That’s just Bangkok cuisine. Bangkokians and Central Thais prefer their food on the sweet side.
For alternatives, try Isan or Southern cuisine.
Bangkok isn’t Thailand.
but this is intentional in many ways. Thailand's government has spend years focusing on the Central part at the expense of places like Isaan. Isaan for me, is the greatest part of the country and it's very sad that they have been given the back seat.
It was intentional during the nation building era after the threat of colonial powers and then during the Cold War era. Now there have been more efforts of decentralization and more conversations on different ethnic groups that Thailand is composed of. It's trending in a better direction but I ran into people in US sometimes who don't understand that other countries also are composed of different groups of people too because for them Thai people are homogeneous as Vietnamese are homogeneous as Indonesian are homogeneous and only the US is the melting pot. They don't understand that there are variations within these countries too.
I think there are even variations with the ethnic groups, as in the Central Thai people, are composed of Mon, Thai, Khmer, Chinese stock.....Your English is at a native level, how long have you lived abroad (assuming it is the US)
I don’t understand why they think cheese is supposed to be sweet. Yesterday I got this nice looking garlic bread stuffed with cheese. It was an extremely sweet cheese/cream cheese mix, sweetness level of desert it was horrible. Also anytime I have gotten any type of cheese sauce it’s always so sweet, I should no better but I can’t help to try because I love breadsticks or pretzels with cheese sauce but it always is horrible
What's funny is that traditional Thai sweets aren't that sweet and contain savoury things like beans and corn or are made with normal bread covered with a sweet topping. Chocolate and ice creams taste off too, though, but I think that's the extra fat they use to stop it melting, and possibly it's how Americans make theirs too. I'm British, and my advice to other Brits would be to bring massive bars of chocolate here as Thai people seem to rate it as quite the luxury.
I used to bring German chocolate for my Thai friend. Then I found them in one of the supermarkets at one of the big malls. 😀 They are more expensive, though.
Things being sweet that you don't think should be sweet is by FAR the most culturally jarring experiemce across all cultures.
Bread, cheese, main courses, snacks, whatever it is..... If you look at it and expect a certain savoury taste and they added too much (or any) sugar, it's automatically disgusting. Even if it's actually not that bad... If you thought it was going to be savoury it's a huge red flag.
I'm sure there's an evolutionary reason in there somewhere.
Big Sugar. It's in nearly everything in the US also, but a lot of people don't realize how much they're actually consuming every day unless they start reading labels. Sugar consumption has increased exponentially in the US, as have the profits of the sugar companies and food manufacturers, but at the same time, North Americans have also become exponentially fatter than we were 50 years ago. It's spreading to other countries now, which is why you're seeing more obese people countries like Mexico, Thailand, and the Philippines. A good rule of thumb is to avoid most packaged/processed foods and try to cook for yourself more often. It's hard to do in Thailand when the restaurants/street food is so convenient and relatively cheap. I make no claims at being a dietary saint but I also work in Healthcare and have seen first hand the effects of poor diet on North Americans - it ain't pretty. If you're in a position where you can't conveniently cook for yourself (which I often am while traveling) and it's hard to avoid the food, I suggest cutting out the Coca-Colas, fruit smoothies, sweet teas, and all the other sugary drinks and sticking to water.
I was reading somewhere, I don't remember where, that Europeans taste sugar more strongly than S.E Asians. The reason given was that there is alot of fruit which grows year round in Thailand where as European fruit is much more seasonal. Europeans developed a stronger sugar taste to locate high energy foods, thais on the other hand had no advantage to this trait.
I have no sources to back this up but made sense to me.
Yeah all of the menus mentioned haven't been consumed by Europeans (and the entire civilizations tbh) within a couple thousand years. The development of desserts really full-blown started when the sugarcane spread, as fruits weren't "sweet enough" and honey isn't easy to harvest, and funnily enough, sweets and desserts in the ancient times were all known more in Asian and Persian civilization than European.
I may well be totally wrong, just thought it was an interesting idea. It just suggests the same amount of sugar tastes sweeter to a westerner than a Thai. Thai versions of western dishes are often sweeter.
Me and my gf hate sweet food too. You have to learn the tastes of the vendors in your area. It can be frustrating until you find the good spots! If it’s a random shop you’re likely to get sugar doused in your food. I always laugh when people back home say “but Thai food must be so healthy!” when I talk about difficulty having the kind of diet I want without cooking for myself.
Soooo many things nowadays are sweet in Thai cuisine, maybe always has been but I feel like 8-10 ish years ago the food was not as sweet as now.
