"Chinese food" is a fairly useless term when talking about health, since the food is very different in different areas. There was an article that was featured recently on Fox and MSNBC that rightly singled out fried, breaded dishes like General Tsao's Chicken as unhealthy, but on the whole, dishes with lots of veggies and seafood (other meats are expensive in China) are far more healthy than our diet.

Even with all the MSG and soy sauce used? Most reports I've seen list them as not really healthy because of the high sodium content. Don't get me wrong I love good Chinese food. Haven't had any since my favorite spot closed a few years back.

[GeneV]

Even with all the MSG and soy sauce used? Most reports I've seen list them as not really healthy because of the high sodium content.

You don't have to put either of those in there. More and more Chinese restaurants and cookes use no MSG and low-sodium soy sauce. Not every dish has soy sauce anyway.

You don't have to put either of those in there. More and more Chinese restaurants and cooks use no MSG and low-sodium soy sauce. Not every dish has soy sauce anyway.

Chinese food in general is high sodium. There are a couple of the other sauces which are still soy based and are high in sodium yet the names of them don't clue you in.

[GeneV]

Chinese food in general is high sodium. There are a couple of the other sauces which are still soy based and are high in sodium yet the names of them don't clue you in.

Most restaurant foods are high in sodium. Salt is a common substitute for careful cooking.

When I cook Chinese, it is not high in sodium, and I do look at the sauces--but then I am not Chinese.

Most restaurant foods are high in sodium. Salt is a common substitute for careful cooking.

When I cook Chinese, it is not high in sodium, and I do look at the sauces--but then I am not Chinese.

Pretty much why I stopped eating out. Either they've started using a hell of a lot or I am more sensitive to it.

[deadwolfbones]

Yeah, most fast food Chinese places are no better than McDonald's for you, but there are lots of smaller places that actually take care with the food and make a pretty healthy but still delicious meal.

[Green_Manelishi]

There may be plenty of reasons not to buy Chinese, but this is not one of them. They are a totally different society than ours, with many, many Customs that are very different than Western culture.
Now if the babies were alive and dumped, we would have a different story......being a Big Christian, excepting that Book of Acts you removed from your Bible on advice of Glenn Beck, you might look up what Jesus had to say about the dead. It is the living where we need to be concerned.
Beast Regards!

True that. And because current conventional "wisdom" insists there are no objective truths (and therefor no accompanying rights or wrongs) who are we to say their dumping baby-bodies is a baaaaadddddd thing? After all, abortion is legal in the US, is it not? Oh, wait, an aborted baby is not really a person, correct?

[GeneV]

Pretty much why I stopped eating out. Either they've started using a hell of a lot or I am more sensitive to it.

For me, it is both. We made a conscious decision about 4 years ago to stop eating out so much, and cook. My wife and I both lost about 10 pounds right away, and enjoyed it more. Another bonus is we can have a nice glass of wine with our meal without worrying about inflated restaurant prices or DUI laws (which have gotten really crazy, here).

When we do go out to eat, both of us are so impressed when we get a dish that is not super-salty or super-fatty, that we end up calling the chef over to the table for a compliment.

Seasoning food with moderate amounts of salt or butter requires care and timing. Most restaurants just can't afford that kind of attention.

[deadwolfbones]

But let's get back to the OP here, George...

The argument you've put forth in this thread is actually a clasically liberal argument in one of the ways you usually hate most:

Despite the fact that, worldwide, consumers have de facto decided that Chinese goods are a better value proposition than goods made elsewhere (i.e., the free market has given them a place of prominence), you want to boycott them because of their abuses to human rights, even if these abuses are in no way directly connected to their manufacturing prowess.

This is interesting, George. I think you might be changing sides.

---------- Post added 04-01-2010 at 09:13 AM ----------

True that. And because current conventional "wisdom" insists there are no objective truths (and therefor no accompanying rights or wrongs) who are we to say their dumping baby-bodies is a baaaaadddddd thing? After all, abortion is legal in the US, is it not? Oh, wait, an aborted baby is not really a person, correct?

I mean, on an objective level, what you do with a body after it's dead is purely a matter of your personal superstitions, or what you feel is appropriate in terms of "respect" for the dead.

I wouldn't equate this to abortion, since in this case (at least from the article in the OP), they're simply disposing of the bodies of babies who have died from natural causes, albeit in a way that's distasteful to us.

[Rupert]

True that. And because current conventional "wisdom" insists there are no objective truths (and therefor no accompanying rights or wrongs) who are we to say their dumping baby-bodies is a baaaaadddddd thing? After all, abortion is legal in the US, is it not? Oh, wait, an aborted baby is not really a person, correct?

How different is this than a report (some remember) of a dumpster filled with aborted baby parts......can't remember the State or location.
Let me say, I do not favor abortion, and think it is a sin of the first degree, but no greater a sin in the Eyes of God than when I told my wife I wasn't using a new lens I had bought like she thought I had....after all, I had used it for a week, so it wasn't really new....was it? Is abortion worse......yes it is, but it scores with God the same as that lie.

An aborted baby is most definitely a person. Once a person is dead, there is really no further pain or indignity that they can suffer. We might suffer from the treatment of a dead body, but the body does not. Hence...Jesus said "let the dead bury the dead".
Regards!

[Nesster]

I mean, on an objective level, what you do with a body after it's dead is purely a matter of your personal superstitions, or what you feel is appropriate in terms of "respect" for the dead.

I wouldn't equate this to abortion, since in this case (at least from the article in the OP), they're simply disposing of the bodies of babies who have died from natural causes, albeit in a way that's distasteful to us.

I wouldn't call that just distasteful and natural causes - in the West, US included, this would be criminal.

Where's this moral relativism coming from?

[deadwolfbones]

I wouldn't call that just distasteful and natural causes - in the West, US included, this would be criminal.

Where's this moral relativism coming from?

Natural causes was a bit of speculation, I admit, since the article doesn't specifically say what they died of.

[rhodopsin]

I think anyone who bashes Chinese or any other culture need only look closer to home to find just as many reasons to bash. Get over it -- we have so much more in common to celebrate.

[reeftool]

The practice of disposing of dead babies is pretty ugly, I was never aware of it before this story popped up this week. I have many reasons for avoiding Chinese products if possible, mostly due to questionable quality. This story won't change any of my buying habits as I already avoid buying the stuff. I do eat Chinese food though. The owners are local business people and my neighbors. They came to this country for the same reason all of our relatives in the past did...to live in a free land and the opportunity to have something to show for their labors. While not exactly health food, it's better than a greaseburger.

The practice of disposing of dead babies is pretty ugly, I was never aware of it before this story popped up this week. I have many reasons for avoiding Chinese products if possible, mostly due to questionable quality. This story won't change any of my buying habits as I already avoid buying the stuff. I do eat Chinese food though. The owners are local business people and my neighbors. They came to this country for the same reason all of our relatives in the past did...to live in a free land and the opportunity to have something to show for their labors. While not exactly health food, it's better than a greaseburger.

Chinese and quality don't belong in the same country let alone the same sentence.

I do my dead level best NOT to buy chinese when I can find the product made anywhere else.

And I feel the same way about the folks that come here for a better life. Most of these people work their buts off to succeed. So long as they are here legally I don't care.