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Asian Diet: The Beginners’ Guide to a Healthier

Asian diet - HealthCodes DNA

I have always wanted to lose extra pounds. You might have heard of the term “Asian diet,” which is popular in Western countries.

This is due to the significant number of Asians who have immigrated to Western countries and the delicious and convenient “fast cooking” ingredients and recipes developed in 1995 by Oldways as the Asian Heritage Diet Pyramid.

This was developed in conjunction with the Cornell-China-Oxford Project on Nutrition, Health and Environment and the Harvard School of Public Health. The Asian diet has been gaining recognition for the past few years. This is mainly due to its focus on healthy eating and its emphasis on community over food.

The diet revolves around satiating your hunger with protein, carbohydrates, and fats.

What is the Asian diet?

The Asian diet is a healthy and balanced way of eating linked to health and longevity. It often contrasts with the Western diet. Which is more common in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Asian diet includes foods from all five food groups — fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins (meat or beans), and dairy products. It’s often described as featuring lots of plant-based foods and seafood and includes some meat and eggs.

Moreover, this diet is a traditional way of eating which has been around for thousands of years. It’s based on the idea that food should use as medicine and fuel your body with the proper nutrients.

The Asian diet is not just one specific type of cuisine but encompasses much different food and cooking techniques. Today the term main uses describe the cuisines of Japan and China. The main components of an Asian diet are whole grains, vegetables, beans, fruits, and seafood — all foods that are rich in fiber and nutrients such as vitamins A, C, and E.

The diet also includes small amounts of lean meat and low-fat dairy products.

Is the Asian diet healthy for you?

The Asian diet is healthy, but it’s also low in fat and high in fiber, protein, and vitamins. It can also help you lose weight because it contains a lot of vegetables that are low in calories. The Asian diet is trendy in Japan, where the people eat mainly fish, vegetables, and grains. They also drink lots of green tea, which has been shown to have many health benefits. In Japan, people do not often eat red meat or dairy products. Instead, they eat a lot of fish, high in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D.

Fish gives your body the nutrients it needs to stay healthy and strong. Vegetables are also an essential part of the Asian diet because they are low in calories but high in nutrients such as vitamins A and C. Vegetables also contain fiber which helps with digestion.

Can you lose weight by eating an Asian diet?

The answer is yes, but the question is, how much can you lose?

The Asian diet is a healthy diet that is low in fat and high in protein. It is often used to manage diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other chronic illnesses. If you are overweight or obese and want to lose weight, you should consider eating Asian style diet. It’s essential to eat healthy foods that are low-calorie, high in protein, and high in fiber.

Asian-style diets are trendy among people who want to lose weight because they contain foods such as rice and fish rich in nutrients but low in calories and fat. The key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you take in. If you eat more calories than your body needs, those extra calories will be stored as fat.

But if you eat fewer calories than your body needs, the excess will be burned away as energy or excreted through urine, feces, or sweat. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who ate traditional Asian-style diets were less likely to be overweight or obese than Westernized versions of the same diet.

The Asian diet weight loss: How does it work?

The Asian diet is not just about losing weight but also about improving health and quality of life. The traditional Asian diet consists of rice, noodles, and other grains like corn, buckwheat, and millet.

These combine with fish, seafood, and poultry for protein-rich meals low in fat. The Asian diet is a healthy low-carbohydrate diet. It is based on eating various foods from all the food groups and eating according to your body’s needs (including physical activity levels). On the Asian diet, you will eat lean proteins, such as fish, chicken, and eggs, and healthy fats from foods like avocados and olives.

You will also consume lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. The Asian diet is not just a one-size-fits-all approach to nutrition. Instead, it is tailored to each individual’s lifestyle and needs — whether they are athletes, elderly or pregnant women. This allows people with different health conditions to receive the proper nutrients they need while following this healthy eating plan.

There are many different variations of the Asian diet depending on where you live in Asia or your cultural heritage, but there are some common themes among them all.