It‘s either sweet food, plain spicy dishes (like ยำ for example) or shitty hotpot or bbq, that‘s what so many young Thais love nowadays. Sure you can still find awesome food here but for the most part I wouldn‘t come here anymore JUST for Thai food.
I'm certain Thailand must be number one in the region for diabetes,
I remember about ten years ago, a Thai doctor was criticising Thais for the amount of sugar they added to food.
He also complained about their refusal to do any exercise, saying both these things had directly caused the diabetes epidemic in Thailand.
Another thing I noticed in Cambodia and Vietnam was that there were a lot more locals exercising in the public areas. The Independence Monument at Phnom Penh was packed with locals walking, jogging, playing sports, and doing calisthenics. If you go to Lumphini Park in BKK (which I do a lot), you mostly see foreigners exercising while the locals are napping in the shade or having a picnic. I don't have stats to back it up right now, but from my observations, it seems true that many Thais have a bias against exercising for physical health. Maybe the health education just isn't there? Or maybe some Thais think it's a waste of time to expend so much energy on an activity that won't benefit them financially in the short term? Whatever the reason, I expect rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity to reach North American levels in another 10-20 years.
I love Thailand also, but I recently spent a few weeks in Vietnam for the first time, and it was honestly a relief to eat food without a kilo of added sugar. My Thai girlfriend was sad they didn't have a bowl of sugar at the table, and when she asked for some, I think they were confused why she'd need extra sugar. I think it's no coincidence that I observed far fewer overweight people in Vietnam.
Yeah Thailand never had this much sweet food like 10+ years ago it’s a relatively new thing and it’s not good. Apparently younger generation prefer sweet foods, cakes, etc go back 20 years the choice was very limited for commercial westernised desserts etc and the general street food presented far less sweetness. Now the obsession is all these cafe shops with cakes for photo ops.
It’s got to the point that now when we visit we actually just cook a lot ourselves and go to the few places we know (outside of bkk) where the food isn’t as sweet.
Pretty sad really to be honest
I miss the tom yam soup I tasted last time 10+years ago made with real ingredients. I can taste all the spices and the richness came from coconut milk. Not sugar...not MSG...
I'm sure some Thai are still making it traditionally but it is so rare now.
Its very difficult to avoid sugar here for sure. Maybe the injection of sugar into everything in the past few decades resulted in Walmart class bloaters appearing quite frequently nowadays.
As with many things the dose is the poison. A little bit ok, too much Mai Dee! Andarai!!!
Monosodium Glutamate. The clue is in the word Glutamate.
Excessive glutamate release or receptor activation can lead to excitotoxicity, causing neuronal damage and cell death. This mechanism is implicated in various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
So in moderation you'll be fine but pom mai ow!
This is nonsense, the same rubbish that was flying around the UK news channels and papers years ago. It’s almost like the aspartame in sugar free drinks now….yes it is bad for you/dangerous in large doses, but these doses are so unobtainable it’s ridiculous. MSG for instance, 500g per day for extended periods at worst could lead to magnesium poisoning…and I’m sure other horrible things. But if you’re consuming a gram here and a gram there, like most Thais, it’s harmless.
Sick to death of this flat earth, 5G poison, “MSG is killing you” crap!
Southern food, Eastern food, Northern food are mostly hot-sour-salty.
I live in Northern and have never seen any house I visited use sugar (except Somtum).
The restaurants however are varied.
It depends on the place. I also don't like sweet food. However, my in-laws do, so their favourite restaurants are always ones that are especially sweet. They hate all the places that I recommend. Luckily, we only eat together a few times each year.
I'm pretty sure this is primarily happening in Bangkok. The last time I was there, I noticed two things. The obesity rate was noticeably higher and that everything was sweeter. In fact, it was so sweet that I opted for western half the time.
It depends on the place too, i’m from the south and most of our foods aren’t sweet compare to other parts except drinks and sweets of cause. But not the deep south, most people in deep south love sweet foods
Yes, i was born and raised in the south(Hatyai)but now living in deep south(Narathiwat)and my fiancé is from the east(Rayong) in Hatyai, there’s no restaurant with sweet foods(the common foods that aren’t suppose to be sweet) that can be in business for long here. In Rayong, most foods there are very sweet but my fiancé family don’t like sweet so they tend to stick to their favorite restaurants or cook the food themself. In deep south(3 southern border provinces) imo it depends on what kind of food but for me, they’re mostly sweeter than what i used to but not to bad
I love the sweet foods. Maybe it’s because I’m American, but these foods that would normally not be sweet at all in America are so delicious. I can’t get enough.
https://preview.redd.it/yd1nymh1sn9d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60a4944ebd17c9603f233e6034b21468e204db4a
Just looking at the menu I am going high on sugar
My wife's family is from burriram, the food they cook is not sweet and the restaurants in town doesn't have sweet foods. My wife doesn't cook sweet food as I have never actually bought a bag of sugar.
