Asian take-away foods must include more vegetables to meet the
recommended dietary guidelines for vegetable consumption, says a new study.
Research from Australia into the
nutritional value of Chinese, Thai, and Singaporean take-away foods has shown
that an increase in vegetable content is needed to meet the recommended dietary
guidelines for vegetable consumption.
Dr. Christina Pollard, Curtin
University Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Center of Behavioral Research in
Cancer Control, said that although Asian menu items are often considered a
healthy option, there is little information available about their relative
healthfulness.
“The demand for convenient eating
options has led to an increase in foods eaten away from home and consumers are
looking for healthy options when they eat out,” Pollard said.
The research, published in
the Food and Nutrition Science Journal, aimed to pilot a simple
method for measuring the vegetable content of popular Asian dishes for use in
nutrition education.
Thirty vegetable containing
take-out dishes from three Asian restaurants (Chinese, Thai, and Singaporean)
in Perth were photographed and weighted with, and without the vegetables.
Contrary to popular belief, all
three of the Asian cuisines sampled were not a good source of vegetables, said
Pollard. There was, however, a wide and consistent variation in the vegetable
content within each cuisine.
Dietary guidelines recommend
increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables to protect against chronic
diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, and maintenance of a healthy weight.
Currently, most adults consume well below the recommended five 75 gram standard
servings per day.
“The trends for increasing
consumption of take-away foods, particularly Asian take-away, point to an
urgent need to advise consumers to select the vegetable dense dishes and to
encourage the food service industry to increase the vegetable content of Asian
meals,” Pollard said.
“Nutrition educators should
encourage Asian food businesses to increase the vegetable content of their
menus and advise customers to choose at least one vegetarian dish to encourage
healthy lifestyles.”
The article can be found
at: Pollard C et al. (2012) A
Simple Approach Assessing the Vegetable Content of Asian Takeout Meals with
Nutrition Education Potential.
Source: Curtin University Australia;
No comments:
Post a Comment