Joseph Hsieh, Public Health in China, Summer 2014
My go-to dish: Tomato and Egg Noodle at the “Noodles Cafeteria” on campus
Food takes center stage in China. In fact, the large variety of food available in Beijing was one reason I embarked on this study abroad. I experienced much of Beijing’s culture through my stomach. However, in addition to culture, food is also a major public health topic in China.
According to Dr. Yang Gonghuan et al., 18% of Chinese adults 15 years and older had hypertension in 2002, due in large part to high salt intake in the Chinese diet. The average daily salt intake for a reference man 18 years old, was 12g per day, which is twice that recommended by Chinese dietary guidelines.
This is just one snippet of many alarming statistics discussed during our Public Health in China class. In retrospect, my dietary experience in Beijing did indeed leave me feeling somewhat “salty” and “hyper-tensed”.
Every morning before class, I race-walk to a stall on the Peking University campus to buy Bao-Zi (meat buns). For lunch, my friends and I frequent the many “Shi-Tangs” (食堂/cafeteria) on campus. Our main staple food includes noodle, rice, congee, and more bao-zi! My go-to dish was the 西红柿鸡蛋面 (tomato and egg noodle). For dinner, we would venture around Beijing for fancier meals such as hotpot, ramen, or family-style Chinese food (though I admit, we had KFC for dinner more times than we should).
The Chinese Food Pagoda
Having eaten and lived in Beijing for 8 weeks, here are my thoughts about the food. SALTY! Almost everything is too salty for my taste. Actually, it is more like everything is too intense for my taste. The salty food is too salty, the sweet too sweet, and the spicy too spicy. Another point I noticed is the lack of vegetables and fruits in my diet. Unless I consciously make an effort to eat more greens, my diet definitely did not fit the levels laid out by the “Chinese food pagoda” (Chinese equivalent of the food pyramid). With all these observations, I can see why the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases in China has skyrocketed.
I will miss many things from my time in Beijing. From the fast and cheap Bao-Zi to the “gets-the-job-done” tomato and egg noodle, I will definitely miss the food as well. However, I will not miss the saltiness nor the lack of greens in my diet.
With hypertension looming large as a public health issue in China, please don’t take this with a grain of salt!