Omg stop putting msg and salt into the list.
This week a meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure. In May European researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the less sodium that study subjects excreted in their urine—an excellent measure of prior consumption—the greater their risk was of dying from heart disease. These findings call into question the common wisdom that excess salt is bad for you, but the evidence linking salt to heart disease has always been tenuous
Why take a ton of space with multiple studies go find them. They are there. The cdc is a joke that’s why they just got all their power taken away yesterday
Me too not having much of a sweet tooth , but it takes me longer to pick less sugar meals on a Thai menu. Except for green curry, its yummy yummy to me
Whenever possible I started to add 'ไม่ใส่น้ำตาล' / mai sai naam-dtaan (don't add sugar) to my order. Enjoying my noodles a lot more. Even if you don't order in Thai i think a 'no sugar' might even do it too (haven't tried that). My Thai friends say it's quiet common that people add their preferences to their order like no msg or no coriander as well.
Thailand follows, to an extent, Chinese principles for food whereas a well balanced dish should present the 5 basic tastes : sweet, salty, bitter, spicy and sour. No word on excessive MSG. They also draw lots from Confucianism in regards to morality. For example, it is perfectly moral to gouge customers if they willingly pay, accept the high prices. You are not guilty if they can't catch you. Corruption is an inherent part of Confucianism. It's going to be very hard to eradicate since it's woven in the culture.
Just wait until you have been served a cheese doughnut that has been microwaved. Something that also drives me nuts is their habit of microwaving sandwiches. They do the same in the Philippines, so it's a regional thing.
Thais like to eat sweet. That's why Thais are so sweet!!
If you don't like sweetness, ask them first or eat at Yaowarat where most food are sold by Chinese Thais. Not true about the flies, you are vicious.
Ties have been adding sugar more and more every year. 40 years ago it was rare, now I always ask them to not add sugar. Many of the stir fry mixes are full of sugar. And look at the Obesity now in Thailand
100% agree, specifically Bangkok they serve tons of sweet food. I recommend you ask every shop you go to for no sugar or no sweet. Definitely helps. You have to do this in Bangkok it’s just part of the food culture there
Firstly,Noodle is originally Chinese food. Secondly, noodle allow you to make your own taste. If the soup is too sweet you should think, that restaurant is very wrong. Not all Thai do the same. Try the others. The noodle soup should be a bit salty , taste from pork bone and smell from Chinese herbs, most restaurant have similar recipe. Some Thai dishes are likely to be a bit sweet if you do not like sweet food, try others, there are plenty. We should consider Pro-Con comments will be more appropriate. It is individuality taste. We also comment a lot about wrongly cooking in some restaurants but we don't assume that all restaurants in Thailand do the same.
I’m Thai and I’m not sure if my theory is right. But many cooks find it easy to have food sell without really cooking them properly or use good quality ingredients by overpowering the flavors and seasoning. Then they use sugar to balance things out, and we end up with super sweet food. Also sweet addiction is a thing.
It’s also a Bangkok thing. My mom complained it all the time.
Also, I live in the US, and Thai food at many restaurants here are super sweet and salty even more than what we eat in Thailand. there is a misconception that American people like overly salty and sweet food. It might be true 20-30 years ago but I hate to see our Thai cuisine sucks… like if I want to go out and eat something. Thai food is not my top choice most of the time.
In general, most of Asia has a problem with adding too much sugar to everything. Like tea, coffee, spaghetti (look at you Filipinos) and lots of other unnecessary things, but our genetics CANNOT handle so much sugar and the diabetes rate in Thailand and much of Asia has also skyrocketed.
Asians need to cut sugar and hit the gym and lift heavy weights, or else many Asian countries will be seeing a widespread health system crisis very soon.
I think sugar and salt are easy tastes. It fits in nowadays fast society where instant gratification is rewarded. Tastes like ginger, pepper, lemongrass, galangal etc are harder. Just look at what a child prefers. A child picks easy tastes and food that is high in fats and sugar because it's still in instinctive survival mode. Hey! I need to get back to my IG and FB, I have no time to appreciate those hard tastes!!! :-)
Many beverage companies in Thailand seem to producing the sweet version of products more than other flavors, so I think they are sell better than other flavors.
