The Thai Food Diet: Lose weight by eating the best food in the world
David Craig

Many Westerners find they lose about 3% to 5% of their body weight when they spend a month or two in Thailand if they move from eating mainly Western food to eating Thai food for a significant proportion of their meals. Most lose this weight even without making any attempt to go on a weight loss diet.

There are several reasons why this weight loss occurs:

1. Increasing metabolic rate – spicy Thai food can increase the body’s metabolic rate (and so increase calorie burn) by up to 10% for 2 to 3 hours following a meal. By speeding up our metabolism for 2 to 3 hours between dinner and sleeping, Thai food can help with weight control
2. We eat less – research has shown that when people are served spicy food, they tend to eat about 200 calories less per meal than when served bland food as the body feels satisfied more quickly
3. We eat more slowly – when we eat too fast, we’ve often already overeaten by the time the body signals it is full. As we usually eat more slowly when eating spicy foods, it’s easier to avoid this over-eating
4. Lighter food – a diet based on rice, vegetables, seafood and small quantities of meat is much lighter than one based on meat and potatoes or pizza and pasta. This makes Thai food less fattening than most Western food and also less fattening than other spicy food like Indian or Mexican

Just by changing 2 to 3 meals a week from Western food (ahan farang) to Thai food (ahan Thai), can help people get better control over their weight. That's why people can both improve their health and eat better-tasting food by adopting the Thai Food Diet.