Thais overdosing on sodium

[Jingthing]

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume the sugar thing may have been a lost in translation type thing. I think the gist might be cook for yourself, make things from scratch using traditional home cooking methods rather than processed foods like soup powders and you'll be better off.

But it's not really realistic is it for most modern Thais?

Thailand has become a toxic food environment and that's why there is a food spike in bad diet related diseases here.

Eating from a roadside stall, toxic environment is part of the attraction ... isn't it?

That's really another topic.

Of course you know what I meant.

You want to see a toxic food environment? Go to a 7-11 and try to have a healthy meal out of there.

Go to a selection of breakfast cereals at a regular Thai grocery store, not one catering to foreigners, and see how many choices you have that aren't packed with sugar. In the foreigner markets see how much more expensive the few no sugar options are.

Etc. etc.

Let's get real.

In Thailand and everywhere really the masses of non-rich "regular" people grab whatever is tasty, cheap, and convenient, more often than not. That's why the food environment is so important. If whatever is tasty, cheap, and convenient kills people and pretty much guarantees an obesity epidemic, you'll get what we're seeing here and most everywhere.

These issues are BOTH private and public.

There is the free will choice factor and then there are ALSO the bigger societal issues that strongly influence the REAL choices "regular" people usually have.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Jingthing

[Dumbastheycome]

You cannot tell a Thai anything because if they like it then they will continue with it…….

SMOKING

JUNK FOOD

FRIED FOOD

RICE/NOODLES

SALT

FISH SAUCE !!!!

MSG!!!!

If Granny did it I do it.

The usual answer when you advise them is "I LIKE"

Sadly very true. Excesses of salt /msg, sugar and oils. Maybe to compensate for the chillie?

[salavan]

Salt and sugar! The two essential ingredients of Thai food, and readily pushed by your nearest 7-eleven store.

3 essentials you forgot MSG (pom shalot)

[johnnysunshine]

What is really important to understand is that there are huge differences between Himalayan Pink Salt and white refined, bleached salt. The former is rich in the body's required Trace Minerals and offers them in perfect balance and the latter is the "bad" salt which doctors tell folks to get off.

Unfortunately most doctors and health professionals to not know the difference and have never experienced Himalayan Pink Salt which is available in health food stores, Rim Ping stores, and restaurants serving healthy food.

I have been drinking for 10 years daily the Pink Salt and use it exclusively for cooking food and adding on to cooked food. Some of the benefits are listed here:

This salt from the Himalayas is known as "white gold." Together with pure spring water, Himalayan Crystal Salt offers all 84 elements exactly identical to the elements in your body, and is vital for:

• Regulating the water content throughout your body.

• Promoting a healthy pH balance in your cells, particularly your brain cells.

• Promoting blood sugar health and helping to reduce the signs of aging.

• Assisting in the generation of hydroelectric energy in cells in your

  body.

. Absorption of food particles through your intestinal tract.

• Supporting respiratory health. •

• Promoting sinus health. •

• Prevention of muscle cramps. •

• Promoting bone strength. •

• Regulating your sleep -- it naturally promotes sleep. •

• Supporting your libido. •

• Promoting vascular health.

[stickylies]

Processed sugar is already traditional here?

jup same way happiness is

[Stargeezr]

The Diabetes industry is a multi billion dollar industry where the people who have diabetes are managed,

but not cured. That is because the industry would fail if the people with diabetes were actually cured.

The money would be gone, and these people who work for the industry would be out of work.

The horror! In Thailand, drive along some highways and you can buy bags and bags of salt, as it does

have many uses besides putting in your food.

In this hot country where everyone sweats, and loses many minerals from their bodies, maybe that is why

they are not as worried about their salt intake.

Today we are told of so many things that will affect our health. Worry is a big part of losing your health

and worry can be caused, just by reading articles like this one.

Just saying!

Geezer

[mrfill]

The average Thai consumes 26 spoons of sugar a day, in food and drinks.

That deals with the first tin of cola now what about the rest of the day?

[kimamey]

"She also suggested the use of broth, from boiling chicken or pork bones for one to two hours, to give a pleasant savoury taste instead of using sodium-laced powder."

