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DELICIOUS & HEALTHY THAI FOOD FOR QUALITY LIFE

Watch the videos above to discover Thai cuisine and its regional culinary specialties

ASIA LIFESTYLE CLUB Weightloss and Detox Progams / Cooking classes

When picking weight loss diets, there are many choices between low-carb, low-fat, vegetarian, grapefruit, water, starving and all kind of Moguls diet programs and online diets that never work. You could also take a step back, and look at a group of people who constantly eat but are predominantly slim. There are 2 things you see on any street in Thailand: they're filled with thin people and they're filled with vendors selling food. Food is everywhere. How can there be more food, but thinner people?

Most westerners don't eat Thai food every meal. But there are a number of easy lessons that come from how Thai people eat Thai food that directly apply to healthier western eating. It's exotic, fun, cheap, tastes great and can encompass a whole healthy lifestyle.

Ordinary Thai food is not only delicious but extremely healthy. Thai people eat large amounts of white rice with almost every meal. Added to this are small portions from a selection of dishes served family style. Most Thai food is prepared using fresh ingredients and is highly nutritious. Meals are carefully balanced to contain small amounts of fat and protein along with plenty of fresh herbs and vegetables. Between meals Thais will snack copiously on the abundance of tasty fruits available in Thailand.

- Snack. With street vendors in Thailand presenting readily available food, people at work grab snacks when they are hungry. According to nutritionists, regular snacking moderates the blood sugar and keeps you from having the peaks and valleys that causes binge eating. For example, you could keep a basket of fresh fruit or nuts handy to snack on before you starve.

- Fresh Ingredients and Preparation. Since in Thailand, good quality, fresh food is readily available for takeout or eating in the office, there is not much demand for processed foods. Leaves are more commonly a part of a meal. While making fresh food may be a time consuming, it greatly reduces the amount of unknown ingredients in your body and provides far more nutrients for the same amount of food. Frozen food has half the nutrients of fresh, canned has 10. That means you need 10x the pasta sauce to get the same benefits as fresh.

- Fruits. Great fruits are everywhere in Thailand and are more widely in demand than in the US. Choose fruits instead of chips or other snacks.

- Rice. Because most of cooked rice is water, it fills you up without supplying many calories. While this may sound counterproductive, in a society where people have the tendency to eat too much, it's a successful way to get "full" without the calories.

- High intensity flavored dishes. Many Thai dishes pack so much flavor per square inch (or cm) that you have to eat them on rice. There's frequently so much salt, hot pepper or other flavorings that eating the dishes by the raw spoonful is unpleasant. The food needs the rice. Since rice is mostly water, all things being equal, there ends up being more flavor per calorie of Thai food. You get the same level of tastes as a western dish without the calories. Generally these high flavor foods are savory.

- No dairy. In Thai food, there is no milk, cheese or butter. All calories add up. Coconut milk is perhaps the Thai analogue to dairy, but coconut milk is not nearly as prevalent in Thai food as cheese, butter or cream are in western foods.

- Well flavored dishes don't need fat. In western food, the olive oil, butter or other fat provides a smoothing and filling aspect of many dishes. Because the Thai food flavor system's complexity comes from mixing flavor intense ingredients, like fish sauce and lime and hot peppers, there's no need for a fat. If fat is a bottom flavor that pulls spices together, many Thai dishes are comprised of top flavors without need for a bottom. In general, look for dishes that don't depend on added fats and avoid the oilier dishes. If you try this at restaurants, you can always request stir-fried noodle dishes to be cooked with much less oil. Spread sandwiches with mustard or red pepper spread instead of mayo.

- Low in Sugar. Thai dishes are not highly sweetened. For main courses and soups, a little sugar is sometimes added to round out the flavors. Most desserts combine sugar and salt as prime ingredients but aren't just sugary confections. Many desserts are primarily fresh fruit. Many people drink water, fresh juice or soy milk instead of soda. Look for ways to cut out sugars.

- Shared dishes and smaller portions. In the US, most restaurants over-serve their patrons. Frequently, a single dish can serve 2 people. Thai's traditionally share from dishes in the center of the table. It is considered rude to place in your own dish much more than 2 or 3 bites of a dish at one time. Because people don't have heaping helpings, there is no pressure to clear the massive plate of food you took at the start of the meal when you were hungry. You are less likely to overeat. The serving plates also go back in the kitchen or fridge after the meal so if they are not finished, no worry, they can be finished next meal. With the exception of hamburgers, this is a fairly easy behavior to copy.

ASIA LIFESTYLE CLUB THAI HOMESTAY

WEIGHTLOSS

DETOX

COOKING CLASSES

To reduce body weight one must control food intake and eating should be planned in terms of proper food content and proper meal times. If a person’s energy intake (i.e. how much they eat) exceeds their body’s energy requirements then weight gain will result. If a persons energy intake falls short of their body’s requirements then weight loss will follow. If you wish to reduce body fat and despite excersicing you are still not losing weight, then you must eat less. It is as simple as that.

Highly processed foods such as ready-made packet meals and burgers have very high energy concentrations compared to almost any other types of food. They often contain extremely high levels of fat and salt, and tend to be poor value nutritionally. If you follow a diet made up exclusively of these kinds of foods your health will suffer and you are likely to gain weight. A diet that includes very few processed and pre-packaged foods is healthier and is likely to encourage weight loss. In our homestay homes, your host will prepare food for you every day using fresh ingredients and you will find yourself following a healthy diet without the need to become a nutrition expert.

Try not to eat or eat lightly within the few hours before exercising. Intensive exercise or training on a full stomach will make you unwell. You must drink enough fluids to fulfil your body’s needs and never allow yourself to become dehydrated. Sugary soft drinks can be high in calories and offer no nutrition; you are better off drinking plain water. You might sweat a lot during exercise or training (especially in Thailand’s humid climate) and this fluid loss needs to be replaced. But drinking excessive amounts of water is also not helpful to your body and will certainly not help with your training. During training sessions try to take only small sips. During the rest of the day listen to your body, it will tell you when it is thirsty. You should drink one or two glasses of water following each meal to aid digestion. Rehydration drinks containing a mix of salts and sugar are a good idea if you are worried about the amount you are sweating or you have just begun training in Thailand’s hot climate. These drinks should be limited to one per training session.

If you are losing weight you must be especially observant of your own body and look carefully for any signs of stress. Weight loss should not exceed two pounds (1kg) a week. Anything faster (unless you are seriously overweight, in which case consider controlling your weight before embarking on a very intensive training regime) will have a damaging effect on your body, the evidence of which may not present itself until much later in your life. Remember, every person has a natural body weight that is dictated by their individual traits.

While following these principles is a great excuse for going out for Thai food, almost all of lessons can be directly applied to eating western food. The one universal point most nutritionists agree on is that dieting doesn't make long-term success, lifestyle choices makes long-term success. By picking a couple principles at a time and incorporating them into your life and then moving onto another when the ones you previously chose are locked into your habits, you'll be the most successful in staying the weight you want.