Curbing Cultural Fare To Look Your Best

When it comes to dining out in a major city, the options are practically limitless; Korean, Indian, Polish, Vietnamese, Thai, Portuguese, Greek, Italian, Tibetan, Ethiopian, German – you name it and most big cities have handfuls of restaurants serving up it’s delicious cultural fare. It certainly makes for a wide spectrum of delicious ‘cheat’ or ‘refeed’ meals for us fitness types, right?

A problem arises however, when certain cultural foods are eaten as a daily staple, as lots of these foods on the regular can pose a serious problem for your waistline and keep you from looking your best. Many of these cultural diets can be loaded with saturated fats, excessive sodium and white flour items such as rice, bread, pitas and pastas. Thus, I have compiled this list to possibly run the risk of seriously offending your mother and/or grandmother by encouraging you to abandon many of the foods they’ve been instilling in your daily diet since you were born. “Blasphemy!”, yells your Babushka, as she forces spoonfuls of borscht and perogies down your throat. After all, these are the affordable, go-staples that got her and her family through tough times of the communist era when living in the Eastern Bloc.

Sorry Babuska, we don’t need perogies on the daily any more – only every now and then.

Truth is, a lot of these foods were consumed by previous generations who weren’t into daily ‘recreational fitness’ like us. They were consumed because they were affordable and accessible in hard times, and were often essential for survival. Bread, rice and corn are among the many foods items that have nourished generations upon generations before us through some tough times.

In such modern times of abundance however, many of us are thankfully not at such risk in regards to survival. Yet these age-old survival staples still remain common in many of our daily diets. Many today have disposable incomes capable of affording more different and specific foods that suit our specific tastes and desires. The desire to reshape the body or fuel it for performance in training and/or sport are examples here, and often the starchy, salty, fried and high glycemic or saturated fat staples of certain cultures are usually counterproductive to these goals when consumed as a part of your daily diet.

The problem is that many of us have been fed certain cultural foods for years, which started at a young age and over time has become very difficult to let go of. Often due to reasons such as: our enjoyment of eating them, the convenience and abundance of them, or even the fear of feeling like you’re turning your back on your culture by choosing to eat them less or not at all (Babushka is still fuming over this).

Living at home with one’s parent(s) can make this especially difficult to overcome. Although it’s simply convenient to just eat what mom has prepared, that’s not going to help you achieve the body you are striving to attain with all of that sweat and toil in the gym.

Thus, I present the top 5 worst cultural cuisines for achieving your fitness goals; cultural fare with staple foods that can spell disaster for your physique when consumed on the regular. These are:

1. INDIAN

Indian food is no doubt delicious, but can also spell utter disaster for your waistline. Among many of the top 5 offenders, Indian dishes are often associated with rice (biryani) and breads (naan). Indian foods are very unique in the variety of spices used to create intoxicating flavors for the palate, however they are typically carb-and saturated fat heavy, laden with high amounts of salt and typically soaked with oils whilst being fried for preparation to eat. Having many of these staple Indian foods on a regular daily rotation can make accomplishing fitness goals next to impossible.

2. MEXICAN

My favorite cheat cuisine hands down. Traditionally, Mexican meals begin with soup (Gazpacho), and the main course is a meat served in a cooked sauce with some form of salsa on the side, accompanied with beans and tortillas. Breakfast is generally heavier than in other countries, and can even consist of pancita, tacos, burritos or enchiladas, occasionally with with eggs. This is usually served with beans, white bread or tortillas with coffee or juice. Corn, bread and rice are major staples in Mexican cuisine, and frying (and even re-frying) methods are commonplace in food preparation, with typically high salt content in Mexican dishes. Mexico ranks 6th amongst the world’s heaviest populations, with 26.9 percent (20 million) of the adult population being overweight or obese. For a leaner body, keep Mexicana Cocina (cuisine) far away from your weekly meal schedule.

3. ITALIAN

Italian dinner with spaghetti and minestrone soup

Oh mamma mia, Italian food is good! Just-a-like-a Nona used to make. The big problem is that many Italian meals are centered around staples such as breads, potatoes and pasta – all being high on the glycemic index – as well as cheeses (mozzarella, gorgonzola), maize (polenta) and wine (valpolcella, barolo). It’s also common for Italians, or those of Italian decent – to carry sandwich-based lunches with thick white Italian bread or buns loaded up with cheese and high-saturated fatty meats like mortadella, salami or sopressata. Stuffed potato noodles like gnocchi are also a common lunch or dinner dish or accompaniment. The incorporation of breads and pastas on the daily as well as cheeses, antipasti and various fatty meats makes staying lean and trim next to impossible and puts Italian cuisine at #3 on our list. Oh, and by the way – my mother is Italian. Sorry Mama.

4. GERMAN

Two words: breakfast sausage. Germans are 8th among the world’s overweight nations, with roughly 24 percent (16 million people) of the adult population being overweight or obese. German meals are typically laden with high salt and saturated meats like sausage and meat cutlets, as well as various wheat flour and fried egg noodles (spätzle, maultaschen) that are typically thicker than Italian flat pasta. Starchy potatoes are also common mashed or pan roasted, as well as stuffed potato noodles (schupfnudeln) that are similar to Italian gnocchi. Bread (brot) is also a very significant part of German cuisine, being a part of all 3 daily German meals including breakfast. I mean seriously, sausage with EVERY meal? Nein danke.

5. THAI

Thai food is definitely one of the most popular restaurant or take out food options out there. ‘Going out for Thai’ is a common thing to do for city dwellers, and makes for a great ‘cheat’ or ‘refeed’ meal, as it is generally super delicious and strays far away from the rigidity of a fitness-minded meal as it often contains rice or noodles as a base. Thai cooking places emphasis on dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. It is known for its complex interplay of at least three and up to four or five fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. In this respect, Thai food is similar to Indian; and in a nutshell, great for a taste sensation, but like Indian, is super saucy, salty and generally not so great for your that physique you’ve been striving for.

The Final Word…

Of course, not all ethnic cultural fare is deemed unhealthy. For example, a traditional Mediterranean diet is often regarded as possibly the world’s healthiest, cutting the risk of heart attack and stroke while incorporating fresh natural ingredients like extra virgin olive oil, fibrous beans and legumes and fresh fruit. Japanese diets are also often regarded as very healthy as well, and after all, they boast of having some of the longest living people on earth. I’m certain a diet high in fish, low in salt and excessive oils may have a little to do with that. Staples derived from these diets may assist you in building an ideal healthy physique.

In short, what I’m advocating is not eliminating these 5 or other cultural foods altogether, but instead seriously curbing your consumption of traditional cultural fare as a daily staple if you presently are. Making them your ‘go-to foods’ day in day out will no doubt make progress in losing weight and building muscle difficult at best. For many it’s hard to do, as they’ve been consumed for so many years due to force of habit. Bad habits can indeed be conquered and replaced with good ones, and can bring incredible change in the way you look in your clothes and how you feel.

Train hard, and save these foods for that weekend cheat meal you’ve rightfully deserved after all of that clean eating, sweat and toil.

Just don’t tell your Grandmother.