Asian diet vs. Western diet.

Eating habits are a reflection of what society values. In the West, we love choice and convenience, and as a result, our diet is composed of large amounts of meat and processed foods. In Asia, they value community and tradition, and their diet is much more vegetable-based.

Research has shown that people who follow an Asian-style diet tend to live longer than those who don’t. They also have lower rates of obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease (source)

The comparison between the Asian diet and the Western diet helps us to understand how the eating habits of Asians differ from those of the Western world. This can be useful when looking at the effects of nutrition on health.

The Asian Diet

The Asian diet is primarily based on rice and other grains, including fish, eggs, and soy products such as tofu. It’s low in fat, high in fiber, and includes significant amounts of vegetables and fruits. The traditional Asian diet has been linked to a lower risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes compared with the Western diet.

The Western Diet

In contrast to this, the Western diet is characterized by high intakes of saturated fats, refined carbohydrates (white bread), and red meats like beef cooked at high temperatures. These can increase the production of carcinogenic compounds known as heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and an abundance of processed foods like fried chips or snacks high in salt or sugar.

Asians consume more soy than Westerners do. Soy products like tofu are rich in protein and have been linked to lower rates of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, and type-2-diabetes.

Westerners consume more meat than Asians do. Meat contains high levels of saturated fat, which can increase your risk of developing heart disease or stroke. Meat also contains cholesterol which can clog arteries, increasing your risk of heart attack or stroke.

Westerners consume more processed food than Asians do. Processed food is typically high in saturated fats, trans-fats, sodium, sugar, and artificial flavors/colors/preservatives, which negatively impact your health.

The lack of fiber in most Western diets leads to constipation for many people living in Western countries.

The Asian diet pyramid

Nutritionists developed the Asian diet pyramid at the Harvard School of Public Health. It’s based on a traditional Chinese food guide, also used in Japan and Korea. The diet is mainly plant-based, with cereals and vegetables at its base. It includes small amounts of fruit and nuts, with fish and poultry and eggs for protein. The Asian diet pyramid is designed to help people avoid overeating meat, sugar, and fat while still getting enough nutrients like calcium, iron, and zinc.

Asian diets tend to be low in fat compared with western diets. But they can be high in salt if people eat many processed foods or use salt for cooking their food because it’s cheap or tasty.

What are the six levels of the Asian diet pyramid?

The six levels of the Asian diet pyramid are:

  1. Grains, cereals, and starchy foods include rice, noodles, and other grain products. They are rich in carbohydrates, which provide energy to the body.
  2. Vegetables: Vegetables should be eaten with most meals as they are full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
  3. Fruits: Fruits provide vitamin C and other essential nutrients for good health.
  4. Milk and dairy products: Dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter are good sources of protein, calcium, and vitamin D that help strengthen the bones and teeth.
  5. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs: Meat provides protein, while poultry provides iron and zinc, which helps boost immunity against infections such as colds or flu (influenza). Fish is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, which help lower cholesterol levels, while eggs contain vitamin B12, which helps prevent anemia (a blood disorder).
  6. Oils & fats: Oils such as soybean oil can be used to cook at high temperatures without changing the nutritional value of food compared to saturated fats like butter or lard, which may increase low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

What kind of food does the Asian diet consist of?

Asian diet consists of more than just rice and noodles. There are over 4,000 types of rice alone! And that’s just one grain. With so many varieties of food available in Asia, it can be tough to decide what kind to eat.

So, what kinds of food do the Asian diet consist of? Here are some examples:

Rice

Rice is the staple food in many parts of Asia and is eaten with every meal. There are many types of rice, including white, brown, red, and black, and some varieties even have a purple color due to anthocyanins (a type of flavonoid).

