1. Differences in dietary concepts

Compared with Chinese diet that focuses on "taste", Western diet is a rational dietary concept. Westerners like small and exquisite things. When it comes to cooking food, nutrition and deliciousness are their starting point and destination. They devote all their efforts to developing and researching the nutritional differences of food in different states. Even if the taste is the same, they must eat it - because it is nutritious. In Chinese food culture, the pursuit of "taste" is often greater than the pursuit of "nutrition". The pursuit of aesthetics in food obviously overwhelms rationality - it is not difficult to see from the various dishes on the table. This difference in value concepts has resulted in Chinese food overly focusing on the color, aroma and taste of food, while Westerners have always insisted on starting from a nutritional perspective and underestimated other functions of food

2. Differences in eating styles

There are great differences between Chinese and Western eating styles, and this difference also has an impact on national character. In China, any banquet, no matter what the purpose, has only one form, that is, everyone sits around and enjoys a meal. The banquet uses a round table, which creates an atmosphere of unity, courtesy and fun. Delicious food is placed in the center of a table. It is not only an object for people to appreciate and taste, but also a medium for emotional communication among people at the table. People toast each other, offer each other food, and persuade each other to eat. In the face of beautiful things, they embody the virtues of mutual respect and courtesy between people. Although this way of eating has obvious shortcomings from a hygienic point of view, it is in line with the general mentality of our nation's "happy reunion" and reflects the influence of the category of "harmony" in classical Chinese philosophy on the thoughts of future generations. It facilitates collective emotional communication, so it is difficult to reform so far.

In Western-style banquets, although food and wine are very important, they are actually used as a foil. The core of a banquet is friendship, which is achieved through conversations with neighboring guests. If the sociability of a banquet is compared to dance, then it can be said that a Chinese banquet is like a group dance, while a Western banquet is like a ballroom dance between men and women. It can be seen that the purpose of socializing in Chinese banquets and Western banquets is obvious, but Chinese banquets are more about socializing among all the guests, while Western banquets are mostly about socializing between adjacent guests. What is even more obvious about the difference between the Chinese way of eating and drinking is the buffet that is popular in the West. This method is: display all the food one by one, and everyone can get what they need. They don’t have to be fixed in their seats to eat, and they can move around freely. This method facilitates emotional communication between individuals. It is not necessary to put everything on the table, but also to express It has improved Westerners’ respect for individuality and self. But everyone eats their own food and does not disturb each other, which lacks some of the Chinese people's mood of chatting and having fun.

3. Differences in dietary objects

Because Westerners generally believe that dishes are to satisfy hunger, they specialize in "hard dishes" such as large pieces of meat and whole pieces of chicken. And Chinese cuisine is about "taste", so Chinese cooking also shows great arbitrariness in the ingredients used - many things that Westerners regard as discarded are excellent raw materials in China, and foreign chefs cannot Once the processed things are in the hands of Chinese chefs, they can turn decay into magic. This shows the wide range of randomness in the ingredients used in Chinese food. According to a survey by Western botanists, Chinese people eat more than 600 kinds of vegetables, which is six times more than in the West. In fact, in Chinese cuisine, vegetarian dishes are common food, and meat dishes only enter the daily diet structure during holidays or when the living standard is high. Therefore, there has been a saying of "vegetable food" since ancient times. Vegetable food plays an important role in the daily diet structure. dominant. The Chinese's preference for plant-based dishes is inextricably linked to the advocacy of Buddhists. They regard animals as "living things" and plants as "inanimate", so they advocate vegetarianism.

When Westerners introduce the dietary characteristics of their own countries, they feel that they pay more attention to the reasonable combination of nutrition than China. They have relatively developed food industries, such as canned food, fast food, etc. Although the taste is the same, it saves time and They are well-nourished, so people in their countries are generally physically stronger than Chinese people: tall, long legs, broad shoulders, and well-developed muscles; while Chinese people appear to be thin, with narrow shoulders, short legs, and weak complexion. Based on the obvious differences between Chinese and Western dietary objects, some people call Chinese people plant-like characters and Westerners called animal characters. In addition, Westerners like to eat multiple meals a day, which is more scientific than the Chinese who only have two or three meals a day.

In terms of dietary structure, Chinese people eat much more vegetables every day than Westerners. Although Westerners eat a lot of protein every day, their gastrointestinal function is affected by eating too little fiber. Therefore, The prevalence and cancer rates of the digestive system are much higher than those in China; Chinese people like whole grains, while Westerners prefer refined grains such as white flour. In fact, coarse grains contain more nutrients than fine grains; Chinese people like to eat vegetable oil, while Westerners like to use animal oil with higher cholesterol when cooking, and they also consume a lot of butter every day. No wonder Americans have a particularly high rate of cardiovascular disease: Chinese urban and rural residents love soy milk, tofu, bean sprouts and other soy products, but Westerners tend to stay away from them; Chinese people, especially residents in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta, love to eat pork liver, intestines, etc. , lungs and other animal internal organs, which Westerners do not like. Animal offal contains a lot of cholesterol and should not be eaten in large quantities; steamed food will destroy less nutrients.

Westerners like steamed food (less destruction of nutrients), while Chinese prefer stir-fried food (more destruction of nutrients); Westerners have realized that beef, horse meat and mutton, known as "red meat", are harmful to colon health. Cancer and prostate cancer are one of the causes. We are also aware that the fat in red meat is also one of the causative factors of prostate cancer and heart disease. We should pay attention to eating red meat once a week. Many Chinese newspapers and periodicals have reported on the issue of red meat many times, but so far the Chinese people have not paid enough attention to it.