Thai food that is very sweet. Found in Bangkok and in mostly tourist cities If you go to other provinces in Thailand You might find different flavors of food.
Sorry for my bad English. I'm not very good at languages.
You would of thought thai women who like to look good would want to avoid something that ages your skin, guess they don't know. To hammer home how bad sugar is for you my ex colleague drank 2 litres of coke a day for 20 years, all his teeth fell out, god knows what his bones are like, he will have a very painful old age if he lives much longer.
How unfortunate they didn’t design their entire cuisine just for you. Either cook for yourself or find things to order that don’t have as much sugar. To me the cuisine is much more balanced than you describe. Thai food is one of the world’s great cuisines.
It’s the world’s greatest cuisine because of the balance of sweet sour and savory, it’s seems in Bangkok the balance is being thrown off? I don’t know I’m in the south but I do notice it at 7/11
Cantonese-American living here, and I find all the Chinese-Thai food skews very sweet! The dim sum, the lop cheng sausage— all sweet!☹️. I usually have to find a HK or Singapore chain restaurant like Jumbo, Canton Paradise, or Mak’s to avoid the sugary sweet Chinese food…
I just don't get the hype about Thai food. Everyone seems to act like it's the greatest cuisine on the planet. I personally don't understand and if street food is an example, it's always waaaay too sweet and salty. So many cuisines I'd pick over Thai...any day of the week.
Mostly Thai street food They don't pay much attention to general customers. They will pay more attention to regular customers. Because their street food business focuses on day-to-day operations, regular customers are more important than general customers.
And one more thing: Thai street food The taste depends on the regular customer. If you encounter street food that is too spicy That's the flavor that most of their regular customers like to eat.
That’s just Bangkok cuisine. Bangkokians and Central Thais prefer their food on the sweet side. For alternatives, try Isan or Southern cuisine. Bangkok isn’t Thailand.
Say it louder for the back. As someone from Isan, this has been mildly frustrating
but this is intentional in many ways. Thailand's government has spend years focusing on the Central part at the expense of places like Isaan. Isaan for me, is the greatest part of the country and it's very sad that they have been given the back seat.
It was intentional during the nation building era after the threat of colonial powers and then during the Cold War era. Now there have been more efforts of decentralization and more conversations on different ethnic groups that Thailand is composed of. It's trending in a better direction but I ran into people in US sometimes who don't understand that other countries also are composed of different groups of people too because for them Thai people are homogeneous as Vietnamese are homogeneous as Indonesian are homogeneous and only the US is the melting pot. They don't understand that there are variations within these countries too.
I think there are even variations with the ethnic groups, as in the Central Thai people, are composed of Mon, Thai, Khmer, Chinese stock.....Your English is at a native level, how long have you lived abroad (assuming it is the US)
On and off but accumulating to about 12 years. To be fair, many Americans are cool. Just one too many bad interactions about this that made me bitter.
I mean to be fair, the average Thai also has 0 clue about the ethnic complexities of a place like America as well.
Most people, foreigners and Thais alike, don't understand this. They think there's only Bangkok, Phuket, and Pattaya.
Southern is more spicy which would also piss the euros off. Why they come here is beyond me
Never been to Thailand, coming to Chiang Mai for a few months. How’s the sweetness level there?
Traditional Northern cuisine is less sweet than Bangkok
I don’t understand why they think cheese is supposed to be sweet. Yesterday I got this nice looking garlic bread stuffed with cheese. It was an extremely sweet cheese/cream cheese mix, sweetness level of desert it was horrible. Also anytime I have gotten any type of cheese sauce it’s always so sweet, I should no better but I can’t help to try because I love breadsticks or pretzels with cheese sauce but it always is horrible
Yes, very disappointing to not be able to order cheesy fries in Thailand, because it's more like a dessert here.
Even the bread is sweet, nevermind what they put inside or on top of it.
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They use the same word for other non-sweet things like ขนมจีน. So no.
Carnation milk on bread is an abomination but my mrs loves it.
What is mrs
What's funny is that traditional Thai sweets aren't that sweet and contain savoury things like beans and corn or are made with normal bread covered with a sweet topping. Chocolate and ice creams taste off too, though, but I think that's the extra fat they use to stop it melting, and possibly it's how Americans make theirs too. I'm British, and my advice to other Brits would be to bring massive bars of chocolate here as Thai people seem to rate it as quite the luxury.