Noodles

Noodles can be made from wheat or rice flour and come in different shapes, sizes and flavors depending on the ingredients used (such as egg or seaweed) and how they’re cooked. Some varieties include udon noodles (thick wheat flour noodles), soba noodles (thin buckwheat noodles), ramen noodles (thick wheat flour noodles), and vermicelli (skinny rice flour noodles).

Fish/seafood

Fish is a top-rated source of protein in many parts of Asia — especially tuna, salmon, cod, and snapper — because they’re very rich in Omega-3.

Fish and seafood are essential parts of the diet because they provide many nutrients that are difficult to get from other sources. These include iron, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids (which can help lower blood cholesterol levels).

Fruits

Fruits are eaten fresh or dried as snacks or desserts after meals. Fresh fruits include apples, pears, peaches, and oranges; dried fruits include dates, raisins, and apricots; canned fruits have pineapple chunks or fruit cocktails.

Vegetable

Vegetables are another vital part of an Asian diet because they contain many vitamins and minerals, which promote good health. Fruit is also eaten but less frequently due to its higher price and not being as very filling as other foods such as rice or noodles.

9 Benefits of the Asian diet.

  1. Weight loss: A study published in the American College of Nutrition Journal showed that people who followed an Asian diet lost more weight than those who followed a low-fat diet.
  2. Heart health: A study from the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that people who ate an Asian-style diet were less likely to develop heart disease or type 2 diabetes than Western-style foods.
  3. Better blood pressure: A study from the Journal of Human Hypertension found that people who followed an Asian-style diet had lower blood pressure than those who ate Western foods.
  4. Low fat: A diet rich in fruits and vegetables is lower in fat than the Western diet. The Asian diet has less than one-third of saturated fat compared with the average American diet.
  5. High fiber: Foods such as whole grains are high in fiber which aids digestion and helps prevent constipation.
  6. This high potassium: Potassium helps balance sodium levels in the body, preventing high blood pressure and other heart conditions.
  7. High calcium: Calcium builds strong bones and teeth, which help prevent osteoporosis later in life.
  8. People who follow an Asian diet are less likely to develop heart disease or type 2 diabetes than people who eat a Western-style diet.
  9. It helps the reduced risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, stroke, and cancer.

8 Risk of the Asian diet.

1) The first disadvantage of this diet is that it does not allow for any grain consumption whatsoever. This can cause deficiencies in critical nutrients like vitamins B12 and D and calcium, iron, and zinc, essential for good health.

2) Another disadvantage is that this diet does not allow for dairy products such as cheese or milk, which may lead to vitamin D deficiency if your body cannot synthesize enough from sunlight exposure alone. This can further result in osteoporosis (weak bones) due to a lack of calcium absorption.

3) A third disadvantage of this type of diet is that it restricts eating fruits such as bananas rich in potassium which helps regulate the heart.

4) Some research suggests that people who follow the traditional Chinese diet may have high levels of homocysteine — an amino acid associated with increased heart attack risk — due to too much animal protein intake (especially red meat).

5) It can lead to problems like constipation, bloating, and diarrhea if you don’t eat enough fiber or other nutrients.

6) The diet is very restrictive, and it can be challenging to follow.

7) Many of the foods you’ll be eating are high in sodium and fat.

8) It’s not appropriate for people with certain medical conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease.

Conclusion

To uncover every piece of your Asian dietary puzzle, you need to know your DNA. Before choosing a diet plan, you should know whether your genetic lineage is to blame.

There are specific genes linked to a higher risk of kidney damage and stroke if you choose the wrong diet. A diet effective for one person may not be suitable for another. Asian people are better at metabolizing proteins than Westerners but produce less Glutathione.

HealthCodes DNA test kits can help you uncover the truth about your genetic makeup. Find out if you are genetically predisposed to gain weight quickly or have a low tolerance for fatty foods. Visit our home page today to learn more about HealthCodes DNA kits before going for the traditional Asian diet. Get a more personalized weight loss and diet plan at a discount rate.

