If your a guy and already under 10% body fat then disregard but that is pretty rare these days.

so we're always told to eat heaps of fruit and veg - but really, we shouldn't be eating heaps of the wrong types of fruit, like oranges and apples, cos they are high in sugar? you sure it isn't a good type of sugar? I ate fruit salads with apples and oranges all the time before I got here and all I ever was was healthy

and re avocados - I love 'em .. but they are not cheap here in Khon Kaen, around 50-60 baht each. I can get 1-2 meals for that (for instance, my local cafe has started taking the MSG out of my stir fried veggies, lowering the sugar and oil ... each meal = 40-45 baht

street food doesn't have to be bad

Lots of great choices

low sugar fruits

Som Tom (you can tell them to leave out the sugar/salt/fish sauce)

spring rolls

lean grilled meats

vegetable and fruit juices. (select low sugar ones and ask if it has Nam Taan(sugar) added)

It's not my first choice but it can be done well

I've had very little success in finding juices with no added sugar.

Doi Kham brand. Pure fruit juice and no added anything AFAIK.

Their lychee juice is spectacular.

now that's a useful tip - since this thread has been so popular, how about starting a new one: Food and drink tips for fellow farang!

street food doesn't have to be bad

Lots of great choices

low sugar fruits

Som Tom (you can tell them to leave out the sugar/salt/fish sauce)

spring rolls

lean grilled meats

vegetable and fruit juices. (select low sugar ones and ask if it has Nam Taan(sugar) added)

It's not my first choice but it can be done well

abs agree, surely you can't just say "avoid street food" - what about all that rotisserie chicken and grilled/barbecued fish? that looks pretty good (apart from being delicious!)

I don't think it helps to just say "stay at home, cook with extra virgin olive oil, avoid saturated fats" etc - your suggestions are a lot more helpful I reckon

I have a nice kitchen in my condo including an oven, I cook 90% of my own food, people talk about the best breakfast in town, well its the one I cook myself, with good quality eggs, mushrooms and bacon etc.

outstanding - what time can I come around?

I am amazed by the fact that OP always thought he was eating healthy. I have lived here nearly ten years and cook my dinner at home at least 6 times a week. My other meals I prepare by myself during the day with good quality food To buy food sold in Thai markets, food courts or road side food stalls is just asking for health issues. Most if not all the food is prepared with the cheapest and lowest quality of ingredients, fried in greasy old palm oil and to mask all it, spoons full of sugar, chili and other spices are added. At McDonalds at least you know what you are eating.. and even more important, it is prepared in a hygienic kitchen with proper cooling equipment and a regular cleaning schedule. My advice to the OP is to stop eating all that cheap Thai food and start taking control of your own meals. You'll be off your meds in no-time.

thanks - I'm sure you're right. I/we really need a proper "farang kitchen" with hob and oven. Meanwhile, I'm changing my diet already

There are two aspects of Thai food ... that is to say Thai cuisine (in 4/5 star hotels) and the ordinary Thai cooking. Thai cuisine can hold its own image anywhere, but this is not the case with ordinary Thai cooking because invariably a lot of the food is fried in oil, oil itself is not so much the problem (unless cheap refined oil is used) but rather the heating of it into high temperature, research consistently shows that highly fried oils and other fats cause cancer and hardening of the arteries.

When oil is fried it gets smoky, thereby changing the chemistry of oil molecules, as a result the oil will oxidize so instead of being good and nutritious it generates harmful "free radicals" which attack the body cells resulting in major problems in terms of general health and longevity, the chemically changed molecules of the oil and other fried fats produce carcinogens a substance that causes cancer.

When food is fried the brown part of the food is toxic, and a lot of the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and enzymes are lost, leaving the food devitalized of essential nutrients.

Thai cooking dishes contain a lot of white rice which unlike brown rice enters the blood stream very quickly creating havoc with the insulin and causing repeated high and low blood sugar counts, low blood sugar counts cause a low level of energy, hence body tiredness, unstable insulin may eventually also cause diabetics.

A healthy body nutrition, in particular for the elderly is the Mediterranean diet.

.

I'm checking cheap flights to Athens as we speak - heard the cost of living has gone down there too

It really comes down to a matter of choice, if you want to maintain a healthy diet or not.

Maintaining a healthy diet doesn't guarantee anyone will live a healthy and long or longer life. But it probably increases your odds.

I love Thai food. But my sense is, it's very difficult if not impossible to maintain a healthy diet eating Thai street food. And look at the huge numbers of Thais coming down with diabetes.

Too much oil and bad oil like palm, too much salt, too much fried stuff, too much sugar, too much MSG, too much bad glyciemic index carbs like Jasmine rice, which is about the worst rice in the world for raising your blood sugar, etc etc...

