Western food and Eastern food are quite different in many aspects, from ingredients, seasoning to ways of cooking and so on.Therefore, the nutrition that the food provided could be poles apart even though they are the same type of food. People are always considering which style is better for health? Some may think that Eastern style are less oily and contains less fat as well as calories than the western food does, however, others think that western food probably store more vitamins and protein, which are useful for balancing the necessary substances of our body.  Hence, let American food and Chinese food be the two representatives of these varieties of food, and let us compare the kids food and adults food of both styles in several ways.

Chinese people usually feed their children with noodles, dumplings or porridge after kids stop drinking powdered milk (approximately after 3 years old), and parents always add some chopped vegetables and meat(or boneless fish) inside the noodles soup,dumplings and porridge in order to make it contain both vitamins and protein. The reason why they choose these three kinds of staple food is because these types are easy to be digested and absorbed by children. The types of vegetable and meat(or fish) could be various,depending on the family’s preference.  After two or three years, children start to have rice and some other food like buns, which are not liquid body substance (ejaculate), and have whole leaf vegetables and meat without chopping in tiny pieces. Kids are seldom fed with fried food at home, although they may consume a little fried food sometimes when they dine out with family in the restaurants. Furthermore, restaurants do not have a particular kids menu, so what kids eat in the restaurants depends on what their parents order. Differently, American kids probably eat more high-calorie food such as cheese and burgers than Chinese kids do, and a lot of restaurants serve kids menu but are pretty stable. I saw American parents give their children a kid-size burger or hotdog to eat when they are also having burgers in the fast food place. While they dine in a formal restaurant, which does not serve fast food, kids would have spinach with cheese, mac and cheese or something else with cheese. Everything comes with cheese though there’s also vitamins and protein inside. This make chinese people consider that the food categories and the ingredients in dishes for kids are too simple and might make children become picky about food when they grow up. In brief, Chinese style  might be better for the digestive system of young kids.

For adults, the food category in China is too large to conclude in just a few sentences. There are at least five ways to cook one kind of vegetables by adding different ingredients inside or use various cooking methods. Chinese people seldom eat uncooked vegetables or deep fried food, but we do eat some pan-fried food, like scallion pancake and pan-fried dumplings. Most chinese food are served by stir-fried, braised and steamed, especially in Guangdong Province, therefore, the food will not be too oily or high calories, and can be reheated for another time and the taste would not be changed. Some experts say that steaming food is the best way to cook since the nutrition could be reserved as well as  there’s no lampblack, which is bad for cooks to inhale into body.  American food are always  grilled, baked and deep-fried or served uncooked. Personally, I feel both baked and deep-fried make the food become high-calorie since they need a large amount of butter and oil to complete the cooking. However, vegetables are usually uncooked and served as salad, which is probably the best way to consume because vitamins are perfectly retained inside the leaves. Although sometimes dressing is a source of fat and calories, there’s more and more low-calorie and non-fat dressing are invented, for example, the non-fat italian dressing, which keeps people’s worry away.  In conclusion, if an adult have a balance diet for food, he or she can be healthy no matter which style of food he or she chooses.

Chinese food serves in larger categories than American food. People have more choices while having chinese meals. However, there are both healthy and unhealthy food in either style. Thus, having a balanced diet and not sticking to narrow types of food are the best ways to keep healthy.