 

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We use mobile analytics software to allow us to better understand the functionality of our Mobile Software on your phone. This software may record information such as how often you use the application, the events that occur within the application, aggregated usage, performance data, and where the application was downloaded from. We do not link the information we store within the analytics software to any personally identifiable information you submit within the mobile application.

  1. Using information with your consent

You have the choice to participate in HealthCodes DNA Research by providing your consent. “HealthCodes DNA Research” refers to research aimed at publication in peer-reviewed journals and other research funded by the federal government (such as the National Institutes of Health – NIH) conducted by HealthCodes DNA. HealthCodes DNA Research may be sponsored by, conducted on behalf of, or in collaboration with third-parties, such as non-profit foundations, academic institutions or pharmaceutical companies.  HealthCodes DNA Research may study a specific group or population, identify potential areas or targets for therapeutics development, conduct or support the development of drugs, diagnostics or devices to diagnose, predict or treat medical or other health conditions, work with public, private and/or non-profit entities on genetic research initiatives, or otherwise create, commercialize, and apply this new knowledge to improve health care. HealthCodes DNA Research uses your aggregate or individual-level Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information as specified in the Terms of Service.

Consent process for research. Your Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information may be used for HealthCodes DNA Research only if you have consented to this use by completing a Research Initiatives Consent Document. If you have completed a Research Initiatives Consent Document:

  1. Your aggregated, de-identified Genetic Information may be used for either philanthropic or commercial research purposes as set forth more fully the Research Initiatives Consent Document.
  2. When your Genetic Information and Self-Reported Informationis being used for research purposes, it will not be linked to your Registration Information.
  1. Withdrawing your Consent.You may withdraw your consent to participate in HealthCodes DNA Research Initiatives at any time by emailing us at support@healthcodesdna.com. HealthCodes DNA will not include your Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information in new research occurring after 30 days from the receipt of your request. Any research involving your data that has already been performed or published prior to our receipt of your request will not be reversed, undone, or withdrawn. If you withdraw your consent for research your Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information may still be used by us and shared with our third-party service providers to provide and improve our Services (as described in Section 4.a), and shared as Aggregate Information that does not identify you as an individual (as described in Section 4.d).
  2. What happens if you do NOT consent to HealthCodes DNA Research?If you do not complete a Research Initiatives Consent Document or any additional consent agreement with HealthCodes DNA, your information will not be used for HealthCodes DNA Research Initiatives and you will not be able to use HealthCodes DNA Services.
  1. Recruiting for external research

Academic institutions, healthcare organizations, and other groups are always conducting interesting new research projects. We want to make you aware of these opportunities. While we do not share individual-level Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information with third-parties without your consent, from time to time we may inform you of third-party research opportunities for which you may be eligible. For example, if a university tells us about a new cancer research project, we may send an email to HealthCodes DNA members who potentially fit the relevant eligibility criteria based on their Self-Reported Information to make them aware of the research project and provide a link to participate with the research organization conducting the study.

  1. Information we share with third-parties
  • . General service providers.We share the information described above in Section 3 with our service providers, as necessary to provide their services to us. Service providers are third-parties (other companies or individuals) that help us to provide, analyze and improve our Services. For example, we work with third-party laboratories and contractors to process and analyze your saliva sample for purposes of generating your Genetic Information

NOTE: Our service providers act on HealthCodes DNA’s behalf. While we implement procedures and contractual terms to protect the confidentiality and security of your information, we cannot guarantee the confidentiality and security of your information due to the inherent risks associated with storing and transmitting data electronically.

