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Gut busters

Is too much choice bad news for buffet fans?

By Kelly May
Photographs courtesy of Bangkok Post

Did You Know : So-called white chocolate is made from vegetable fats, colouring and artificial flavours; it contains no chocolate at all.

A dim sum buffet at one of the  larger hotels in Bangkok.

Unlimited buffets have become a popular way to dine.

Buffet lunches, brunches, dinners and all-day specials are springing up all over the country. And while sampling a little of everything at every meal is very Thai, the food on offer at most buffets is often distinctly un-Thai.

Couple this with the fact that buffet-style dining has another incentive � all you can eat for a set price � and people are flocking to gorge themselves on everything from ice-cream to sushi to pizza.

Take the popular Sizzler food chain as an example. Every day, diners of all ages can flock to any Sizzler outlet to enjoy a salad buffet available from 99 baht upwards.

�It�s about the freedom to choose what to eat and to enjoy great value for money,� said Nongchanok Stananonth, marketing manager for Sizzler, Thailand.

TASTY TEMPTATION

But in an age when obesity and weight-related problems are increasingly common health problems, is this invitation to overeat creating a nation of gluttons? It depends who you ask.

�Calorie requirements depend upon age and height, but on average, a teenager should be looking to consume about 2,000 calories every day,� said Krisadee Bodhidatta, a nutritionist at Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital.

And it�s not uncommon for a diner to consume more than this at one buffet meal, according to Krisadee. �Eating more than we need to, when combined with an inactive lifestyle, has numerous health implications, the major one being weight gain,� she said.

Chef Laurent Ganguillet disagrees � but then he�s the man behind Bangkok�s most popular chocolate buffet at the Sukhothai Hotel.

�Buffets offer more choice and value for money, but they don�t encourage people to eat more,� he said. �In fact, buffets make it easier for people to manage their own food intake.� But Ganguillet does acknowledge that such a wide choice can lead to problems. �The hardest thing is resisting the temptation factor,� he said.

BATTLING BUFFET BULGES

Clearly, buffet dining has its risks. But these can be minimised, according to Krisadee.

�Diners can enjoy buffets without consuming their daily calorie requirement in one meal,� she said.  �It�s all about making the right decisions. Healthy options are available � diners need to make sure they choose them.�

Health-conscious buffet fans can satiate their cravings by choosing barbequed or grilled items instead of fried foods, as well as salads, Krisadee said. At the same time, carbohydrate intake should be reduced by cutting out foods like pizza, pasta and bread.

And desperate diners needn�t resign themselves to a lifetime of lettuce leaves. By making the right decisions, even the most sweet-toothed calorie-counter can enjoy a guilt-free buffet.

�Sorbet and yoghurt-based ice creams are less fattening than traditional choices that contain milk and cream,� said Nonglak Lakkham, manager of the Bangkok-based Providence restaurant, which offers an ice-cream buffet for a mere 129 baht.

So, eager eaters can fill their stomachs to their heart�s content, as long as they pick the right foods. It�s all a matter of eating in moderation and making the right choices.

Vocabulary

gut (n): in this use, a person�s stomach, especially when it is large
buffet (n): a meal at which people serve themselves from a table and then stand or sit somewhere else to eat
brunch (n): a meal that you eat in the late morning as a combination of breakfast and lunch
incentive (n): something that encourages you to do something
gorge (v): to eat a lot of something, until you are too full to eat any more
glutton (n): a person who eats too much
satiate (v): to give somebody so much of something so that they do not feel they want any more
sorbet (n): a sweet frozen food made from sugar, water and fruit juice