A New Leaf
BEIJING -- The pungent scent of oil and meat characterizes most restaurants in China. But not so at Pure Lotus: a light smell of incense, slowly burning next to a set of prayer wheels, wafts through a dining room that has the look and feel of a darkened temple.
Presenting ascetic vegetarian cuisine in a stylish setting, Pure Lotus has been successful in courting Chinese consumers who have only recently started becoming aware of health and nutrition. The restaurant opened a second branch in Beijing late last year and often is filled to capacity in the evenings.
'Shark slice' at Pure Lotus features tofu seasoned with black pepper.
What's putting leaner cuisine on more tables in China is a combination of demand from a burgeoning middle class, and concern that the country, whose history is dotted with famine, is poised to join the global obesity epidemic. As part of a national consciousness-raising effort, the government came out with a so-called food pagoda of national dietary guidelines in 2000. And authorities now are considering a nationwide regulation that would require some restaurants to employ a dedicated nutritionist.
A newfound interest in traditional religions like Buddhism and Taoism also is helping to change eating habits by encouraging diners toward vegetables and away from meat.
Still, there is "a big gap between what people know about (nutrition) and what they should know," says Yu Kang, a nutritionist at the Beijing Xiehe Hospital and author of a series of books on Chinese nutrition.
Among other things, many Chinese rely on folklore instead of science to define what's good for them to eat -- like the idea that eating fish head renews brain cells, while fish eyes make the eater's eyes shinier.
The trend toward healthier eating comes as Western-style fast food eateries continue to proliferate in China. Fried chicken specialist KFC, a unit of Yum Brands Inc. of the U.S., helped pioneer the fast-food craze in China nearly 20 years ago. Today, the chain has more than 1,500 outlets in more than 350 cities across the country. Its sister company, Pizza Hut, meantime, entered the fray in 1990 and now has 200 restaurants in 55 cities. McDonald's plans to have 1,000 outlets open by the time of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, up from 750 currently.
It's no wonder authorities are worried about the national diet. The World Health Organization recently said that its previous projections on the number of diabetes patients in China -- which forecast a doubling to 40 million people between 2000 and 2030 -- are too conservative. The WHO now predicts "substantially higher" numbers, but won't be more specific until a new study is published later this year. And according to a study published last year in the British medical journal The Lancet, out of China's 1.3 billion citizens, 18 million are obese and 137 million are overweight.
While the relative proportion of sufferers still is small, statistics compiled by the International Association for the Study of Obesity underscore the urgency: The incidence of overweight adults in China's urban centers climbed 39% between 1992 and 2004, while obesity rates jumped 97%.
'Rising incomes have given us the possibility to think about our health,' says Fu Chang, manager of Dengpin Vegetarian Restaurant.
The government is trying to curb the problem. In 2000, the Ministry of Health began publicizing a food pagoda, China's answer to America's food pyramid. The daily guidelines, similar to those in the U.S. encouraging a balanced diet rich in fruit and vegetables, are distributed in information pamphlets in neighborhoods across China and taught in schools. State-controlled media also have pushed for an end to excessive eating with reports promoting the use of doggie bags at restaurants and extolling the health benefits of less popular -- but healthier -- grains such as millet and buckwheat. (Fast-food companies McDonald's and KFC also provide nutritional information on their meals.)
The overall "eat smarter" message, though, is fighting against long held cultural practices. "In China, people eat gigantic meals to show how rich they are," says Dai Qing, an environmentalist best known for her opposition to the Three Gorges Dam. She recently switched to an all-veggie diet.
And contrary to popular belief in the West that Chinese food is healthier than some cuisines, the typical restaurant in China tends to be heavy on oil, salt, sugar and flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate to attract consumers more focused on taste than health.
Riding the wave
The Chinese Nutrition Society, a group of professionals, has been pushing authorities since early 2004 to impose rules that promote healthier eating. The draft regulation, which would, among other things, require restaurants with 300 seats or more to employ a full-time nutritionist, has been wending its way through the legal bureaucracy. According to the nutrition society, China currently has fewer than 3,000 trained nutritionists; it's unclear how many would be needed to fulfill the proposed restaurant requirement.
The nation's food purveyors aren't wasting time cashing in on this health wave. Take, for instance, Lihua, the biggest meal delivery service in Beijing -- with 40,000 orders daily -- which has an on-staff nutritionist who analyzes the health content of each item on the menu. Lihua's customers, who are mostly white-collar workers, "don't have time to cook at home and so they are in the habit of eating unhealthy restaurant food," says Liu Cunyi, who is also a member of the Chinese Nutrition Society.