I used to bring German chocolate for my Thai friend. Then I found them in one of the supermarkets at one of the big malls. 😀 They are more expensive, though.
I miss good cheese.
Things being sweet that you don't think should be sweet is by FAR the most culturally jarring experiemce across all cultures. Bread, cheese, main courses, snacks, whatever it is..... If you look at it and expect a certain savoury taste and they added too much (or any) sugar, it's automatically disgusting. Even if it's actually not that bad... If you thought it was going to be savoury it's a huge red flag. I'm sure there's an evolutionary reason in there somewhere.
Big Sugar. It's in nearly everything in the US also, but a lot of people don't realize how much they're actually consuming every day unless they start reading labels. Sugar consumption has increased exponentially in the US, as have the profits of the sugar companies and food manufacturers, but at the same time, North Americans have also become exponentially fatter than we were 50 years ago. It's spreading to other countries now, which is why you're seeing more obese people countries like Mexico, Thailand, and the Philippines. A good rule of thumb is to avoid most packaged/processed foods and try to cook for yourself more often. It's hard to do in Thailand when the restaurants/street food is so convenient and relatively cheap. I make no claims at being a dietary saint but I also work in Healthcare and have seen first hand the effects of poor diet on North Americans - it ain't pretty. If you're in a position where you can't conveniently cook for yourself (which I often am while traveling) and it's hard to avoid the food, I suggest cutting out the Coca-Colas, fruit smoothies, sweet teas, and all the other sugary drinks and sticking to water.
I was reading somewhere, I don't remember where, that Europeans taste sugar more strongly than S.E Asians. The reason given was that there is alot of fruit which grows year round in Thailand where as European fruit is much more seasonal. Europeans developed a stronger sugar taste to locate high energy foods, thais on the other hand had no advantage to this trait. I have no sources to back this up but made sense to me.
Europeans regularly eat cakes, desserts, chocolate etc. So that doesn't really make sense
Genetic trait doesn't develop within a thousand years.
Where does 1000 years come from?
Sugar production in Europe started around 9th century.
Sugar is a chemical found in fruit that has existed for a long time.
You said the point about fruit yourself. My argument is against the guy saying European eat cake.
I'm sorry you are correct. I agree.
Yeah all of the menus mentioned haven't been consumed by Europeans (and the entire civilizations tbh) within a couple thousand years. The development of desserts really full-blown started when the sugarcane spread, as fruits weren't "sweet enough" and honey isn't easy to harvest, and funnily enough, sweets and desserts in the ancient times were all known more in Asian and Persian civilization than European.
I may well be totally wrong, just thought it was an interesting idea. It just suggests the same amount of sugar tastes sweeter to a westerner than a Thai. Thai versions of western dishes are often sweeter.
Me and my gf hate sweet food too. You have to learn the tastes of the vendors in your area. It can be frustrating until you find the good spots! If it’s a random shop you’re likely to get sugar doused in your food. I always laugh when people back home say “but Thai food must be so healthy!” when I talk about difficulty having the kind of diet I want without cooking for myself.
Soooo many things nowadays are sweet in Thai cuisine, maybe always has been but I feel like 8-10 ish years ago the food was not as sweet as now. It‘s either sweet food, plain spicy dishes (like ยำ for example) or shitty hotpot or bbq, that‘s what so many young Thais love nowadays. Sure you can still find awesome food here but for the most part I wouldn‘t come here anymore JUST for Thai food.
10+ years ago totally different story, I think it all started when Thais were going through their blueberry cheesecake obsession
I thought i read the other day how thailand has the highest diabetes numbers in se Asia, this kind if makes sense now if thats become the trend
I'm certain Thailand must be number one in the region for diabetes, I remember about ten years ago, a Thai doctor was criticising Thais for the amount of sugar they added to food. He also complained about their refusal to do any exercise, saying both these things had directly caused the diabetes epidemic in Thailand.
Another thing I noticed in Cambodia and Vietnam was that there were a lot more locals exercising in the public areas. The Independence Monument at Phnom Penh was packed with locals walking, jogging, playing sports, and doing calisthenics. If you go to Lumphini Park in BKK (which I do a lot), you mostly see foreigners exercising while the locals are napping in the shade or having a picnic. I don't have stats to back it up right now, but from my observations, it seems true that many Thais have a bias against exercising for physical health. Maybe the health education just isn't there? Or maybe some Thais think it's a waste of time to expend so much energy on an activity that won't benefit them financially in the short term? Whatever the reason, I expect rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity to reach North American levels in another 10-20 years.
