It's all that talk again about refined/unrefined sugars.
I used to feel faint and drowsy after meals but I feel a lot better now that I stopped eating white bread, pasta and milk and using honey and agave syrup where possible. Everything tastes so much sweeter after a few weeks!

I ditched refined sugars years ago, always preferred wholemeal bread and am not lactose intolerant. Next on my list is to use up all the old dried pasta and start making my own wholemeal pasta at some point.

Surely consumption of wheat is still significantly lower in Asian than in the west, with rice still playing a much larger role in the diet? Most particularly in the rural areas, away from the western fast-food chains?

If you looked at the average western lunch box, it would be entirely wheat based. The same is often true of breakfast. Not so in most of Asia, even though bread based snacks are far more popular than they were 50 years ago.

It's actually quite difficult in this country to find a rice based lunch, where as pies and sandwiches are stacked high in every corner shop and petrol station. You'd get very fed up trying to live off supermarket sushi, and unless you're in Chinatown then a hot rice based meal is even less practical for lunch or breakfast.

Therefore the statistics on immigrants surely support the idea that wheat is worse than rice?

Some of the restaurants in Chinatown are awesome. I would eat dim sum for breakfast every day if I could, although of course that's actually neither healthy (depending on what you choose) nor traditional!

Which Chinatown are you speaking of?

The area of Soho in London.

I've only ever eaten in places recommended by Chinese friends and I'm afraid I can't remember what they're called. I couldn't type it even if I knew. They were very small and very crowded, and we were the only westerners in there.

That's very close to me! Any advice? I probably get take aways from there at lunchtimes

Get a Chinese friend!

Won Kei's (Wonkeys as it's known). The staff are rude & you'll never sit next to the people you visit with but it's cheap & tasty

I've consistently heard the same too. Not been there yet though.

The Food is great

imma see if I can convince workies to head there tomorrow

The best chinese food I have ever had was in Paris

Even if literally everything else isn't.

Went there once with some colleagues, and yes, it's great and you should definitely go.

I think there are several issues here:

- Asia covers a wide populace and includes Indo-Pak (who traditionally eat chappattis as well as rice) and SE Asia which includes places like Thailand where rice is more predominant.
- Even in say India, the main wheat is in chappattis and IIRC from my visit, that's all they eat with curries (mainly in the villages). They don't have bread/cakes etc. The wheat is locally produced and they often grind it themselves.
- Indo-Paks who migrate to the UK don't have just chappattis as their only wheat intake but also consume pizzas/biscuits/doughnuts ie things they would not normally eat. Their diet becomes more westernised and that's when they run into health problems.

It's not the wheat IMO that's the problem. It's what we're using it in. If all we ate was coarse ground bread, we would have little issue with health problems. Make the wheat refined and then add salt and sugar et voila heart disease/stroke/diabetes etc.

I lived in India for a few months in a small tribal village and I can tell you that people aren't that healthy. A lot of women were quite chunky and at the time I was there they were running a campaign on the risks of anaemia and all pregnancy related issues as people do not eat meat and very few green veg.
Most traditional meals are: Chapattis, rice, potatoes and lentils, with quite a high oil content. Not really the healthy image we have of indian food.
I am more inclined to say that a majority of indians do not go to the doctors due to cost and travel issues, therefore a lot of health problems are not monitored