Yeah, I'm not sure most people have the time to do that these days and I'm fairly sure 7-11 doesn't sell it.

Could be wrong though...

Doesn't say you have to do it yourself - can get proper broth at our local market.

Go and watch the preparation process of the broth at your local market. Near the start of the process, the vendor will empty a 500 gram bag of salt or Ajinamoto into the vat.

I think the key message here is for consumers to, one way or another, get control over the ingredients of the food they eat.

I'm a bit puzzled about salt in Thailand as the thing I've noticed with my wife and western food in particular is she often complains about the amount of salt in the same way I coplain about food being too spicy. I just assumed Thais wern't so used to salt. They do seem to love sugar though.

[Jingthing]

Could be she likes a specific kind of salt flavor ... fish sauce/MSG rather than western salt flavor.

[MAJIC]

I would say the major source of sodium in a Thai's diet is Nam Pla, fish sauce. It after-all is a saturated salt solution. Have you seen those beautiful cubic crystals of sodium chloride on the bottom of some bottles ?

I am on a low salt diet, never have salt on the table. And never put salt in aharn falang. BUT try leaving fish sauce out of aharn Thai, it just isn't the same, it's no long Thai food. I can't do it, much to my cardiologist's disapproval.

Next time you get a chance to examine a bottle of Fish Sauce,you will find it's 25% Salt !

[spidermike007]

Every time I sit down for a meal in a restaurant, I ask mai sai pon chulott. No MSG. They get it. Never an issue. And I cannot taste any difference. Maybe taste a bit less salty, and therefore more delicious, at least to me. MSG can be pretty toxic, according to a lot of studies. Who needs it? They are willing to prepare food without it, if you ask. Same at home. I ask my honey to prepare food without MSG or sugar. I just add a little bit of sea salt, soy sauce, or chili paste, or pic nam pla, to my taste. Wala.

[Jingthing]

MSG isn't really unhealthy beyond the salt aspect. Most of the phobia about MSG is total myth. Salts in themselves are fine in moderation. The issue is too much salt.

[attrayant]

What is really important to understand is that there are huge differences between Himalayan Pink Salt and white refined, bleached salt. The former is rich in the body's required Trace Minerals and offers them in perfect balance and the latter is the "bad" salt which doctors tell folks to get off.

Spectrographic analysis of HPS reveals nutrients in quantities much too small to be meaningful. That's the opposite of "huge difference". You'll get plenty of the same minerals in ordinary food provided you simply eat a balanced diet.

I also notice at least three radioactive elements: radium, polonium and uranium, although in amounts so small they might not even be there. But if we strike everything off the list that's <1 ppm, there wouldn't be much left. I also note palladium, which is poisonous although far below the median lethal dose of 12 mg/kg for adults.

Edited December 13, 2015 by attrayant

[Jeremy50]

Again. Another dietary problem solved by proper exercise. I eat plenty of fish sauce and some sea salt. Otherwise, basically a low fat, high carb. diet. I sweat out so much salt when I run and cycle in the Thai heat that I have to take a sodium supplement several times a week.

However, not a single post on exercise from the many on this topic. Sometime I get the impression people would rather die than exercise.

[bangrak]

'Too much Sodium', I first thought too much 'kitchen salt' (NaCl), but it seems that Mahidol 'lecturer' (graduated from ...., erm, where?) single and only focuses on the, horrible, carciogenic(!), Mono Sodium Glutamate taste enhancer Thais make a huge consumption of, and often even call 'sugar' when cooking... And then advises to replace it by ...sugar, what a joke, when you see the number of young (better-off) kids whose body-mass puts them among the obese! The next thing will be to use more heated up palm oil because of the local over-production... Better give flavoured natural latex as chewing gums then, or offer price-off rice crispies (with honey, yum).

[Thian]

I really can't understand why people like to eat at the KFC. It's pure chemicals and to me tastes awfull, has nothing to do with deepfried chicken imo.

I like chicken and even better marinated chicken but what KFC made of it is really vile. Zinger burgers are nice though.