When you purchase a testing kit and report from HealthCodes DNA, you are instructed to send a saliva sample to our third-party laboratory with a unique barcode label. The unique barcode identifies you to us but not to the laboratory. We may also be required to provide to the laboratory, your sex and date of birth or age pursuant to clinical laboratory requirements such as the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). No other Registration Information such as your name, address, email, phone number or other contact information) is required or provided to the laboratory. The receiving personnel at the laboratory will remove and discard your “sender information” from the packaging (e.g., name, address) before testing personnel receive the samples for processing. Receiving personnel do not perform testing, and testing personnel handle saliva samples that are labeled only with the unique barcode. DNA and saliva samples are destroyed after the laboratory completes its work, provided that laboratory legal and regulatory requirements no longer require the actual samples to be maintained. A de-identified copy of genotyping data may be kept in accordance with CLIA. The laboratory securely sends the resulting Genetic Information to our third party reporting company along with your unique barcode. Genetic Information is stored securely on our servers; the laboratory also stores your Genetic Information, but again, labeled only with the barcode.

  • “Targeted advertising” service providers.We may permit third-party advertising networks and providers to collect Web Behavior Information on our Service to help us to deliver targeted online advertisements (“ads”) to you. They use cookies and similar technologies (such as JavaScript, beacons, device identifiers, location data, and clear gifs) to compile information about your browser’s or device’s visits and usage patterns on our Services and on other websites over time, which helps to better personalize ads to match your interests, and to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may be able to opt-out of many advertising networks by visiting here and here (if you are located in Canada, click here; or if you are located in the European Union click here). Please note this does not mean that you have opted-out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.

  • Aggregate information.We may share aggregate information with third-parties, which is any information that has been stripped of your Registration (e.g., your name and contact information) and aggregated with information of others so that you cannot reasonably be identified as an individual (“Aggregate Information”). This Aggregate Information is different from “individual-level” information. Individual-level Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information of data about a single individual’s genotypes, diseases or other traits/characteristics information. For example, Aggregate Information may include a statement that “30% of our female users share a particular genetic trait,” without providing any data or testing results specific to any individual user. We may provide such Aggregate Information in commercial arrangements with our business partners. In contrast, individual-level Genetic Information could reveal whether a specific user has a particular genetic trait, or all of the Genetic Information about that user. HealthCodes DNA will ask for your consent to share individual-level Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information with any third-party, other than our service providers as necessary for us to provide the Services to you.
  • Information we share with commonly owned entities.We may share some or all of your information with other companies under common ownership or control of HealthCodes DNA, which may include our subsidiaries, our corporate parent, or any other subsidiaries owned by our corporate parent in order to provide you better service and improve user experience. We may provide additional notice and ask for your consent if we wish to share your information with our commonly owned entities in a materially different way than discussed in this Privacy Statement.
  1. Disclosures required by law

Under certain circumstances your information may be subject to disclosure pursuant to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, or orders, or in coordination with regulatory authorities, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. HealthCodes DNA will preserve and disclose any and all information to law enforcement agencies or others if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal or regulatory process (such as a judicial proceeding, court order, or government inquiry) or obligations that HealthCodes DNA may owe pursuant to ethical and other professional rules, laws, and regulations; (b) enforce the HealthCodes DNA Terms of Service and other policies; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of HealthCodes DNA, its employees, its users, its clients, and the public.

NOTE: If you are participating in HealthCodes DNA Research, HealthCodes DNA will withhold disclosure of your personal information involved in such research in response to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants or orders in accordance with any applicable Certificate of Confidentiality that HealthCodes DNA and/or any of its third party providers has obtained from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are limits to what the Certificate of Confidentiality covers so please visit the Certificates of Confidentiality Kiosk ( https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/coc/index.htm).

  1. Your choices
  2. Access to your account

If your Registration Information changes, you may access, correct or update most of it from your Account page. You may also modify and delete certain of your information. Please note that you may not be able to delete User Content that has been shared with others through the Service and that you may not be able to delete information that has been shared with third-parties, though we can work with you to prohibit your data from being shared with third-parties in the future. We will respond to your request to access within 30 days.

  1. Marketing communications

By registering for an account, you are agreeing that we may send you promotional emails about our Services. You can opt-out of such emails by clicking the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of any of our or third-party promotional email communications. Please note that you may not opt-out of receiving non-promotional messages regarding your account, such as technical notices, purchase confirmations, or Service-related emails.

