How to Order Keto at a Vietnamese Restaurant
How to Order Keto at a Vietnamese Restaurant
You’re out to eat with some friends at your favourite Vietnamese restaurant, and you’re feeling pretty good about sticking to your keto diet. But then the waitress hands you the menu, and you realize you need to figure out what to order. Sound familiar? Don’t worry; we’re here to help. You can enjoy a delicious, keto-friendly meal at any Vietnamese restaurant with a few tips.
What is Keto?
First things first, let’s review what keto is. The ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet that has been shown to lead to weight loss and other health benefits. When following a keto diet, your goal is to get 70-80% of your calories from fat, 20-25% from protein, and 5-10% from carbohydrates.
Now that we’ve got that out let’s talk about how to order keto at a Vietnamese restaurant.
What are Vietnamese Main courses keto-friendly?
When it comes to main courses, there are a few safe bets that will be keto-friendly. Many Vietnamese dishes are naturally low in carbs thanks to their reliance on meat and vegetables instead of rice or noodles. Popular options include:
• Pho (a soup made with beef or chicken).
• Bun (a vermicelli noodle dish).
• Mi Quang (a noodle dish made with pork).
Most of these dishes can be made without noodles or rice upon request, making them an even better option for those on a keto diet. Just be sure to ask for extra vegetables instead of noodles or rice.
Another great option is com tam; broken rice served with grilled meat. This dish is usually served with pickled daikon radish, carrots, cucumber slices, cilantro, and green onion. While the broken rice does contain carbohydrates, it’s a much better option than white rice or noodles. Plus, the other vegetables will help balance out the carbs in the rice. Just be sure to ask for extra vegetables and hold the nuoc cham (fish sauce) if you want to keep things as low-carb as possible.
Are Stir-Fries Keto friendly?
Stir fries are another great option when dining out on a keto diet. Many Vietnamese stir-fries are made with protein and vegetables, causing them relatively low in carbs. Plus, they can easily be made without noodles or rice upon request. Standard stir-fry options include:
• Thit bo xao (beef stir fry).
• Thit ga xao (chicken stir fry).
• Tom xao (shrimp stir fry).
Again, ask for extra vegetables instead of noodles or rice.
What are some keto-friendly side dishes?
In addition to main courses, a few side dishes are perfect for those on a keto diet. One of our favourites is goi cuon—fresh spring rolls made with shrimp, pork, lettuce, and herbs wrapped in thin rice paper sheets. These are usually served with dipping sauces on the side, so be sure to ask for nuoc cham on the side so you can control how much you use.
Another great option is banh mi op la—an omelet served on a banh mi sandwich without the bread. And, of course, no meal would be complete without a heaping serving of steamed veggies like broccoli or green beans.
Can Vietnamese food be 100% keto?
Now that we’ve gone over some of the best keto-friendly Vietnamese dishes, you might wonder if it’s possible to make a 100% keto meal. Unfortunately, that’s only possible sometimes. While there are many great low-carb options, Vietnamese cuisine relies heavily on rice and noodles—two things that are off-limits on a keto diet. However, you can quickly put together a delicious, keto-friendly meal at any Vietnamese restaurant with creativity.
With a few tips, enjoying a delicious and keto-friendly meal at any Vietnamese restaurant is easy. Main courses like pho soup, bun noodle dishes, com tam broken rice, and stir-fries can all be made without noodles or rice upon request, making them perfect for those on a ketogenic diet.
Side dishes like goi cuon spring rolls, banh mi op la omelets,, and steamed broccoli or green beans are also great options for sticking to your macros., So next time you find yourself at a Vietnamese restaurant, don’t hesitate to indulge in some deliciousness—keto style!
Please use our easy-to-use app for Android and iPhone smartphones to place an order online for pickup or delivery. (Only for Toronto, North York, Hamilton, Woodbridge, and Vaughan cities)
When is Spicy Too Spicy? A Case for Spicy Foods.
Do you like your food with a little bit of spice, or do you like it hot? For some people, the spicier, the better. But at what point does spicy become too spicy? Is there such a thing as too much spice? Let’s explore.
The Scoville Scale
The Scoville Scale is the measurement of the pungency (spiciness or “heat”) of chilli peppers, as recorded in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is predominant. Capsaicinoids are chemicals that contribute to the burning sensation when eating chilli peppers. Therefore, the more capsaicin a pepper has, the higher its place on the Scoville Scale.
For example, bell peppers have a very low concentration of capsaicin and are at the bottom of the Scoville Scale. Thus, Bell peppers have a Scoville rating of 0.
On the other hand, habanero peppers have a very high concentration of capsaicin and are at the top of the Scoville Scale.
