FACT SHEET - Nutrition : Vol. 1 No. 7 April 1998

Eating Thai Style - Eating Healthy

Dr. Luecha Wanaratna Senior Nutrition Advisor, Office of Technical Advisory, Department of Health Tel. 590-4143

The uniqueness of Thai cuisine has been mentioned worldwide and tempted people the world over to experience Thai food, because of its exquisite savory flavors, colors, and textures.

It is certainly agreeable that eating Thai style will enhance the body with appropriate nutrients, energy, minerals, vitamins and dietary fiber for preventing coronary heart disease, dyslipidaemia, strokes, obesity, diabetes and some cancers.

Thailand is a country that has cherished its history and culture through the centuries. One unique

feature of Thai culture is the eating custom. Although Thailand is situated between two great cultural nations, China and India, from which traces of cultural influences can be found, the uniqueness of Thai eating habits persists until today. The uniqueness of Thai cuisine has been mentioned worldwide and tempted people the world over to experience Thai food because of its exquisite savory flavors, colors, and textures. Moreover, thousands of Thai recipes, both from new creations or passed down by ancient Thai wisdom, from an enormous variety of different fresh food produced from the fertile soil and abundant water resources, have been acclaimed and confirmed by modern medical science as good for physical health.

Eating Thai style will provide you with good quality protein from different sources, e.g. fish, eggs, chicken, pork, beef and fresh water or marine life, as well as proteins from vegetables, seeds, rice and pulses. Besides, Thai foods contain both animal and vegetable fat and fish fat in particular. Fat intake from Thai foods is appropriate because of the pattern of cooking, i.e. boiled, curried, steamed, and roasted with dipping sauce. By using these cooking practices, Thai chefs or housewives use less fat, small amounts of meat and a variety of vegetables for eating with dipping sauce or hot curried dishes (Kang Phed). Vegetables are normally washed and cleansed thoroughly then sometimes carved into flower, leaf or other shapes. Vegetables may be boiled or steamed to go with dipping sauces, included as ingredients of soup or Kang phed, or fried (pad) alone or with meat or eggs. Thailand is situated in the tropical and monsoon zone, so there is an abundance of vegetables from different regions all year round. Local vegetables are natural products that have been prepared by local wisdom as Thai food for centuries.

The custom of eating Thai style is that family members will join together and share food from communal bowls placed in the centre of the group. This practice is also applied to special feasts at traditional ceremonies. Plain rice as a staple food will be served to all members on their own plate with a fork and spoon set in front of them. But in the north and northeast regions, glutinous rice is the staple food, steamed then stored in big bamboo hand made container called Kra Tip by north easterners or Kong Khao Luang by northerners. This is used to keep rice warm and tender for a longer time. Currently, Thai restaurants serve glutinous rice in small Kra Tip or Kong Khao Noi for each customer.

The "central foods" consist of various dishes cooked in different ways. Generally, there will be a Kang, either plain, salty, non coconut milk based hot curry (Kang Pa) or hot curry with coconut milk. Ingredients of these Kangs include meat, vegetables, fresh spices that enhance flavor, color, aroma and herbs to aid with digestion. Besides Kang, there will be at least one or two other steamed or roasted dishes and dipping sauces e.g. shrimp paste sauce (Nam Prig Kapi), soy bean paste with coconut milk (Tao Jiaw Lon), dipping sauce northern style (Nam Prig Ong, Nam Prig Noom), dipping sauce southern style (Nam Prig Koong Siab, Nam Prig Pla Yang) and northeastern style (Jaew-dipping sauce),etc. These dipping sauces have strong flavor, i.e. hot, salty and more or less sweet and sour, therefore only a small amount is eaten (so there is no need to be cautious of health risks from over salt or sugar intake) with a large amount of fresh, steamed or boiled vegetables to go with side dishes of meat such as broiled, steamed, or grilled fish and shrimp. Fried small fish is also a good side dish because it provides good quality protein and is rich in calcium.

One or two other dishes might be fried vegetables or fried meat or spicy hot salad (Phla, Yum, Larb) mixed as usual with herbs and cooked meat prepared by boiling, steaming, grilling or roasting. The amount served is small, and the flavor will be made to please consumers wishes that is either mild hot, salty, sour and sweet or fiery hot. But if there are children or elderly among the members who can not endure spicy food, foods such as fried vegetables, fried fish or pork, grilled beef, or the fried eggs, omelets or steamed eggs will be served.

