Anyone with a Korean diet?

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MinyMinnie
MinyMinnie Posts: 68
in Food and Nutrition
When I mean diet, I don't mean "dieting" as in the fad diets but diets as in eating Korean food daily.
I am Korean but have no idea what "healthy" Korean food is. I can kind of assume which ones are healthy but would love some healthy Korean dishes people have been regularly eating while trying to lose weight!

Thanks! :)

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  • CaptainTurbotastic
    CaptainTurbotastic Posts: 1 Member
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    I'm living in Korea and eating mostly Korean food too - I'd love an answer to this one! I'm not fluent in the language, so I usually don't even know how to ask what is in things or how it was made. Like you, I make some assumptions, but with some of the soups and other dishes it is really hard to tell. Hopefully some others will chime in! ^^
  • kylemallard1
    kylemallard1 Posts: 1
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    I live in Korea, and dieting here on korean food and kimbap shops is super hard. Soups are always ultra salty, rice is super high in empty carbs and high in calories. For healthy stuff, I'd say go heavy on BBQ (unmarinated pork and beef, no samgipsal!) and lots of fish. For veggies, noodle-based bibimbap isn't to bad, but again, carbs... Kimchi is, as always, a magical wonder food and should be eaten constantly. Yogurt is also good. Shabu Shabu is good too.

    It's honestly amazing to me how skinny the korean population is considering how unhealthy most of the available food options are.
  • californiabella
    californiabella Posts: 152
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    I agree with the kimchi-- a big giant salad of amazing. I do not eat a korean diet but I love me some Korean cuisine. :blushing:
  • californiabella
    californiabella Posts: 152
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    It's honestly amazing to me how skinny the korean population is considering how unhealthy most of the available food options are.

    one of my closest friends is Korean and manages to stay rather fit despite eating all kinds of Korean foods! she won't eat anything else. she does say moderation is key which many would probably agree. :) personally, I'd have issues with moderation if I ate it every day.
  • littlebylittlebylittle
    littlebylittlebylittle Posts: 4 Member
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    One of my favorite foods to eat in Korea is dubu jeonggol - easy to make if the ingredients just include some tofu, mushrooms, onion and kimchi - very low fat! Just eat it with little rice if possible, or switch out boribap for regular rice.
  • MinyMinnie
    MinyMinnie Posts: 68
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    I live in Korea, and dieting here on korean food and kimbap shops is super hard. Soups are always ultra salty, rice is super high in empty carbs and high in calories. For healthy stuff, I'd say go heavy on BBQ (unmarinated pork and beef, no samgipsal!) and lots of fish. For veggies, noodle-based bibimbap isn't to bad, but again, carbs... Kimchi is, as always, a magical wonder food and should be eaten constantly. Yogurt is also good. Shabu Shabu is good too.

    It's honestly amazing to me how skinny the korean population is considering how unhealthy most of the available food options are.
    I loveeee samgisal. I know I should stay away from it right now. Kekeke :P
    I love rice and noodles, what do people eat in place of that? Or a healthier option.
    Kimchi won't be a problem... C:
  • Heatherybit
    Heatherybit Posts: 91 Member
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    I don't know what a healthy Korean cuisine would be, but I do know when I lived with my parents who, 90% of the time ate traditional Korean food, I was 107lbs at 5'6 and trying to gain weight. Once I moved out went to college then moved to NY I gained tons of weight. TONS.

    I know that when my mother presents meals it's tons of vegetable banchan (15 or so side dishes), at least one soup, fish, some other type of protein, lettuce to wrap things, or toasted sesame seaweed, and a small bowl of rice. And I ate! I mean stuffing my face type of eating, but didn't have problems staying thin. Both my parents are thin on this lifetime "diet".
  • MinyMinnie
    MinyMinnie Posts: 68
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    I don't know what a healthy Korean cuisine would be, but I do know when I lived with my parents who, 90% of the time ate traditional Korean food, I was 107lbs at 5'6 and trying to gain weight. Once I moved out went to college then moved to NY I gained tons of weight. TONS.