Ms. Liu makes sure that each meal contains less than 10 grams of oil -- 30% or less of the total calorie intake -- and no more than 35 grams of protein. She also limits the amount of deep-fried foods that appear in each meal and insists that chefs eschew the commonly used peanut oil for healthier canola oil.
Even some of Beijing's street-food hawkers are catching the wave. A chain of street stalls in Beijing, called Xiao Yan Jianbing, sells jianbing. The city's most common street food, jianbing is a crispy crepe-style pastry filled with onions, cilantro and chili sauce. Some of the chain's crepes are made with buckwheat, which owner Yan Lichao maintains is healthier than processed white flour. "Eating until we were full used to be our only concern," says Mr. Yan, who opened the first of his seven stalls in 1999. "Now eating well is our only concern."
Vegetarianism has long been associated with a healthy diet, and it's now back in vogue in China. The country has had a history of vegetarianism stretching back to the Han Dynasty, says Wang Yi, a member of the Chinese Culinary Association and a nutritionist at the Guanganmen Hospital in Beijing. But economic reforms of the 1980s -- which came after strong attacks on Buddhist traditions during China's Cultural Revolution that began in 1966 and upended the society for a decade -- brought a heavier focus on meat. Affording meat was viewed as a symbol of prosperity, and that sentiment only began to wane when people became more health conscious. Beijing, for instance, now boasts more than two dozen vegetarian restaurants, compared with virtually none a decade ago.
Among them is Dengpin Vegetarian Restaurant. Manager Fu Chang estimates that 10% of his customers are strict vegetarians; the rest are carnivores. For many diners, it's their first time in a restaurant that doesn't serve meat. "A lot of people are surprised by the variety we offer," says Mr. Fu. "They think vegetarian food is just lettuce and radishes."
Pure Lotus eschews meat in all its dishes: Deep-fried vegetables resemble fish strips in this spicy green bean offering.
In meat-obsessed China, it wouldn't be possible for Dengpin, which opened in Beijing last year and operates four other restaurants scattered across China, to have succeeded 10 years ago, says Mr. Fu. "Rising incomes have given us the possibility to think about our health."
Mr. Fu says that he used to love eating meat. But he gave it up seven years ago when he helped launch Dengpin's first vegetarian restaurant, in Shenzhen. It took him six months to wean himself off meat. "From childhood, we have learned that eating meat is the most nutritious thing. It's part of the identity of most Chinese."
Banquet blues
Ma Shaohong, 45, a frequent diner at Dengpin, says that because she grew up in an affluent family, she ate meat at least twice a day. But when her weight rose to 65 kilograms on her 1.65-meter frame, she decided in 2003 to change her diet and to take up yoga. She lost about 10 kilograms in about two months and mostly has kept the weight off. Chinese banquets, though, present a problem. When she has to attend one, Ms. Ma picks the vegetables out of dishes with meat. "My co-workers often ask me, 'Why do you want to suffer?'" by not eating meat. But, she adds, "I've had enough shark's fin and abalone to last an entire lifetime."
Restaurants that sell culiang, or grains, stir-fried with meats and other ingredients, also have popped up in cities around China. Previously unfashionable but healthy old staples like barley, buckwheat, corn and oats have become trendy.
Cu Liang Guan, a restaurant in Beijing's Haidian university district that is decorated like a country peasant house, serves chewy eggplant-filled dumplings with buckwheat skins and barley stir-fried with chili peppers and beef. It uses grains in ways that weren't possible decades ago. "These are truly organic products, these grains that we used to eat when there wasn't anything else to eat," says owner Ma Chaowei.
Pure Lotus, owned by a Buddhist practitioner and managed by a monk, both of whom shun publicity, first opened in 1999 in Wutaishan in Shanxi province, one of China's five holy Buddhist mountains. Seeking a larger customer base, the monk moved his eatery to Beijing four years ago and found a loyal following in the capital with dishes that have names like "I Shall Absorb Whatever Comes My Way Eggplant" and a carrot juice called "Clean Inner Environment."
At Pure Lotus, chefs prepare 80% of the restaurant's dishes with olive oil, shunning traditional ingredients such as lard, which contains saturated fats that contribute to heart disease. Each dish conforms to strict Buddhist vegetarian standards and doesn't contain MSG or chicken bouillon. Other items banned from the wok include onion, garlic, and jiucai, a pungent Chinese vegetable, all of which strict Buddhists aren't allowed to eat because these strong flavors are believed -- in Buddhist thought -- to create desire.
"Buddhists are talking about changing their policies and allowing onion and garlic," says Zhang Gelong, the manager of Pure Lotus. "But until they officially allow it, we won't be serving it."