According to the Guinness World Records, the hottest pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper, with a score of 2.2 million SHU.
When Is Spicy Too Spicy?
So when is spicy too spicy? That really depends on your tolerance for spice. Some people can handle peppers with a high Scoville rating, while others can’t even handle peppers with a low Scoville rating. So it really varies from person to person. If you like your food with a bit of spice, stick to peppers with a lower Scoville rating. If you like it hot, you can go for peppers with a higher Scoville rating.
How to Handle Spicy Food
Let’s face it; we’ve all been there. You’re at a restaurant, you see a dish that looks delicious… and then you know that it’s covered in bright red chilli pepper. Your first instinct is to shy away from it, but something tells you to be brave and try it. So you take a bite… and instantly regret it. Your mouth is on fire, your eyes are watering, and you can feel the sweat beads forming on your forehead. But why does this happen? And more importantly, how can you prevent it?
Capsaicinoids bind to receptors in our mouths and throats responsible for sensing heat. When they do this, they trick our brains into thinking that we’re actually eating something hot, which sets off all the usual reactions — sweating, increased heart rate, etc. In high enough concentrations, capsaicinoids can even cause pain and burning sensations in our skin!
Tolerance Levels
So how do you prevent this from happening? The first step is to understand your own tolerance level. Everyone experiences spicy food differently, so what might be too much for one person might not be enough for another. Once you know how much heat you can handle, you can start working your way up from there.
If you’re really looking to push your limits, there are some things you can do to make spicy food even spicier. One is to increase the amount of capsaicinoids in the dish by using hotter peppers or adding more chilli powder. Another is to reduce the amount of fat in the dish — fat molecules help to break down capsaicinoids and make them less potent.
Spicy food can be a lot of fun — but only if you know your limits! By understanding how capsaicinoids work and what kind of effect they have on your body, you can make sure that your next culinary adventure is a pleasant one.
Just remember that once you’ve added spice to your food, it’s challenging to take it away, so start with less than you think you need and add more if necessary.
And who knows? After working your way up the Scoville scale, you’ll find that you’re able to handle more heat than you thought!
What does TorontoPHO offer?
Toronto Pho offers delicious, authentic Vietnamese cuisine at four locations across Ontario. All of our recipes are revised versions of dishes that have been passed down through generations in our family. Our menu includes various options, and we’re open late at night at all four locations!
Hot stuff? Oh yeah, ask our chef for it or try Hot Teriyaki Chicken Wing (Cánh Gà Chiên Teriyaki)
Use our easy-to-use app for Android and iPhone smartphones to place an order online for pickup or delivery. (Only for Toronto, North York, Hamilton, Woodbridge, and Vaughan cities)
What are anti-ligature blinds?
Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.
Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.
Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.
How do they work?
There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.
The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.
Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.
If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.
Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.
Complete weight loss strategy
For those who want to lose weight
Research on the causes of obesity, knowledge about weight loss, and various diets for weight loss are updated every year. However, with the update of knowledge and the release of diet pills one after another, the obesity rate continues to rise every year, and there is no sign of wanting to decline. I used to be very, very fat, and I am also a person who is prone to obesity.
So I understand the voices of fat people, I really want to lose weight, but I tried many ways to lose weight at that time without success.
I have tried the common boiled meals on the market, eating less and moving more, but it was not until I tried other diets that I managed to lose weight. After I lost weight, I began to study the essence and method of losing weight, and wrote him in this weight loss strategy article, hoping to help you.
A few key myths about losing weight
The weight loss myth of eating less and moving more
The phrase “eat less and move more” is actually true, but most people do it wrong. Many people think that they should eat less of everything, so they limit their calories to a very low level, and it feels a bit like eating an ultra-low-calorie fairy meal. Then, for the hyperactive part, the first thing that everyone thinks of is aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, etc., but in fact, this is a very short-term and easy way to regain weight, mainly because eating too little is an easy way to lose weight. The reason for the loss of muscle mass, coupled with the fact that aerobic training is not helpful for muscle mass growth, causes the metabolism to drop too much.
Maybe you can lose 5 kilograms in this way, but if your metabolism declines, you will easily regain the weight. And it’s all the fat that gets back up, not the muscle you lose that makes you look fatter than before. This is what we call the yo-yo effect, lose weight, get fat back, get fatter than before, lose weight, get back on Fat, get fatter than before.
Stop taking diet pills and meal replacements
At this time, you may start to seek other ways, eat weight loss meal replacements, taking diet pills, and so on. But believe me, most diet pills will inevitably hurt the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. You may actually lose weight in the moment, but when your gastrointestinal tract is damaged, you will be fatter than before.