  1. Information you choose to share with others

You may decide to disclose your personal information to friends and/or family members, doctors or other health care professionals, and/or other individuals outside of our Services, including through third-party services such as social networks and third-party apps that connect to our website and mobile apps through our application programming interface (“API”). These third-parties may use your personal information differently than we do under this Privacy Statement. Please make such choices carefully and review the privacy policies of all other third-parties involved in the transaction. For example, if you have enabled a HealthCodes DNA sharing feature with another person who downloads a third-party app that uses our API, your information may also be obtained by that third-party app developer and, potentially, by other users of that third-party app.

In general, personal information, once shared or disclosed, can be difficult to contain or retrieve. HealthCodes DNA will have no responsibility or liability for any consequences that may result because you have released or shared personal information with others.

  1. Account closure

If you no longer wish to participate in our Services or no longer wish to have your personal information be used, you may close your account by sending a request to support@healthcodesdna.com. When closing an account, we remove all Genetic Information within your account (or profile) within thirty (30) days of our receipt of your request. As stated in any applicable Consent Document, however, Genetic Information and/or Self-Reported Information that you have previously provided and for which you have given consent to use in HealthCodes DNA Research cannot be removed from ongoing or completed studies that use the information. Our contracted genotyping laboratory may also retain your Genetic Information as required by local law and we may retain backup copies for a limited period of time pursuant to our data protection policies. In addition, we retain limited Registration Information related to your order history (e.g., name, contact, and transaction data) as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, as well as for accounting, audit and compliance purposes.

  1. Important Information
  2. Security measures

HealthCodes DNA takes seriously the trust you place in us. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, to maintain data accuracy, and to ensure the appropriate use of information, HealthCodes DNA uses a range of physical, technical, and administrative measures to safeguard your Personal Information. In particular, all connections to and from our website and mobile application are encrypted using Extended Validation Secure Socket Layer (EV SSL) technology.

Please recognize that protecting your Personal Information is also your responsibility. We ask you to be responsible for safeguarding your password, secret questions and answers, and other authentication information you use to access our Services. You should not disclose your authentication information to any third-party and should immediately notify HealthCodes DNA of any unauthorized use of your password. HealthCodes DNA cannot secure Personal Information that you release on your own or that you request us to release.

Your information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which HealthCodes DNA or its subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities and, therefore, your information may be subject to the laws of those other jurisdictions which may be different from the laws of your country of residence.

  1. Business transactions

In the event that HealthCodes DNA goes through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your information will likely be among the assets transferred. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Statement.

  1. Linked websites

HealthCodes DNA provides links to third-party websites operated by organizations not affiliated with HealthCodes DNA. HealthCodes DNA does not disclose your information to organizations operating such linked third-party websites. HealthCodes DNA does not review or endorse, and is not responsible for, the privacy practices of these organizations. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that you visit. This Privacy Statement applies solely to information collected by HealthCodes DNA.

  1. Children’s privacy

HealthCodes DNA is committed to protecting the privacy of children as well as adults. Neither HealthCodes DNA nor any of its Services are designed for, intended to attract, or directed toward children under the age of 18. A parent or guardian, however, may collect a saliva sample from, create an account for, and provide information related to, his or her child. The parent or guardian assumes full responsibility for ensuring that the information that he/she provides to HealthCodes DNA about his or her child is kept secure and that the information submitted is accurate.

  1. Changes to this Privacy Statement

Whenever this Privacy Statement is changed in a material way, a notice will be posted as part of this Privacy Statement and on our customers’ account login pages for 30 days. After 30 days the changes will become effective. In addition, all customers will receive an email with notification of the changes prior to the change becoming effective.

  1. Contact Information

If you have questions about this Privacy Statement, please email HealthCodes DNA at info@HealthCodesDNA.com.