中国饮食走向清淡风格
一提起中国餐馆，人们最先想到的恐怕就是刺鼻的油烟味和五花八门的肉食了。但净心莲(Pure Lotus)却是另一番景象：转经筒旁悠悠地薰著一枝香，淡雅的味道弥漫了整个餐厅。乍一看，这里就像是一座光线幽暗的寺庙。
雅致的氛围配上清新的斋饭使净心莲成功地赢得了中国食客的喝彩。去年下半年这家餐馆在北京开了第二家分店，差不多每个晚上都会客满为患。
什么原因使清淡素雅的饮食逐步走上了中国的餐桌呢？除了日渐壮大的中产阶级的需求之外，中国这个历史上屡有饥荒的国家开始步入全球肥胖担忧的行列也是原因之一。中国消费者近几年来才逐渐意识到健康和营养的重要性。为了进一步提高全民健康饮食意识，中国政府在2000年公布了全国饮食指导──所谓的平衡饮食宝塔。目前监管机构正在考虑制定一套全国性的法规，要求部分餐馆雇佣专职营养师。
另外，对佛教和道教等传统宗教的兴趣重新升温也促使人们改变饮食习惯。这些宗教鼓励人们多吃素食，远离肉食。
不过，北京协和医院营养师于康说：“人们了解的营养知识与应该具备的营养知识仍然存在很大差距。”他撰写过一系列关于中国营养问题的丛书。
在吃什么对身体有益等问题上，很多中国人遵从民间习俗，而不是依靠科学知识。比如人们相信吃鱼脑可以补脑，吃鱼眼睛可以明目等。
健康饮食潮流兴起的同时，西式快餐也在中国蓬勃发展。美国百胜餐饮集团(Yum Brands Inc.)的子公司炸鸡专家肯德基(KFC)大约20年前在中国开创了快餐热潮的先河。现在已在中国350个城市开设了1,500多家分店。它的姐妹公司必胜客(Pizza Hut)1990年进入这个竞争激烈的市场，目前已经在55个城市开设了200多家分店。此外，竞争对手麦当劳(McDonald)计划2008年北京夏季奥运会之前将分店的数量从现在的750家增至1,000家。
中国政府对国民饮食习惯的担忧并不让人感到意外。世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)曾预测中国糖尿病患者在2000年-2030年之间将增长一倍，至4,000万人。但最近该组织称，这项预测太保守，从现在的情况看这个数字将有大幅增长。但在下半年发表新的研究报告之前不会得出更加具体的数据。去年发表在英国医学期刊《柳叶刀》(Lancet)上的一篇报告称，中国的13亿人口中，1,800万人身体肥胖，1.37亿人超重。
尽管肥胖症患者的比例相对较小，但国际肥胖研究协会(International Association for the Study of Obesity)编制的统计数据凸现出这个问题的紧迫性：中国城市成年人超重的比例在1992年-2004年之间猛增39%，而肥胖人口比例激增幅度高达97%。
中国政府一直努力控制这种情况的发展。卫生部于2000年开始发布膳食宝塔，与美国的饮食结构金字塔类似，推广富含水果和蔬菜的均衡饮食。这套膳食指南被印成小册子发放到中国各地的社区，学校里也向学生们传授相关知识。国家主流媒体通过各种报道敦促人们不要暴饮暴食，鼓励大家将餐后剩余食品打包，并广泛宣传不太受欢迎但更有益于健康的谷物对人体的种种益处，例如小米和荞麦等。麦当劳和肯德基等快餐公司也开始公布各自食品的营养信息。
然而，“健康饮食”观念和传统的中国习俗仍有抵触。以反对三峡大坝工程而闻名的环境保护者戴晴说：中国人喜欢用吃大餐来表示自己很富有。她最近改吃素食。
西方国家普遍认为中国的饮食比其他国家更加健康，但中国餐馆里的情况恰好相反：典型的菜式往往重油、重盐、重糖，还会用大量味精提味，来吸引那些重视美味胜过健康的食客。
中国营养学会(Chinese Nutrition Society)自2004年早期就开始推动监管机构制定推广健康饮食的法规。法规草案正在经过各级机构的审批，其中规定了300座以上的餐馆必须雇佣一位全职营养师。营养学会称，中国受过专业培训的营养师不足3,000人。如果餐馆执行这条规定，营养师的缺口将有多大这个问题尚不清楚。