The key to understanding how to lose weight
You must have thought, why some people will not gain weight no matter what they eat, while some people will gain a kilogram the next day after eating a little bread? What is the cause of obesity? This is not a simple answer that can be solved!
You can see the link to the picture below, mainly talking about the influencing factors of obesity, which are very, very complicated.
Image source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296290/obesity-map-full-hi-res.pdf
In the middle of this picture is the heat balance
So we can know that calorie balance is very important
But this article doesn’t keep preaching that calorie balance is the key to losing weight like other sites
If you don’t know what calorie balance is, you can probably imagine that our body has calorie consumption (exercise, thermogenesis, basal metabolism), and calorie intake (eating).
When calorie consumption exceeds calorie intake, the weight will drop, so the truth of weight loss is to eat less and move more, very simple. In the short term, it is really possible to simply achieve weight loss by eating less and moving more, but simplicity is not simple, because the operation of the body is very complicated. Many people think that they can control their calorie consumption, that they can achieve a lot of calorie expenditure by running all the time, and that eating fairy meals (low-calorie meals) can reduce calorie intake and then easily lose it.
However, according to research, 90% of people who use calorie control, eat less and move more to lose weight will fail or regain the weight.
Because eating less and moving more for too long, metabolism will easily drop, hormones will easily become imbalanced, and muscle mass will easily be lost. Even if you lose 10 kilograms, you will easily regain weight.
When losing weight, the body is like a factory
For me, the key to long-term weight loss and maintaining good posture is the environment in the body, such as hormones, the level of inflammation in the body, and the gastrointestinal system.
Think of the body as a factory
-Your hormones are the managers and workers of factory operations
-Inflamed condition is how good factory machinery and hardware are
-Calorie intake is wages for factories as well as fuel
If the manager of this factory is an idiot, or if the hardware in your factory is completely rotten, then no matter how it works, it will create a pile of waste. Just as our hormones are already out of balance and the level of inflammation in the body is very high, no matter how much you eat, if you don’t solve the existing problems, it will easily accumulate into fat. It may be easier to understand with a few examples.
Hormones vs Weight Loss
This study looked at the effects of sleep and weight loss
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
Both groups of humans were calorie-restricted, but one group slept 5.5 hours a night and the other 8.5 hours. Both groups lost weight, but the group that slept less lost 55 percent less body fat and 65 percent more muscle mass than the group that slept more. It is equivalent to losing weight, but most of the loss is muscle mass, which reduces metabolism and makes it easy to regain weight later.
There is such a big difference mainly because poor sleep has a negative impact. The imbalance of the secretion of these things will easily increase fat and reduce muscle.
This next study looks at the effect of insulin sensitivity on body composition!
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471290
Basically, many chronic metabolic diseases, obesity, and poor muscle-building effects are closely related to low insulin sensitivity. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone whose main function is to store nutrients in cells. For example, after heavy training, our muscles will be more sensitive to insulin, and the nutrients we eat will be more easily absorbed into the muscles. When insulin sensitivity is low, the nutrients we eat are more likely to be stored as fat rather than absorbed into muscles.
We can simply say that the nutrients in the food eaten by people who are insulin insensitive are more likely to be stored as fat, and the relative fat mass will be much higher than the muscle mass.
To put it simply, the key to losing weight is actually to improve hormones, improve inflammation in the body, and add an appropriate calorie deficit. It is not difficult to achieve a calorie deficit. What is more difficult is how to choose the type of food that suits your body to improve hormones and achieve a long-term good body.
If you only pursue short-term weight loss and rely on a lot of calorie deficits to achieve the effect of weight loss, and then the hormones are still the same after the loss, then I can guarantee that you will gain weight very easily.
With so many ways to eat on the internet, which diet should I try?
When talking about losing weight in Taiwan 30 years ago, everyone would definitely want to use boiled meals
When it came to losing weight five years ago, everyone might think of using a low-sugar diet. When it came to losing weight in the past two or three years, everyone might directly think of the ketogenic diet.
I lost 30kg in 3 months on a low-sugar diet myself for the first time, so I used to believe that a low-sugar diet was the best way to lose weight
But after my long-term understanding of weight loss-related research, genetic cognition, and observation of students, there is no diet that is most suitable for everyone! Although it is said that high-carbohydrate foods will most stimulate insulin secretion, which in turn promotes the storage of nutrients into fat, some people are naturally good at metabolizing carbohydrates, so they can still be healthy and strong after eating high-carbohydrate throughout their lives.
For example, this study compared the responses of people with high and low insulin sensitivity to high- and low-carb diets.
Research source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.79
The study concluded:
-For people with high insulin sensitivity, eating high-carb and low-fat to lose weight is very helpful
-However, people who are insulin insensitive use a high-carb low-fat diet to lose fat, but the weight loss effect is not so good.
