The high-fiber content of vegetables earns another plus for Asian cooking. Science now shows that a high-fiber diet reduces the risk of certain forms of cancer and helps to lower cholesterol levels. It also combats constipation and other intestinal disorders. And for weight watchers, fiber provides a very low-calorie way to satisfy the appetite.
Even some of the Asian cooking techniques deliver health benefits. Most notably, there's steaming and stir-frying, which not only seal in the flavor and original color of foods but also ensure a maximum retention of vitamins.
"Come on now," (the skeptics among you say), "aren't there any health shortcomings to Asian cookery?" Yes, there are three serious ones, but they are corrected in this book. In fact, that's what this book is all about. Asian cooking normally tends to rely on (1) salty condiments (bad news for people with high blood pressure), (2) monosodium glutamate (MSG, also sold as Aji-no-moto, a high-sodium taste enhancer to which many people are allergic), and (3) large quantities of fat for deep frying (inviting heart disease, cancer, and obesity).
The challenge I faced in developing the book was to choose the healthiest of Asian recipes and then to modify them to remain as delicious as the originals while containing no salt, no MSG, and very little fat. I believe I have succeeded. Very few of my recipes contain beef, pork, and lamb, because red meat is highest in cholesterol. Instead they contain chicken and fish. In place of salt, MSG, and large quantities of salty condiments, they achieve zest and pungency with ginger, chilies, garlic, and a range of other herbs and spices.
But before going on to the recipes, you may want to read a bit about the scientific findings concerning your health and what you eat. The sources from which I took these findings are listed in the back of the book.
Salt and High Blood Pressure
A high salt intake can lead to high blood pressure and its potentially fatal consequences, cardiovascular disease and stroke. The incidence of heart disease is practically nonexistent in pre-industrialized cultures where little or no salt is added to foods.
In the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific, scientists observed two tribes, one living in the hills and one on a lagoon. Each was similar to the other except for the high incidence of hypertension in one tribe and the low incidence in the other. The hill people ate almost no salt at all because they boiled their food in rain or well water. They had a low incidence of hypertension. The lagoon people cooked their food in salty sea water, thus taking in 15 to 20 grams of salt a day. They had a high incidence of hypertension.
In Japan, where hypertension is the leading cause of death, the disease is more frequent in the north than in the south. This is not surprising, since salt consumption is. highest in the north.
Your body needs salt, of course, or rather the sodium contained in it. But the amount of sodium required—about 230 milligrams per day—is miniscule compared with the 4,000 to 8,000 milligrams that Americans now consume. The 230 milligrams are easily supplied by the food you would eat daily in its natural state. So where do the other thousands of milligrams come from? Well, one teaspoon of salt contains about 2,000 milligrams. Hundreds and thousands of more milligrams come from processed foods bought at the supermarket, restaurant, and fast-food counter. One ounce of cornflakes, for example, contains about 350 milligrams; two slices of bread, about 260; one cup of canned chicken noodle soup prepared with water, 1,100 milligrams; a fast-food hamburger, about 990; and a fast-food chicken dinner, about 2,200. So cutting back on salt may be harder than it sounds if processed foods with hidden amounts of sodium are consumed regularly.
Heart Disease and Cholesterol, Fats, and Fish Oil
Cholesterol Is the way to a man's heart still through his stomach? It most certainly is. But the old saying has now taken on a second meaning. Give him a regular diet high in cholesterol and saturated fat and you will increase his risk of a heart attack.
Cholesterol—a soft waxlike substance found among the fats in the bloodstream—may build up on the inner lining of blood vessels and, over time, obstruct them. This narrowing of the blood vessels, called atherosclerosis, keeps oxygen-carrying blood from getting to the heart. The result can be severe chest pain and eventually heart attack.
Our bodies need some cholesterol to maintain health and we get it in two ways. Our livers manufacture it naturally no matter what we eat, and we ingest it by eating foods of animal origin such as egg yolks, meats, poultry, fish, and dairy products. No plant-derived foods, whether fruits, vegetables, grains, or nuts, contain cholesterol.
Studies have shown what can happen when people from a country with a low-fat diet move to a country with a high one. Japanese living in Japan, where fat consumption is low, have low blood cholesterol levels and a low rate of heart disease. Japanese who have migrated to Hawaii, where fat consumption is higher, suffer significantly more heart attacks than their stay-at-home cousins. Those who have settled in California, where fat in-take is even higher, suffer more heart attacks still.
The evidence mounts daily that most people, even those with an inherited tendency to heart disease, can substantially reduce their risk of heart disease by following a low-cholesterol diet. Some studies even show that cholesterol reduction helps reverse cholesterol deposits that have already formed. But cholesterol is not the whole story.
Fats—Saturated, Polyunsaturated, and Monounsaturated Perhaps equal in importance to the actual amount of cholesterol in the diet may be the amount of saturated fats that are consumed. They tend to raise the cholesterol level in your blood no matter how little cholesterol you ingest.
Saturated fats are the fats that become hard at room temperature. They're found primarily in animal products such as meats, cheese, butter, cream, whole milk, and egg yolks. They're also found in some vegetable products such as coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter.
But now the fat story brightens. Two types of fat may actually be beneficial for cholesterol control. Polyunsaturated fats, such as safflower, corn, and sesame oils, and monounsaturated fats such as olive oil and peanut oil, may help to lower blood cholesterol levels. Of course our bodies need some fat to maintain health, but you shouldn't eat too much of these beneficial fats either, since all fats may pose a cancer risk.
Fish Oil Rapidly mounting evidence shows that eating certain ocean fish at least twice a week, in place of meat or eggs and butter fats, may diminish your risk of coronary heart disease. This new research from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, the Oregon Health Sciences University, and Harvard Medical School* has shown that fatty fish, with their high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, may be even more useful than polyunsaturated vegetable oils when it comes to lowering blood cholesterol levels. In fact, fish oils may also affect another aspect of body chemistry beneficially: by reducing the stickiness of certain cells important in blood clotting, they may help prevent blood clots from forming and blocking your arteries, thereby reducing your risk of heart attack and stroke.
The discovery of the beneficial value of fish oils grew out of observations by Danish researchers in the 1970s that had long seemed contradictory to cardiologists. Why did Eskimos, who eat huge amounts of animal fats, have such a low rate of coronary heart disease? Similarly, in coastal regions of Japan where despite rampant high blood pressure caused by high salt intake, heart attacks are not a frequent cause of death. One logical explanation put forward was that Eskimos are genetically resistant to heart attacks. But it turned out that it was not their genes that protect them, because the few who move to Denmark and switch to the local diet are just as prone to heart disease as Danes.
The studies applied only to salt-water fish. It is unknown whether freshwater fish would produce