    I know that when my mother presents meals it's tons of vegetable banchan (15 or so side dishes), at least one soup, fish, some other type of protein, lettuce to wrap things, or toasted sesame seaweed, and a small bowl of rice. And I ate! I mean stuffing my face type of eating, but didn't have problems staying thin. Both my parents are thin on this lifetime "diet".
    This helps alot! Do you know what kind of soup and banchan? Also what kind of fish? I'm planning to do something like this for Summer.
  • Heatherybit
    Heatherybit Posts: 91 Member
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    Here's a link to the types of banchan and soups my mother makes. http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2007/04/23/pulhyanggi-cuisine-of-the-imperial-court-part-2.aspx

    You can look up Korean Royal Banchan or Imperial Court Banchan to look for recipes. As long as you stay away from the "fried" banchan versions, most are quite healthy.

    As for fish, she would steam them in perilla leaves, or quick pan fry in sesame seed oil, or like monk fish in soups. Many of the soups being hot pepper base. She would make tons of things that were not wheat based flours, like with acorn flour, or chestnuts, and the like. Oh yes, sprouts. I truly believe my mother is a legend when working with sprouts from mung bean to alfalfa.
  • transientcanuck
    transientcanuck Posts: 82 Member
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    I lived in Korea for two years and ate like the locals most of the time. Once in a while I would binge on Western food, but 80% of the time I was eating fish, kimchi, tofu, soups, and other types of banchan (other side dishes). I would limit my rice intake and eat the BBQ'd meats sparingly. Overall, I would say that the Korea diet is very effective in helping one lose weight. I experienced my biggest weight loss success while living in Korea.

    Once I moved back to Canada and began eating cheese, breads and pasta, the weight piled back on like crazy. However, now that I'm back on track I still try to add a few Korean touches to my diet. My favourites include:

    -Kimchi Jjiggae (stew) with tuna or tofu
    -Bibimbap, although I add brown rice instead of the traditional white rice
    -Galbi (BBQ'd beef) eaten with soy bean paste and roasted garlic in a lettuce-leaf wrap
    -Gamjatang (pork bone stew with veggies)

    When it comes to eating out, I always vouch to go to a Korean restaurant. It's so much easier to make healthy choices that way.

    I'd say the worst things to eat are:

    -Tteok (rice cake)
    -White rice
    -Kimbap (because of the white rice, one roll can be over 500 calories)
    -Samgyupsal (only eat in small amounts)
    -Ramyeon
    -Jjcjangmyeon (black bean noodles. One bowl of these is 900 calories)
    -
  • transientcanuck
    transientcanuck Posts: 82 Member
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    Here's a link to the types of banchan and soups my mother makes. http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2007/04/23/pulhyanggi-cuisine-of-the-imperial-court-part-2.aspx

    You can look up Korean Royal Banchan or Imperial Court Banchan to look for recipes. As long as you stay away from the "fried" banchan versions, most are quite healthy.

    As for fish, she would steam them in perilla leaves, or quick pan fry in sesame seed oil, or like monk fish in soups. Many of the soups being hot pepper base. She would make tons of things that were not wheat based flours, like with acorn flour, or chestnuts, and the like. Oh yes, sprouts. I truly believe my mother is a legend when working with sprouts from mung bean to alfalfa.

    Mung bean sprouts are my absolute favourite. It would always be the first plate of banchan to be emptied.
  • Heatherybit
    Heatherybit Posts: 91 Member
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    [/quote]

    Mung bean sprouts are my absolute favourite. It would always be the first plate of banchan to be emptied.
    [/quote]

    Same here. And I never felt guilty when everyone looked suspiciously at me when the little bowl was empty first.
  • KimchiKiller
    KimchiKiller Posts: 36 Member
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    This post has helped me so much because I am half Korean and LOVE every single bit of Korean food that exists. But since I've started counting my calories and eating healthier foods, I've been scared to eat anything Korean because I don't know how to log it correctly. And I wrongly assumed it would be very high in calories, but now I see I can switch to brown rice and eat all sorts of yummy banchan, and just not gorge myself on daeji bulgogi (spicy pork meat) which is my absolute favorite!

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