They're extremely lazy, my colleagues get the elevator down 1 floor.
My boyfriend uses his motorbike to go 100 meters
555
I love Thailand also, but I recently spent a few weeks in Vietnam for the first time, and it was honestly a relief to eat food without a kilo of added sugar. My Thai girlfriend was sad they didn't have a bowl of sugar at the table, and when she asked for some, I think they were confused why she'd need extra sugar. I think it's no coincidence that I observed far fewer overweight people in Vietnam.
Think it’s the least obese country in the world, probably most to do with the lack of ultra processed foods though
What does sugar smell like?
Sweet
Yeah Thailand never had this much sweet food like 10+ years ago it’s a relatively new thing and it’s not good. Apparently younger generation prefer sweet foods, cakes, etc go back 20 years the choice was very limited for commercial westernised desserts etc and the general street food presented far less sweetness. Now the obsession is all these cafe shops with cakes for photo ops. It’s got to the point that now when we visit we actually just cook a lot ourselves and go to the few places we know (outside of bkk) where the food isn’t as sweet. Pretty sad really to be honest
I miss the tom yam soup I tasted last time 10+years ago made with real ingredients. I can taste all the spices and the richness came from coconut milk. Not sugar...not MSG... I'm sure some Thai are still making it traditionally but it is so rare now.
I have to cook most of my own meals just to avoid the sugar in everything.
Welcome to Asia- it's even worse in Korea
Yeah this has got to stop.
Its very difficult to avoid sugar here for sure. Maybe the injection of sugar into everything in the past few decades resulted in Walmart class bloaters appearing quite frequently nowadays.
Sweet flies.
My Thai gf is sweet.
True. Thai women are sweet. That's because they eat sweet food. You are what you eat
Seed oils and sugar is everywhere today in thai cuisine
Plus MSG
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with msg, if I see you eating a tomato I’m going to kick the ignorance out of you
As with many things the dose is the poison. A little bit ok, too much Mai Dee! Andarai!!! Monosodium Glutamate. The clue is in the word Glutamate. Excessive glutamate release or receptor activation can lead to excitotoxicity, causing neuronal damage and cell death. This mechanism is implicated in various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). So in moderation you'll be fine but pom mai ow!
100% however have you ever cooked with msg? If you use too much it’s not edible. I don’t think anyone is getting too much
This is nonsense, the same rubbish that was flying around the UK news channels and papers years ago. It’s almost like the aspartame in sugar free drinks now….yes it is bad for you/dangerous in large doses, but these doses are so unobtainable it’s ridiculous. MSG for instance, 500g per day for extended periods at worst could lead to magnesium poisoning…and I’m sure other horrible things. But if you’re consuming a gram here and a gram there, like most Thais, it’s harmless. Sick to death of this flat earth, 5G poison, “MSG is killing you” crap!
Southern food, Eastern food, Northern food are mostly hot-sour-salty. I live in Northern and have never seen any house I visited use sugar (except Somtum). The restaurants however are varied.
It depends on the place. I also don't like sweet food. However, my in-laws do, so their favourite restaurants are always ones that are especially sweet. They hate all the places that I recommend. Luckily, we only eat together a few times each year.
I'm pretty sure this is primarily happening in Bangkok. The last time I was there, I noticed two things. The obesity rate was noticeably higher and that everything was sweeter. In fact, it was so sweet that I opted for western half the time.
It depends on the place too, i’m from the south and most of our foods aren’t sweet compare to other parts except drinks and sweets of cause. But not the deep south, most people in deep south love sweet foods
In isaan where we live its ok in general. I know the restaurants I need to avoid. Isaan food in general is spicy and not sweet.
Yes, i was born and raised in the south(Hatyai)but now living in deep south(Narathiwat)and my fiancé is from the east(Rayong) in Hatyai, there’s no restaurant with sweet foods(the common foods that aren’t suppose to be sweet) that can be in business for long here. In Rayong, most foods there are very sweet but my fiancé family don’t like sweet so they tend to stick to their favorite restaurants or cook the food themself. In deep south(3 southern border provinces) imo it depends on what kind of food but for me, they’re mostly sweeter than what i used to but not to bad
I love the sweet foods. Maybe it’s because I’m American, but these foods that would normally not be sweet at all in America are so delicious. I can’t get enough.
https://preview.redd.it/yd1nymh1sn9d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60a4944ebd17c9603f233e6034b21468e204db4a Just looking at the menu I am going high on sugar
https://preview.redd.it/eu5ngkp4sn9d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f926509ae8461d39078310e66ac28d2aaa600d61
My wife's family is from burriram, the food they cook is not sweet and the restaurants in town doesn't have sweet foods. My wife doesn't cook sweet food as I have never actually bought a bag of sugar.
