Any tips for staying on Keto while traveling in China for 2 weeks?
Eating Keto while in China
islandlight
(Laurie)
#4
Peking duck without the little tortilla things.
Places where you can choose your own ingredients and grill them at the table or have the cook prepare them for you. I think this kind of thing is fairly common. Learn how to say âno rice.â
Western-style restaurants, and restaurants that are popular with foreigners; at least youâll be able to communicate a bit, or the menu might be in English (or with pictures).
Be careful that no âmeatâ turns out to be chitlins (unless you like chitlins).
Other restaurants and even street food, if you can look at whatâs on offer and see whether it looks kind of low carb.
If you stay in Western-style hotels, you can probably get eggs for breakfast.
Buy stuff in grocery stores.
My Chinese travel was limited to two weekend junkets (one with tour guide, one without), and it was almost 20 years ago. It was fascinating then and probably still is. The food was ALL delicious, although Peking duck was kind of a letdown. Hope you have a great time and lots of good food!
Ruina
(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!)
#5
Carbohydrates is 碳水ĺĺçŠ on the label. The really long one with water as the second character. Check any dried meats because they often have more sugar than protein.
Western food is loaded with sugar because they think we like it. Dinner restaurants are easier because you just take what you want family style, and as long as you eat âenoughâ people donât care you didnât eat rice. Convenience stores usually have tea eggs. Sometimes coffee places automatically put sugar in any coffee so I always say âbu yao tangâ.
Good cheese can be hard to find at regular grocery store, even a western one like Walmart. Sometimes they do have some. If you can find a halal store youâve hit keto heaven. And China has a sizable Muslim population even outside of Xinjiang. If someone is slaughtering a sheep on the sidewalk Iâd say you found a halal shop. (Only slightly exaggerating.)
Sauces often have sugar, but I wouldnât worry too much for only two weeks. Sweet and savory foods arenât as clearly demarcated as in the West.
Veggies are plentiful and cheap.
Oh! And âNo rice.â is âbu yao mifan. Me Fahn.
Have a great trip!
Janie
(Jane)
#7
This was a lifesaver for me in China. Once I stayed near a Starbucks but another time I was very remote and no coffee anywhere. At all. But they are big tea drinkers so always could get a cup of hot water.
Gaff
#8
I used to live there years ago (before I was keto) and recently travelled back there for 10 days and had many of the same concerns as Iâm pretty strict keto.
I ended up finding the following things worked well:
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No brainers - avoid rice, noodles, baozi, jiaozi, bread, lots of carbs in standard meals in China - Chuanâr is great - there seemed to be a lot less street food in Beijing than when I last lived there but plenty of restaurants still serving this up, hole-in-the-wall places. I ate a lot of meats, there may have been a slight amount of sugar mixed in with the spice mixes but I didnât notice any changes in my glucose readings
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Peking duck without any of the sauces and pancakes - didnât taste as good as obviously the pancakes, plum sauces etc make it what it is, but it was still a reasonable enough meal - Lots of places, whether fancy restaurants or smaller places in hutongs, had decent enough meals (despite carbs) that could be shared at a table, then I would eat meats and low carb veggies and leave everything else for others at the meal
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Ma la xiang guo is great, you basically pick the meats, seafood, veggies you want and they cook it up for you in a spicy mix - ate this a lot - Learn to say âdonât add sugarâ (bu jia tang) and âI have diabetesâ (wo you tangniaobing), even if you donât, as itâs increasingly common in China to have that condition and may be better understood then trying to avoid things. That being said menu customization is much harder than it is in the US and sometimes I had to flat out avoid eating a few dishes knowing that they were loaded with sugars or starches
- Hot pot is your best friend - stay light on the side sauces such as the tahini you often dip cooked items into, otherwise itâs a great low carb experience. Great for large meals with friends, or solo meals if you go somewhere like Xiabu Xiabu
- If youâre into offal for the health benefits, you can find such dishes aplenty in China
- I was able to find a few snacks easily such as dried beef (pretty much a jerky) and in a lot of nearby supermarkets they had hermetically sealed meat. I donât normally snack day-to-day on keto but found the time zone change made me hungrier than usual at certain times of the day (e.g. when waking up, when I normally skip breakfast) so it was handy having such snacks available
Despite a few meals where I felt I was exposed to more carbs than normal, it was very much KCKO for me and after returning home 10 days later I was surprised to find Iâd lost 5 lbs. 