Ok, I am going to say something perhaps a little contraversial, I am at a normal weight, always have been, but I still am on a perpetual diet. Don't get me wrong, I love my food and I eat a lot of it, but when I feel I have eaten bit too much, I eat less for a few days. My problem is this - in europe I am very aware of what is fattening and what isn't so often I will cut out dairy products, fatty meat, and refined carbs etc when I feel a bit over my normal weight. Live on brown rice and veggie curry for the week, that sort of thing. Here though I don't cook for myself as at the mo I am in a temporary house with no cooking facilities. Even when I do though I will just get one of those hot pan type things so still a lot of frying I would have thought.

I would like to know what people know about the hidden calories in thai foods and what to steer clear of. Obviously I am aware that tons of sugar is often added to stuff, that they like meat fatty (as do I but my waistline doesn't) and coconuts were sent from the weight watchers devil, but what are the hidden culprits? My thai friends will occassionaly inform me that the most random things are fattening. Sticky rice for one, which I would never have thought of before, and the white dumplings in jok for another.....errr ok.

A typical 'light' meal for me will be som tam and grilled chicken, or yam of some description but it's getting boooooring and I am not convinced that it is balancing out the amount of my in-laws home cooked food I am 'forced' to eat every weekend. What do other people know of that is low fat / sugar? My thai friends are rubbish. Their version of a diet is skipping meals which usually results in a double portion of rice come the next meal eaten with kai jiao fried in half a gallon of oil.

Also does anyone have any cooking tips for those plug in hot pans (anything which isn't pad!).

Thanking you

Ms Sabai (size 10 and counting)

you said it yourself, thai food is'nt healthy or slimming. I have never understood anyone who thought so as apart from the obvious, like som tam & grilled meats & corn on the cob the stuff that is stirfired is dripping in oil, sugar, msg & salty fish sauce. Taste nice tho so what you gonna do

That said I eat a lot of soups, without coconut milk like tofu & minced pork, tom yum with chicken rather than seafood as it is high in fat. Sticky rice is really fattening, better you get some kanom jin to go with a curry for example or learn to eat thai without rice, which I do as I am diabetic so like to avoid the white starch carbs. You can have a surprising good diet in los withough rice or stirfries. Another good one is korean bar-b-q. Cant control what they marinade it in but at least it is grilled & have a nice soup base. Eat steamed fish rather than fried & have the veg cooked with the fish as well.

Or else you need to learn to say, please don't add msg or sugar when ordering from a resteraunt. They will think your mad but will do it & just pick out the fatty bits of meat or order fish instead of pork.

I just find it is about chosing wisely & asking whats in something before ordering it. Doesn't help though if you have people around who are stuffing lovely freid foods tho as it smells too good.

Also why not substitute one meal, like lunch, for fruit & veg with a home made hummous or tatziki & I always have cornflakes or museli for brekkie rather than the thai food on offer. That way I only really have the one unknown meal in the day.

Oh & about the thaistyle dieting, agree totally with you about the meal skipping but I also know a lot of thai women who take these so called diet pills, I find the misnoma about them not getting fat is down to unhealthy dieting habits rather than metabolic reasons, sure a lot wil not get fat, the same as anywhere, but when you have to starve yourself or pop pills to stay slim then you don't have a good metabolism.

Thanks for that Boo. Good tip about Khanom Jin and am a big moo ga ta fan (though I think the amount I eat negates the nbenefits of no carbs!). I actually remember reading somewhere...think it's the hay diet... that noodles are better than rice so I'll give that a whirl. Hadn't realised sea food was fattening either.... Still - comforting that in LOS I can always fall back on the diet pills or yabba if all else fails! And anyone who says that thai women don't get fat should visit my town.....

You just brought up another point though that I am really interested. My mum is insulin dependant diabetic and is coming out in March. Any tips? Has there been a thread already about this? She was only diagnosed last year so we are both on a learning curve still but she is worried the intial climate change, travelling and food is going to knock her off kilter again (her bloods still haven't stabilized despite the docs saying it would take a month or so). Has there already been a thread about this? Sorry to go off subject..

check out the health section, there has been a few threads about dietry requirements for diabetics.

Seafood like prawns are high in fat bu apparently posh spice lost a shit load of weight after having one of her sprogs by snacking on fresh prawns but you aren't allowed to eat anythign else with them, just the prawns as they contain a lot of protein so I suppose it is a bit like the atkins?

posh spice lost a shit load of weight after having one of her sprogs by snacking on fresh prawns

Cool thanks. And I think posh spice succeeded because she was only eating 3 of the buggers a day. And that was ALL she was eating. And exactly how much is a shit load of weight when you only weigh 2 1/2 stone in the first place?

ha ha,maybe a shit load was what she was passing everyday after those 3 prawns

check out the health section, there has been a few threads about dietry requirements for diabetics.

Seafood like prawns are high in fat bu apparently posh spice lost a shit load of weight after having one of her sprogs by snacking on fresh prawns but you aren't allowed to eat anythign else with them, just the prawns as they contain a lot of protein so I suppose it is a bit like the atkins?

Seafood is high in fat???? Of all products seafood is the lowest in fat!! Even lower than the chicken breast! It is well known that seafood is very low in fat and cholesterol.

According to the CSIRO, prawns, while they have a low fat content have a high cholesterol content

Fat content of seafood groups is broadly outlined in the table below. Fish are unique because they tend to be higher in long chain polyunsaturated fats than most land animals. A variety of fish can be included in the diet, with some restrictions placed on crustaceans because of their high cholesterol content.

Type of seafood Examples Fat content

Fin fish (moderate to high fat) sardines, ocean trout, Atlantic salmon, tuna, herring, mackerel moderate to high fat, moderate cholesterol, good source of omega-3

Fin fish (low fat) whiting, barramundi, trevally, flake, flounder low fat, low cholesterol, some omega-3

Other seafood

Molluscs: Crustaceans;

mussels, oysters, crabs, lobster

low fat, low cholesterol, some omega-3

Molluscs: Crustaceans

squid*, shrimp*, prawns*

low fat, high cholesterol, some omega-3

* high cholesterol

By eating the low fat fish, you will be reducing the total fat in your diet, and by eating the moderate to high fat fish you will be consuming more omega-3 fatty acids. Both modifications are beneficial.

wonder what food I am thinking of then? so sorry for the misinformation.