The Secret of Chemistry: Why are there huge differences in diets between Asians and Westerners?

Add time: 2011-12-23 Author: Constantine Source: Science Fiction Galaxy Click: 1 17

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In terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation, in addition to eating, the other three Asia and the West have gradually narrowed the distance and integrated with the world. In terms of clothing, the proportion of pedestrians wearing suits on the streets of Asia has surpassed that of the United States and most European countries. In terms of housing, the living conditions and average area in Asia have been greatly improved, and high-end communities are no less than those in Europe and America. In business, the quality of private cars in Asia is close to that of European countries. Only in terms of food, there is the biggest difference between Asia and the West!

Westerners emphasize science and nutrition in diet, and the whole process of cooking is carried out in strict accordance with scientific norms. When cooking is standardized, the work of chefs becomes extremely monotonous mechanical work. The raw materials of western food are mostly fresh, pollution-free, natural and natural in operation technology, so as to give full play to its original flavor. Don't use too much dry goods. Milk is an indispensable raw material in western food. Suppliers further standardize raw materials according to their characteristics, and chefs no longer judge and decide which raw materials to use simply based on their own experience.

European, American and Asian dishes have different tastes. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom analyzed the chemical composition of ingredients used in tens of thousands of recipes and explored the differences between eastern and western cooking arts. It was found that most western foods used ingredients with similar tastes, while Asian cuisine tried to avoid this situation.

In the west, when it comes to staple food, we can't help thinking of high-calorie foods, such as steak, salad, ham, potatoes and so on. Of course, bread and milk are indispensable. The cooking method of these things is relatively simple, but they are rich in nutritional value. Westerners like to add various condiments to food, such as butter, cheese, black pepper, curry, and sauces of different colors and uses. Westerners are generally overweight, which has a lot to do with their love of dairy products and sweets. West Point is rich in fat and protein, sweet but not greasy, and beautiful in appearance. Dessert is generally eaten after the staple food, and even in some afternoon tea, it is also favored by people.

Cooking has a long history of paying attention to ingredients. A good cook will definitely consider the taste of various ingredients when cooking. Some western chefs dare to match white chocolate and caviar, which look completely different, because these two ingredients contain some chemicals with the same taste.

Sebastian Ahnert of Cambridge University led a research team to analyze 102 1 flavor compounds in 38 1 ingredients commonly used in cooking all over the world, and made a picture with these compounds to see how many compounds with the same flavor are in various ingredients.

Subsequently, the researchers checked 56,498 cookbooks on three famous cooking websites, namely Gourmet Net, cookbook encyclopedia and menu plate of Korean cookbook website, and compared the cuisines of North America, Western Europe, Southern Europe, Latin America and East Asia, in order to understand how people from different regions and cultural backgrounds mix various flavor ingredients when cooking.

In a paper published in Nature, the researchers wrote: "Western cooking likes to use many ingredients with the same taste, but East Asian cooking tends to avoid using raw materials with the same taste."

In addition, the researchers also found that recipes in North America and Western Europe are mixed with more ingredients with the same flavor, and 74.4% of dishes in North America have 13 main cooking materials including butter, milk, eggs and pork. Taking vanilla omelet as an example, the materials used include milk, butter, vanilla, eggs, sucrose and wheat flour, in which more than half of the compounds in butter and milk have the same flavor, and butter and eggs, eggs and milk, eggs and vanilla, butter and vanilla all contain the same flavor compounds.

However, recipes in southern Europe and East Asia tend to avoid using the same flavor of ingredients, especially those in East Asia, and prefer to use completely different flavors of ingredients, such as sesame oil and garlic. The more the two ingredients taste the same, the less likely East Asian residents are to mix them when cooking.