I think the only way to do it is to manage your own cooking at home, and make reasonable/smart choices. For instance, I'll cook my own Thai curries at home using some curry paste, but I'll use low-fat UHT milk mixed with water instead of coconut milk , and then a thickening agent. Likewise, never add salt or sugar to most things prepared at home.

Lately, at my Thai wife's suggestion, we began having nightly dinners of some gai yang chicken on top of a mixed salad of fresh lettuce, onion, corn and fat-free salad dressing. Tastes good, very satisfying and hopefully better than a lot of other choices, both for health and not gaining weight.

We'll still go out and pig out sometimes on something that's clearly not very healthy... But the trick is to make those meals the exception rather than the rule.

I've never had to take medications to lower my blood pressure, or blood sugars or anything else. And I'm not looking to start.

put out a cookery book of delicious Thai food without the bad stuff and you'll make a fortune!

I had cholesterol issues before coming to live in Thailand full time and started on Lipitor. I never ate junk food, rarely ate beef and regularly included fruit and vegetables in my diet.

Since taking up year-round residenceThailand my blood tests have shown improvement in the "good cholesterol" and reduction in the bad, and the my dosage of Lipitor has been reduced. I eat Thai food regularly, including those things that include coconut milk.

Certainly what you eat is important, but I have friends whose diets include everything we're told to avoid and yet have no problems. Genetics seems to be a major factor.

just when I thought there'd be a nice easy golden rule to follow

hmm, how the hell could you be so smart, more like it?

I don't know - good genes I guess. And a certain amount of critical/ analytical thinking and observation.

I can't account for your friends or comparisons to Marzipan.

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa ap

"good genes I guess. And a certain amount of critical/ analytical thinking and observation."

or delusional pomposity! not knowing that chicken breast and rice in broth is bad for you is not so dumb - especially since if you always have the meat and rice inside the soup - but you wouldn't know that since you immediately jumped to your own conclusion

suggestion: think before you scorn, might make you less of a knowall and a little more humble!

My only thought is thoroughly unhelpful: how the h_ll did you miss the fact that Cow Mun Gai was full of chicken fat and the rice was oily (hence the name) - even if you don't understand Thai I would have thought it obvious from the first time you saw it or ate it.

hmm, how the hell could you be so smart, more like it? I told my friends about this little saga and they also didn't realise the rice was oily - it doesn't look oily, even when you look at it closely. The chicken meat is all strips of breast, unless you're talking about the soup - in that case, if it's so full of fat, why that doesn't show up after a night in the fridge like slithers of marzipan, like it usually does,?

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Brits.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

I do understand that this is meant to be funny, but I think facts are important. The above information is both completely inaccurate, and illogical.

If anyone was saying that eating fat, or drinking alcohol - that is dietary intake - is the ONLY risk factor affecting heart disease incidence, maybe it would be appropriate to base an argument on these kinds of observations.

But nobody is. There are very many different causes and risks for heart disease, including genetic predisposition, diabetes, chronic inflammatory conditions, infections, and high blood pressure. There are also many causes that have yet to be identified. So the risk of heart disease in any population will depend on the occurrence of ALL these risk factors, not just fat/alcohol consumption.

So you cannot look only at fat/alcohol consumption and say because it is higher in one population, but that population has fewer heart attacks, fat isn't important in causation. That population may be protected by having lower rates of diabetes or high blood pressure, or some factor that is not yet recognised.

What you CAN do is take that single population and show individuals within it who eat more saturated fat show increased risk of heart disease, for example.

Secondly your 'facts' are mostly incorrect: (source: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/coronary-heart-disease/by-country)

1. United Kingdom death rate from heart disease per 100,000: 68.8, Japan : 31.2 TRUE

2. United Kingdom death rate from heart disease per 100,000: 68.8, Mexico 87.7 FALSE

3. United Kingdom death rate from heart disease per 100,000: 68.8, China 79.7 FALSE

4. United Kingdom death rate from heart disease per 100,000: 68.8,, Italy 51.7 TRUE

5. United Kingdom death rate from heart disease per 100,000: 68.8, Germany 75.0 FALSE

Just to keep the record straight. Some people do have an interest in keeping healthy, and may get discouraged by false arguments.

joke

n.

1. Something said or done to evoke laughter or

amusement, especially an amusing story with a punch line.

2. A mischievous trick; a prank.

3. An amusing or ludicrous incident or

situation.

4. Informal

a. Something not to be taken seriously; a triviality:

The accident was no joke.

b. An object of amusement or laughter; a

laughingstock: His loud tie was the joke of the

office.

wow, did you do all that research just for this forum? impressive!

^^ On the bright side, you won't die laughing

SC

Some could die trying ^ ^.

do you know you bear a striking resemblance to Giorgio Moroder!

