Nutritionists Call Chinese Food "Unhealthy"

The Associated press reported Wednesday that nutritionists associated with the Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report last Tuesday that highlighted the health risks of food served in Chinese restaurants,

The AP account of this report describes a meal of General Tso's chicken, steamed rice, and egg rolls. pointing out that this meal is high in calories, high in sodium, and high in saturated fats.

This is the sort of thinking that Michael Pollan dissected and found wanting in his New York Times Magazine article late last January,

Someone is stacking the deck here. Both the main dish and the egg rolls are deep-fried in oil, while most fare at a Chinese restaurant is lightly stir-fried in a wok. Moreover, General Tso's chicken as I have generally seen it made, is mostly battered, fried chunks of chicken in a sweet, spicy sauce. A more typical dish served in a Chinese restaurant has more vegetables.

What's more, although Chinese food is singled out for nutritionist demonization, it's not even the worst cuisine. In a throwaway aside, the article mentions that both Italian and Mexican cuisines are worse than Chinese, according to the nutritionist ideology.

An uncritical reader will come away from this article with the message "Chinese Food Is Bad For You." But this is not true. This is the sort of dietary fear-mongering that the high priests of nutritionism have been foisting upon us for decades.

What's going on here? Racism? Xenophobia?

A person who tries to eat by Pollan's brief guidelines ("Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.") will have a much easier time of it at a Chinese restaurant than, say, at a diner.

AP has done the public a significant disservice by running this piece of scaremongering propaganda. And unless the piece's author has misrepresented the report they cite, the Center for Science in the Public Interest is in fact acting against the public interest in reporting such information.