Chinese food is delicious. Very few will disagree on that. Mixed seafood noodles, beef in black bean sauce, sweet & sour pork.., mouth watering indeed. I personally love em.. But when it comes to calories, Chinese food may not be the best option if you are trying to lose weight.

Most people think Chines food can be a healthy alternative to other take-away type of foods. The wide assortment of vegetables you see in most of the dishes can be the reason for this. As we all know, vegetables are indeed a healthy option, but don’t get fooled by just looking at all the vegetables in Chinese dishes. Most these vegetables are fried in oil and various fatty sauces are added to the dishes in order to get that ‘yummy taste’ we love. And vegetables like beans and egg plant soak oil making it even worse. With all the oil and sauces going into these dishes, one large portion we get at a regular Chinese Restaurant may even contain more than 500 calories.

A typical meal will consist of a sup of your choice, some appetizers, white rice or noodles and dishes with vegetables and meat. Most of the time, the rice or the noodles we select also may contain meat, fried vegetables and eggs mixed with it.

Let’s go into more details..

Calories In Chinese Food

• Regular serving of Hot & Sour soup – 100 calories
• Spring Roll – about 100 calories each
• Stir fried vegetables – over 500 calories
• Deep fried tofu with vegetables – about 700-800 calories
• Crispy chicken noodles – 600 calories
• Mixed fried rice – little over 1000 calories
• Chicken with black bean sauce – about 700 calories
• Sweet & sour pork – 1200 calories
• Fried prawns with garlic sauce – 800 calories

Above list does not contain every dish you find in Chinese cuisine. The purpose of this list is to show you how high in calories Chinese food can be. Just pick the soup, one appetizer, rice or noodles, one other dish with meat and see the total calorie value. You will realize how high the amount of calories you intake by having a full Chinese food meal. Not to mention the ridiculously high amounts of sodium these dishes contain due to the added salts.

Some tips to minimize the calorie intake
Whenever I go to my favorite Chinese restaurant, I avoid all their fancy rice/noodle dishes and always stick to steamed rice. This helps me reduce the amount of calories and salt going into my body. Another advantage I see is, having steamed rice help you get the proper taste of other dishes. I have noticed this on several occasions.

Have your soup. Its only about 100 calories. Stay away from deep fried and batter fried food items if you can. Enjoy your Chinese food, but know how much of calories and salt you intake by eating them. The aim of this article is not to prevent you from eating such food. But looking at the high calorie intake, limiting the amount of Chinese food you eat will certainly be a much healthier option.

*Please note that the authentic Chinese food people eat in China is much different to the high calorie western versions we eat.