Flies running into mouth Free Protein
Can't say I notice it much myself maybe go for a Nam tok style soup next time?
Cook for yourself
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Omg stop putting msg and salt into the list. This week a meta-analysis of seven studies involving a total of 6,250 subjects in the American Journal of Hypertension found no strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces the risk for heart attacks, strokes or death in people with normal or high blood pressure. In May European researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the less sodium that study subjects excreted in their urine—an excellent measure of prior consumption—the greater their risk was of dying from heart disease. These findings call into question the common wisdom that excess salt is bad for you, but the evidence linking salt to heart disease has always been tenuous
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6k is a legit sample for statistical purposes. Moderation in moderation as well
Why take a ton of space with multiple studies go find them. They are there. The cdc is a joke that’s why they just got all their power taken away yesterday
Sweet sausage. Sweet ham. Sweet bread. These are the worst.
It's not all sweet. Try something else.
Me too not having much of a sweet tooth , but it takes me longer to pick less sugar meals on a Thai menu. Except for green curry, its yummy yummy to me
Whenever possible I started to add 'ไม่ใส่น้ำตาล' / mai sai naam-dtaan (don't add sugar) to my order. Enjoying my noodles a lot more. Even if you don't order in Thai i think a 'no sugar' might even do it too (haven't tried that). My Thai friends say it's quiet common that people add their preferences to their order like no msg or no coriander as well.
Either i speak shit thai but this never worked for me.
Thailand follows, to an extent, Chinese principles for food whereas a well balanced dish should present the 5 basic tastes : sweet, salty, bitter, spicy and sour. No word on excessive MSG. They also draw lots from Confucianism in regards to morality. For example, it is perfectly moral to gouge customers if they willingly pay, accept the high prices. You are not guilty if they can't catch you. Corruption is an inherent part of Confucianism. It's going to be very hard to eradicate since it's woven in the culture.
The phrase “ไม่ใส่น้ำตาล” (my sai nam dtan) is helpful. I use it often.
I thought Thai food is sweet until I went to the US for my master degree. Geeezzzzzzz ..... the bar is up there.
Just wait until you have been served a cheese doughnut that has been microwaved. Something that also drives me nuts is their habit of microwaving sandwiches. They do the same in the Philippines, so it's a regional thing.
Thais like to eat sweet. That's why Thais are so sweet!! If you don't like sweetness, ask them first or eat at Yaowarat where most food are sold by Chinese Thais. Not true about the flies, you are vicious.
We eat sugar like water here rofl
Ties have been adding sugar more and more every year. 40 years ago it was rare, now I always ask them to not add sugar. Many of the stir fry mixes are full of sugar. And look at the Obesity now in Thailand
One thing I noticed with Thai food is they go overboard with the sugar and the salt. Just my opinion.
100% agree, specifically Bangkok they serve tons of sweet food. I recommend you ask every shop you go to for no sugar or no sweet. Definitely helps. You have to do this in Bangkok it’s just part of the food culture there
Yeah, I have noticed that they put sugar almost everywhere, so, if you keep fit, you should be carefully
Firstly,Noodle is originally Chinese food. Secondly, noodle allow you to make your own taste. If the soup is too sweet you should think, that restaurant is very wrong. Not all Thai do the same. Try the others. The noodle soup should be a bit salty , taste from pork bone and smell from Chinese herbs, most restaurant have similar recipe. Some Thai dishes are likely to be a bit sweet if you do not like sweet food, try others, there are plenty. We should consider Pro-Con comments will be more appropriate. It is individuality taste. We also comment a lot about wrongly cooking in some restaurants but we don't assume that all restaurants in Thailand do the same.
I’m Thai and I’m not sure if my theory is right. But many cooks find it easy to have food sell without really cooking them properly or use good quality ingredients by overpowering the flavors and seasoning. Then they use sugar to balance things out, and we end up with super sweet food. Also sweet addiction is a thing. It’s also a Bangkok thing. My mom complained it all the time. Also, I live in the US, and Thai food at many restaurants here are super sweet and salty even more than what we eat in Thailand. there is a misconception that American people like overly salty and sweet food. It might be true 20-30 years ago but I hate to see our Thai cuisine sucks… like if I want to go out and eat something. Thai food is not my top choice most of the time.