Eating Thai Style - Eating Healthy

Samples of Thai Menu

1. - Chicken soup with coconut milk and galanga (Tom Kha Kai) - Wing bean salad (Yum Tua Poo) - Green hot curry with chicken or shrimp (Kang Kiew Wan Kai or Koong) - Sweet and sour pork (Moo Phad Priew Wan) - Omelet with tomato and minced pork (Khai Jiew, Moo Sap, Ma Kua Thes) - Plain cooked rice (Khao Suay) Dessert : Pumpkin in coconut milk (Fak Thong Kang Buad) - Mixed fresh fruits (Phol Mai Ruam)

2. - Hot shrimp soup (Tom Yam Koong) - Fried mixed vegetables (Pad Phak Ruam) - Soya bean paste with coconut milk and fresh vegetables (Lon Tao Jiew Kab Phak Sod) - Fried beef with pepper (Nua Pad Prig) - Morning glory/swamp cabbage hot salad (Yum Phak Boong/Phak Krached) - Plain cooked rice (Khao Suay) Dessert : Plantain in coconut milk (Kluay Buad Chee) - Mixed fresh fruits (Phol Mai Ruam)

During the meal the housewife will generally help children or elderly members to spoonfuls of delicious dishes. The husband will also serve spoonfuls of food to his wife and other members as well. Conversation on interesting events occuring during the day or even teaching of good conduct will take place during the meal. The grandparents, uncles and aunts will share their experiences so as to transfer their knowledge, ideas and good practices to the younger members. The older children will be assigned to help the adults with providing more rice, food dishes and drinking water when needed. Usually no liquor will be served during the meal. However, liquor, beer or wine might be served with savory dishes before the main dishes.

After the meal, Thai desserts, most of which are prepared with flour, pulses, sugar, eggs and coconut milk with or without sesame or fruits, will be served. The idea is to refresh the palate, lessen undesirable fish, meat and spice odors and relieve the hot and sour tastes. To make the mouth more refreshing, seasonal fresh fruits will be eaten after desserts. These fruits, besides refreshing the palate and having exquisite sensational flavors, provide dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals as well as help clean the teeth. Examples are green or ripe mango, pineapple, rose apple, guava, and papaya.

It is certainly agreeable that eating Thai style will enhance the body with appropriate nutrients, energy, minerals, vitamins and dietary fiber for preventing coronary heart disease, dyslipidaemia, strokes, obesity, diabetes and some cancers. Herbs in Thai foods help digestion and the gastrointestinal system. Besides exquisite color, flavor and different varieties of ingredients, eating Thai style enhances relationships and care among family members as well as teaching children about giving and sharing, and how to be respectful and dutiful. These grassroots behavior patterns will enable the young members to have better family and social behavior later in life.

Another method of eating Thai styles is one-plate dishes. Sometimes when the family members do not have enough time to prepare the food or to sit at the table together, they may have one-plate dishes which may be a combination of any of the communal bowls over rice or noodles. Several delicious and nutritious one-plate dishes are also popular choice of selection among working people during lunch time. The Thai style one-plate dishes are widespread worldwide. Though lacking some ingredients in menus prepared in foreign countries, their nutritive value, major nutrients in particular, are beneficial for consumers physical health. Samples of famous worldwide Thai one plate dishes are Pad Thai, Khao Pad Moo, Khao Pad Krapao Kai, Khao Pad Phak Ruam, and Som-Tum.

The tables 1 and 2 present the nutritive value analysis of one-plate dishes as well as Thai food dishes such as Tom-Kha-Kai, Tord-Mun-Pla, Tom-Yam-Kung and Mee Grob. The analysis coming from two sources for com-parison, confirms the high nutritive value of Thai dishes which are rather low in fat, sugar and sodium chloride and contain appropriate protein content. The amount of energy intake is adequate for the daily working lifestyle, with nothing left over to become fatty mass in the body that may cause maladies such as obesity, hyper-lipidemia, hyper-cholesteremia, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.

Tourists or those unaccustomed to hot and spicy foods with various herbs, might experience stomach upset at the first sampling of Thai food. So it is advisable to tell cooks or servers to prepare milder or not so hot foods. This will help to capture the delightful flavor of Thai foods. One should observe the cleanliness of the food shop, cook or seller as well as the food containers and management, to determine good food hygiene to be certain that you will consume safe, flavorful and highly nutritions Thai foods.

R E F E R E N C E

1. กองโภชนาการ กรมอนามัย กระทรวงสาธารณสุข ขอกําหนดสารอาหารที่ควรไดรับประจําวัน และแนวทางการบริโภคอาหารสําหรับคนไทย, 2532

2. Nutrition Division, Department of Health, MOPH, "Nutritive Values of Thai Foods", September, 1992

3. National Food Authoriry, Composition of Goods, Australia Volume 7, Ethnic Foods Amino Acids Update, 1995.