No time to read five pages.

However i was thinking about the OP.

Why even bother with medicine (doctors) and tests if you are in good health?

It is a limited non holistic western approach and just creates more fear worry and stress.

thanks - I am still in good health but blood tests showed my saturated fat levels had soared while in Thailand. Why wait until something serious happened? I just thought many of us might be in the same boat, thinking we were in great health but the local grub wasn't nearly as good for us as we thought

Sorry to sound bad but EBAY is where i get all that stuff. I pay 1200-1300bt incl shipping for 900 !! capsules of fish oil, vitamins you can get blackmores at any pharmacy and glucosamine i bought on ebay too.. if you buy from UK located businesses it goes quite fast and shipment is cheap. The fish oil i buy is from US based takes a bit more time but that was the best deal.

thanks - and I've got nothing against eBay if the stuff is good

I am surprised no one has mentioned that lowering triclycerides is quite easy with fish oil.

Plenty of evidence supporting this out there and I myself have been taking fish oil for over 25 years.

My last blood test was .9 i think for triclycerides.

As for Thai street food it is generally full of sodium,sugar, bad oils and fatty meats with rice white ie a recipe for disaster

No problems thou you can go to Tops or BIg C etc and buy barbecue chicken or fish and brown rice and grab a salad from teh salad bar which is easy and cheap and healthy.

I've been taking fish oil capsules for many years but not even that could keep everything else good after 18 months in Thailand

How many capsules were you taking a day?

If you have a problem you probably need 9 1000mg capsules a day. One or two caps a day is not enough in any case. You could also consider getting the liquid form as it has much greater concentration.or if you dont like fish oil use flaxseed oil as I think that is just as good.

I have been taking fish oil (in 9 or more caps a day) and flax seed oil around 10-15ml a day for ages. I just incorperate some healthy stuff like that in my diet same like kefir and some multivitamin. Its not that expensive if you know where to shop and i just think if it does not help it probably does not damage either so I can only benefit. Except my wallet if it does not do a thing. But so far except for my sinus i have been as healthy as a horse.

can you recommend a good cheap place for things like fish oil, multivits and glucosamine? I live in Khon Kaen - but occasionally go to Bkk too

I am surprised no one has mentioned that lowering triclycerides is quite easy with fish oil.

Plenty of evidence supporting this out there and I myself have been taking fish oil for over 25 years.

My last blood test was .9 i think for triclycerides.

As for Thai street food it is generally full of sodium,sugar, bad oils and fatty meats with rice white ie a recipe for disaster

No problems thou you can go to Tops or BIg C etc and buy barbecue chicken or fish and brown rice and grab a salad from teh salad bar which is easy and cheap and healthy.

I've been taking fish oil capsules for many years but not even that could keep everything else good after 18 months in Thailand

How many capsules were you taking a day?

If you have a problem you probably need 9 1000mg capsules a day. One or two caps a day is not enough in any case. You could also consider getting the liquid form as it has much greater concentration.or if you dont like fish oil use flaxseed oil as I think that is just as good.

yes, I was on 2 caps a day, now 1 x 1200mg cap - I'll wait till the Simvastatins have finished and maybe up the fish oil then - but it can get quite expensive to take several a day

I am surprised no one has mentioned that lowering triclycerides is quite easy with fish oil.

Plenty of evidence supporting this out there and I myself have been taking fish oil for over 25 years.

My last blood test was .9 i think for triclycerides.

As for Thai street food it is generally full of sodium,sugar, bad oils and fatty meats with rice white ie a recipe for disaster

No problems thou you can go to Tops or BIg C etc and buy barbecue chicken or fish and brown rice and grab a salad from teh salad bar which is easy and cheap and healthy.

I've been taking fish oil capsules for many years but not even that could keep everything else good after 18 months in Thailand

<p>Again, I'm confronted by folk who seem to want to live forever. I dont want to spend my final hours on a machine, but nor am I going to let the diet Nazis stop me eating the things I like - unless I suddenly turn into<em> Elvis circa 1972</em>, of course ........</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I look at Thais standing around in the hot sun selling chicken on a stick, and think 'God, what I wouldnt give to be that tough !'. I guess they figure it beats the hell out of squatting in a ricefield in 35 deg C : men, women and children. Born tough, IMO - a little saturated fat is the least of their worries.</p>

I really like beer. I always thought I'd rather die than not drink beer. If the doctor had said I'd have a heart attack and die if I kept on drinking beer I think I'd have chanced it. But he didn't. He said I would have a stroke and be a vegetable in Thailand. I don't think I am tough enough to be a Thai vegetable. So after the first stroke I stopped drinking beer.

I love those people who think that if you neglect your body nothing is going to happen, its like not testing for AIDS because then you don't have it.

