Hello From Asia!

[Tinag]

So glad to be in touch with all of you! I am currently living as a expat in China, with a permanent return to my home in North Carolina in June. My husband was sent back to the US to work, but I will be staying until the end of the school year so that my son can graduate high school.

I have diabetes and have struggled here with medical advice and food choices. Even medicated I can't seem to eat any carbs without high readings, so I'm giving the Paleo type diet a try.

Unfortunately, I am limited to simple foods here. Any things like flaxseed etc that I see recipes for are not available to me.

Hope I can pull this off!

[JakartaBoy]

Greetings! I'm a fairly new member here, too, and also located in Asia (Indonesia). I'm surprised that you have trouble finding good low carb food in China! I can find something good, or even delicious, in almost any town or village here. Today, I had some delicious grilled chicken with hot sambal, sliced cucumber, and a glass of young coconut juice with the flesh on the side. That was just at a standard streetside warung, three bucks for the lot. I find that not only can manage low carb, but I eat WELL.

Must admit that things slid dramatically when I took a holiday to Vietnam over the New Year. Pho (noodle/beef soup) was just toooooooo much to resist. Even so, I stayed on a plateau, rather than actually gaining weight.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

[Tinag]

Thanks JB. There is an abundance of beautiful vegetables here, which I truly appreciate. Safe meat can be expensive and is used mostly as a condiment here. Cheese, which the chinese don't eat is extremely expensive as well. So I'm in a place that is SO opposite to the low carb lifestyle.

Oh yeah, Pho would have totally gotten me off track too!

[Elizellen]

You might be able to find flax seeds if you look for 'linseed' instead.

http://www.answers.com/topic/linseed
This page has the chinese word for it If you scroll down.

[TeresaTX]

Hey Tina - good luck!! Where are you in China? I spent a summer in southern China - Guangzhou specifically, when I was in college. I recall the standard diet & it would have been very difficult to do low carb...meat was a luxury item and rarely used so while the veggie part would be simple the fat/protein would be quite difficult I can imagine.

I had the worst Cantonese accent imaginable...until I implemented my charade skills I was often presented with a wildly different item than I had attempted to order. Apparently snakes - with the head and face on! sound a lot like a chicken dish :-) Either that or they just liked making a 6' blonde chick do the chicken dance...

[Tinag]

Hi Teresa. I'm in Shanghai. Charades come with the territory I suppose. Isn't it crazy what people eat in foreign countries? I don't think I'll ever forget this place!

[dmarie328]

How bout eggs? You could live on them.