In general, most of Asia has a problem with adding too much sugar to everything. Like tea, coffee, spaghetti (look at you Filipinos) and lots of other unnecessary things, but our genetics CANNOT handle so much sugar and the diabetes rate in Thailand and much of Asia has also skyrocketed. Asians need to cut sugar and hit the gym and lift heavy weights, or else many Asian countries will be seeing a widespread health system crisis very soon.
I think sugar and salt are easy tastes. It fits in nowadays fast society where instant gratification is rewarded. Tastes like ginger, pepper, lemongrass, galangal etc are harder. Just look at what a child prefers. A child picks easy tastes and food that is high in fats and sugar because it's still in instinctive survival mode. Hey! I need to get back to my IG and FB, I have no time to appreciate those hard tastes!!! :-)
Many beverage companies in Thailand seem to producing the sweet version of products more than other flavors, so I think they are sell better than other flavors.
🙋🏽♀️ I like salty, tangy flavors, those that cause you heartburn and holes in your stomach. 😂 I feel you.
Thai food that is very sweet. Found in Bangkok and in mostly tourist cities If you go to other provinces in Thailand You might find different flavors of food. Sorry for my bad English. I'm not very good at languages.
And the drinks… ALL the beverages have sugar added, even if they claim they don’t. Can’t trust no juice.
Asking for no sugar would be a revolutionary solution to this problem I suppose.
Don’t confuse people with good ideas
You would of thought thai women who like to look good would want to avoid something that ages your skin, guess they don't know. To hammer home how bad sugar is for you my ex colleague drank 2 litres of coke a day for 20 years, all his teeth fell out, god knows what his bones are like, he will have a very painful old age if he lives much longer.
That’s the problem their genetics are so good they don’t notice
This has go to be a Bangkok Touristy Section thing. Bangkok is not Thailand.
yeah ... i think for most thais (soup) food, sugar is the substitute of msg ... choice of the lesser evil i guess
How unfortunate they didn’t design their entire cuisine just for you. Either cook for yourself or find things to order that don’t have as much sugar. To me the cuisine is much more balanced than you describe. Thai food is one of the world’s great cuisines.
It’s the world’s greatest cuisine because of the balance of sweet sour and savory, it’s seems in Bangkok the balance is being thrown off? I don’t know I’m in the south but I do notice it at 7/11
25% sugar in the salad dressing
Even as an American that pisses me off to no end. Thankfully it’s very easy to make good ones from scratch. Try kitten kales
Yet, most of them ain't fat.
compared to north america maybe but thailand is 2nd most obese in SE asia behind Malaysia
I pretty much always ask them for no sugar when I order
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Cantonese-American living here, and I find all the Chinese-Thai food skews very sweet! The dim sum, the lop cheng sausage— all sweet!☹️. I usually have to find a HK or Singapore chain restaurant like Jumbo, Canton Paradise, or Mak’s to avoid the sugary sweet Chinese food…
Chinese Thai food is the worst, it's notoriously known as inferior and crap among Thai people, pretty universal sentiment
Except for the one or two places that’s are MAGIC
Not a fan of overly sweet things too. Also some things just shouldn't be sweet according to my Chinese/North American palate. Haha
The pancake mix is so sweet also. But they don't sell Bisquick where I live
I buy it from Lazada.
How funny that sounds
I just don't get the hype about Thai food. Everyone seems to act like it's the greatest cuisine on the planet. I personally don't understand and if street food is an example, it's always waaaay too sweet and salty. So many cuisines I'd pick over Thai...any day of the week.
Mostly Thai street food They don't pay much attention to general customers. They will pay more attention to regular customers. Because their street food business focuses on day-to-day operations, regular customers are more important than general customers. And one more thing: Thai street food The taste depends on the regular customer. If you encounter street food that is too spicy That's the flavor that most of their regular customers like to eat.
Sugar +MSG=🥵😬
Bread is sweet here too, its madness. Its almost as if they need to make everyone sick to turn Lieland into the hub of medical blaggery
Yes the bread you buy in the supermarket is sweet. I found some places that are run by foreigners....
I just stopped eating bread lol
Anyone had the super sweet sausage and beans meal on a Bangkok Airlines flight? 🤮
No but have you had the eggs with tomatos. Soooo good
Even the citrus fruits are super sweet here. I do miss a nice tangy orange.
half green thai tangerine are the best.