Anyway strike a good balance but is ee far to many foreigners so obese and looking unhealthy drinking and drinking. Its the party lifestyle here and no need to keep in shape as you can always rent a girl telling you you look great. Guess what its not about how you look, though for me it counts, but more how healthy and fit you are.

Like others said I dont't worry about dropping dead.. that is a good way to go but vegetating is.

It is easier to ignore it all and party, instead of eating realtively healthy and working out a bit.

Just think 80% 20% rule be healthy 80% of the time the other 20% does not matter so much anymore then.

There has been many studies over the years why some countries people live longer and I am always interested in there findings now I can't remember all the countries but I can say they are not in western world and the common denominator among them all was fruit and vegetables ,fish ,active life style , not thinking about retirement they all just seem to carry on on saying that they had no exposure to Mac's or fast food joints or bar culture just almost a village life walking where they need to go not many gym's too be seen I mean how fit does a 70+ have to be.

I drink a little I smoke a few small cigars I try to eat healthy I

am 70 and feel fit and I don't put on weight but I will maybe regret it all later but my thinking is I enjoy my bad habits and so far so good.

Though I would agree that the lifestyle you identify is benificial, I am not sure the stats back up your claim about longevity. Switzerland ranks number 2 (after Japan) and there are several other western countries in the top 10 including Sweden, Italy and France which has a retirement age of 62.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

OK maybe my post was a bit unclear on what I have read and seen on TV not so much about stats they looked at various pocket's of countries where the locals just lived longer I remember parts of Japan where inc and maybe even Russia of course most of us know if you are born and bred in a dirty industrial part of countries your life expectancy is lower than someone in the fresh air my post was backing the idea to try and have a healthy lifestyle we know there is no guarantee that it works for everyone some people have a stronger constitution than others and seem to get away with self abuse and still live to a ripe old age my family where some of them i recall in the 60/70s there was Dr Barbara Moore she was a fit vegetarian who walked the length and breath of the UK and was a big voice for veggies and keeping fit she died at the age of 74 all the women in my family out lived her by 10 years and they where all born in the Glasgow slums like myself mind you there was no fast food and massive supermarkets

So there you go

hey Jocko, what's wrong with massive supermarkets? they just have massive amounts of food, that's all

There are so many genuine health risks, it's not helpful to be worried about non-existent ones!

true - I'm now waiting for the report that clears palm oil, saturated fat ... and laziness

I am unclear as to why there is so much concern of the use of MSG in asian cooking. Japan, where MSG originated and is used very widely. Has the longest life expectancy of all countries. While some people are allergic to MSG and can not eat it, the vast majority of people can consume it with no proven ill effects. I am old enough to remember when the MSG hysteria started. From all the reading I have done in the past few years, MSG appears to be a harmless flavor enhancer.

wow, that would shock most people

if you want to have lower triglycerides try cutting down on all plant sugars (carbohydrates) and exercise more.

Tryglercides are mostly from eating more energy than you burning.

Exactly.....burn baby burn...get off your ass and exercise...walk everywhere etc.

As for thai food making you fat.....I have to struggle to gain 1lb.....seriously....

How on earth people get fat here is a mystery to me...unless you gorge fried shit all day and beer all night that is.

You need to learn that you cant compare everyone with yourself, some people react different too foods then others. I Did not drink beer or eat fried shit but got fat from normal Thai food. Its the white rice that did it for me and of course all the addetives. Now that i got my diet under control im lean as hell but i can still gain weight easy if i go back to my old ways.

that's my advice is adjust the carb levels.

The first step is to measure how many carbs are being consumed.

I coach people on improving their body composition and most don't have a good idea of how much of their diet is carb.

I will ask them how many grams of carb or what percentage of their diet is carb and they tend to be way off.

Just doing a food diary for a week or so and calculating the carbs is really helpful. Don't have to do it long term.

There is a saying.

If you don't measure it then you can't manage it.

For a lot of people getting the carbs down or just improving the carb quality helps a lot.

that sounds great and very interesting - but be careful or that other poster will be calling you a "diet Nazi"

<p>Again, I'm confronted by folk who seem to want to live forever. I dont want to spend my final hours on a machine, but nor am I going to let the diet Nazis stop me eating the things I like - unless I suddenly turn into<em> Elvis circa 1972</em>, of course ........</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I look at Thais standing around in the hot sun selling chicken on a stick, and think 'God, what I wouldnt give to be that tough !'. I guess they figure it beats the hell out of squatting in a ricefield in 35 deg C : men, women and children.  Born tough, IMO - a little saturated fat is the least of their worries.</p>

you're completely missing the point - it isn't an eternal life I'm after, it's a high quality of life - always been very healthy and want to stay that way