1. Dietary structure
The basic characteristics of Chinese diet is wide variety, it varies from place to place, that is to say the diet has a particularly strong regional feature. On general, it can be divided into 12 regions, these 12 regions forms 8 major cuisine, include Shandong cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Su cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Anhui cuisine, which are subject to the impact of China’s geographical environment differences. For the staple food, people in the southeast mainly eat grain, such as rice. In the Northwest, people like to eat flour food, all kind of grain can be processed into the form of flour. Wheat flour is the one that is commonly eaten. As for the Non-staple food, it can be summarized as a few features due to the vastness and broadness of China. (1) wide range of raw materials, the cooking techniques are diverse. (2) vast kind of flavors with a lot of adaptability, that is being said we eat every thing. It can be seen that the Chinese people heavily rely on carbohydrates, meat and vegetables are complementary food. While it is different in the western world, meat is as main food in the three meals , supplemented by vegetables, the consumption of meat is very large, and vegetables, fruits, grains are secondary but indispensable food. This can be one of the reasons why digestive diseases in westerners are much less than in China. In long history of animal husbandry, the gastrointestinal digestion of westerners is much stronger than that of the Chinese people, here we need to explain that when we talk about Chinese people, we are mainly talking about the Han based group, a few ethnic groups in China such as the Mongolian also has strong gastrointestinal digestive function since they also live by the animal husbandry. The demand for dairy products in western is also particularly large, in addition to breakfast with milk, many food will also be added with dairy products, such as cheese and cream are often used in desserts . This can be one of the reasons why Western bones are stronger than Chinese bones.
2. Cooking method
Cooking in the Chinese food culture has been a great charm, because it is full of change. There are about 30 kinds of basic Chinese traditional cooking method, there are dozen ways just to burn a duck. They can be used for staple food and can be used for dishes, such as frying is the most commonly used in daily life, it uses lots of oil, stirring a lot with high temperature fire to make food quick-cooked,Westerners often complain the cooking fumes. The key question is what kind of cooking method is most often selected. The cooking method of steaming can produce less chemical changes so it can be more healthy, fried, roasted these methods will produce more chemical changes and change the food structure. The use of seasonings has a greater impact on health than cooking methods. For example, in China, monosodium glutamate is commonly used in a variety of cooking method, while the main ingredient of monosodium glutamate is the chemical substance of sodium glutamate. In the West, people love to eat different kinds of sauce, a lot of sauces are made with fresh vegetables, dairy products with basic seasonings, which makes the sauce very fresh and more healthy. In addition, the amount of oil and salt used during cooking is much less than that of China. Too much intake of salt may cause diseases in the elderly, such as hypertension.
3. Eating habits
Chinese people use chopsticks and share food in a large plate. Many Western countries are implementing individual serving system, which could be a better way to eat. Medical studies have found that most of the gastritis, ulcer disease is caused by Helicobacter pylori infection, and Helicobacter pylori can spread through the diet. When people share a tableware meal, the Helicobacter pylori in saliva can spread to food through chopsticks, and then spread to others, which increases the infection rate of Helicobacter pylori. Therefore, it will be more healthier to use individual serving system. After dinner Chinese people like to drink a cup of hot tea or eat some fruit. Tea can reduce blood cholesterol levels, if it is oolong tea, it also has the effect of clear oil, women often drink black tea which is good for the stomach. While people in Western countries prefer to drink coffee or eat some dessert. Science shows that moderate coffee is still beneficial to the human body, but excessive coffee is harmful to the body. The dessert contains lots of sugar which may not be good for the health. .t