中国的餐饮业经营者没有浪费时间，紧紧抓住了这个健康浪潮中的赚钱机会。北京最大的送餐公司、每日预订量达40,000份的丽华就有一位在职营养师刘存英。她是中国营养学会的会员，负责分析丽华送餐单上每道菜的营养成分。她说，丽华的客户主要是白领，“他们没有时间在家做饭，所以养成了吃不健康的餐馆食物的习惯。”
刘女士要确保每份套餐中含油量不超过10克（占全部卡路里摄入量的30%以下），蛋白质的含量不超过35克。同时，她还要限制每份套餐中的油炸食品数量，并坚持让厨师将广为使用的花生油换成更加健康的菜籽油。
北京街头的小吃商贩也赶上了健康饮食的潮流。煎饼是北京最常见的一种街头小吃。它是一种很脆的薄荷饼，里面包著洋葱、芫荽以及辣椒调味酱。严利超（音）于1999年在北京开设了第一家小严煎饼(Xiao Yan jian bing)，现在已经开了7家连锁店。其中几个分店用荞麦面来作煎饼，因为严利超认为荞麦比加工过的白面对健康更加有益。他说，“以前我们只关注怎么能吃饱，而现在我们只关注怎么能吃好。”
长久以来，素食主义就和健康饮食紧密相连。现在素食主义又在中国成为一种时尚。中国烹饪协会(Chinese Culinary Association)成员、北京广安门医院营养师王宜说，中国素食历史可以追溯到汉朝。但是1966年开始的文化大革命对很多佛教传统进行了大肆抨击，之后80年代的经济改革又使人们更加重视肉食。当时能买得起肉被看作是一种财富的象征。直到后来人们更加重视健康时，这种特殊情怀才逐渐淡化。十几年前北京几乎没有素食餐馆，而现在已有20多家了。
登品素食府(Dengpin Vegetarian Restaurant)就是其中的一家。经理傅昌估计，餐馆10%的顾客是严格的素食者，其他顾客不是。对于很多食客来说，这是他们平生第一次在一个不提供荤菜的餐馆里进餐。傅昌说：“很多人对餐馆能提供花样繁多的素菜感到惊奇。在他们的观念里，素食里只有生菜和萝卜。”
傅昌说，要是10年前，登品素食府根本不可能在无肉不欢的中国取得成功。但现在除了去年刚在北京开设了一家分店外，它还在其他城市开设了另外四家店。傅昌说，收入不断增长使中国人开始更关注自己的健康。他说，自己以前很爱吃肉。但是七年前在深圳筹备登品第一家素食餐馆的时候开始戒肉，但真正戒掉用了整整半年时间。“从小我们就知道肉是最有营养的。绝大多数中国人都这么认为。”
经常在登品素食府就餐的45岁的马少红（音）说，她从小家庭富裕，每天至少吃两顿肉。但是2003年，1.65米的她长到了65公斤，于是决定改变饮食习惯并开始练习瑜伽。她在大约两个月的时间内，体重下降了10公斤，而且基本没有再增重。但是中式大餐对她来说仍然是个问题。这时候，她会将肉菜中的蔬菜挑出来食用。她说：“同事们总是问我，不吃肉‘这是何苦呢？’”。但她说，“ 鱼翅和鲍鱼我已经吃够了。”
提供粗粮菜肴的餐馆在中国的各个城市不断涌现。以前不流行却有益健康的主食原料如大麦、荞麦、玉米以及燕麦等又重新开始流行。
北京海淀区的一家餐馆──粗粮馆被装修成了农舍的样子，那里有荞麦皮儿茄子馅儿的饺子，还有大麦辣椒炒牛肉。很多粗粮的做法是十几年前根本不可能的。店主马超伟（音）说：“这些都是真正的有机产品，以前都是没的可吃了才吃。”
净心莲的主人是一位居士，管理者是一位和尚。他们两人都非常低调。净心莲的第一家店诞生于1999年山西省五台山。五台山是中国五大佛教名山之一。四年前为了扩大顾客群，这位和尚将餐馆开到了北京，他推出的一系列素食和饮品都有一个富含佛教禅理的名字，吸引了大批忠实的追随者。
净心莲80%的菜肴都是用橄榄油烹制的，厨师不用传统的猪油，猪油里的饱和脂肪可能导致心脏病。这里的每道菜肴都严格遵守佛教素斋标准，不含味精或鸡精。其他禁止用于烹饪的还有洋葱、大蒜以及一种气味辛辣的中国蔬菜──韭菜。因为佛教理念认为，这些口味强烈的食品会让人产生欲望。
净心莲的经理张葛龙（音）说，佛教界正在讨论改变一些条例，允许吃洋葱和大蒜。但在正式许可之前，净心莲不会做的。