But on the contrary, studies have also shown that people with low insulin sensitivity have a very good weight loss effect on a low-carb high-fat diet, which shows that improving insulin is very important for weight loss, and it also shows that people with insulin insensitivity are more suitable
Lose weight with a high-carb diet.
So if you have been obese for a long time, you know that you eat carbohydrates easily, or you know that you have diabetes in your family and want to lose fat, then I would suggest that you can start by reducing carbohydrates, which is what we call low carb diet!
The Negative Impact of E-Levy on Mobile Banking.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Mobile Banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet.
Electronic Transaction Levy or “E-Levy” is a tax applied on transactions made on electronic or digital platforms.
ADVANTAGES OF MOBILE BANKING
Mobile banking offers numerous benefits such as ease of transaction, convenience, time-saving, managing your finances, and budgeting. Some advantages of Mobile Banking in remote areas include:
Financial Inclusion — mobile banking offers convenient and easy banking services to people in remote areas. Thus, it allows banking on the go and offers all benefits of a banking system to rural areas without the presence of a financial institution.
Accessing the bank 24/7 — Mobile banking provides ubiquitous banking services without the need to visit the bank to have access to services. This offers time to benefit and ease of transacting at a distance.
Cost-benefit — Mobile banking saves the banks the cost of building physical infrastructures (branches) and maintaining branches and staff. Also, reduced costs on the customer side since the burden of visiting the bank for services is eliminated.
Improving resilience in the face of poverty — Mobile money acts as both a savings vehicle and a means of transferring funds during times of economic or environmental shocks.
Strengthening the formal economy — For many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), opening a mobile money account can facilitate access to formal financial services. Mobile money is well placed to address the issue of informality that blights many developing economies and hampers domestic resource mobilization efforts. Mobile Money enables ease of transacting, thus increasing business profits for MSMEs.
Facilitating economic growth — Mobile money has been shown to contribute to economic growth by increasing both productivity and per capita incomes
DISADVANTAGES OF E-LEVY ON MOBILE BANKING
The design of mobile money taxation policy appears to be the antithesis of a well-designed tax system. The disadvantages include:
Inequity — Mobile money taxes as currently structured to create inequity in the tax system. As the tax is mostly borne by the poor and users of the services are subject to additional taxation (unlike bank or cash transactions), the principles of both horizontal and vertical equity in the tax system are contravened.
Uncertainty -. Uncertainty and lack of transparency over taxation systems can have a direct impact on the operations of the tax authority, increasing enforcement costs, as well as discouraging investment.
Inconvenience — The administration of mobile money transaction taxes creates an inconvenience for MMPs who must calculate and collect the tax on the revenue authority’s behalf. There is an additional inconvenience for users of the service for whom remote digital transactions become more expensive or out of reach if they revert back to cash.
Inefficiency — Badly designed mobile money taxes have been shown to have a distortionary impact on demand for mobile money services. This in turn has had negative impacts on overall tax takes, as well as impacting the attainment of national economic and development goals.
EFFECT OF MOBILE BANKING — CASE STUDIES
The decision to impose taxes on mobile bank transactions will trigger so many problems.
Ghana — According to The Fourth Estate Ghana; Although the government projects a 24% decline in transactions when the levy is finally implemented, preliminary findings published by the bank of Ghana indicate the value of mobile money transactions had dropped by 3.2 billion in December 2021, less than 2 months after the proposal to introduce E-levy.
Uganda — An e-levy of 1% introduced in 2018 has led to an overall drop in the person-to-person transaction by more than 50%, and a 24% drop in industry transactions within the same year the tax was introduced according to a report by Global system for mobile communication (GSMA).
Congo — An e-levy of 1% was introduced in 2019. The government had to reverse the tax on cash outs only due to negative results of the levy on Mobile money users such as a decline in mobile money agents (unemployment) and high-value withdrawals by people.
Other countries include Benin (5%) and Cameroun (0.2%). In all these countries, the e-levy has imposed a negative effect on the economy and people. If we want to ensure the financial inclusion of people in rural areas, we need to ensure that we encourage mobile banking by withdrawing the e-levy tax.
Reference:
https://thefourthestategh.com/2022/03/16/e-levy-this-is-what-happened-when-other-african-countries-passed-it/
Purohit, S., & Arora, R. (2021). The benefits and challenges of mobile banking at the Bottom of the pyramid. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government Vol, 27(1).
Charles G. Kpan, Jr. is an Information Technologist with over 5 years of experience in the provision of Information Technology Services and an emphasis on Web Development and Visual Branding. He’s the managing Director of CYGEC IT SOLUTIONS INC. and holds a bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Blue Crest University, Liberia.