About Hazel Ng Hazel Ng, RD is the director of DSC Weight Management Program www.dscwellness.com who has helped thousands of people to regain their shape.  DSC is located at 889 San Gabriel Blvd., Sn Gabriel, CA 91776. She enjoys dining out with family and friends and she teaches her clients how to enjoy foods in a healthy way.  She strongly believes that sensible eating, not restrictive diets, is the key to a healthy and happy life.

Vietnamese food gives you plenty of healthy options. The famous “Pho” is a rice noodle soup with thin slices of beef.  You can also choose tendons or beef balls which are also low fat choices. On the side they will give you a big plate of bean sprouts so you can have your two servings of veggies right there. If you have high blood pressure, although it is tasty, I suggest not to drink the soup to avoid excessive intake of sodium. If you do not like beef, “Pho Ga” which means chicken noodle soup, offers another meat option that is also very tasty and nutritious.

The healthy choice among Vietnamese appetizers is “Cuon” which is veggies and shrimp or shredded pork wrapped in rice paper.  I always suggest my weight loss clients to have an order of these “cuon” as their main dish because it is a very low fat but nutritionally balanced meal itself. Other appetizers that are deep fried, such as egg rolls and shrimp paste, should be consumed with caution and in moderation. Should you choose to enjoy these fried foods, I suggest you to wrap them in lettuce so that you will also take in more fiber at the same time.

Vietnamese rice dishes are called “Com” which means broken rice; it is steamed rice that are cut into smaller pieces.  This dish comes with a wide variety of meat/protein combinations such as charboiled beef or pork chop, steamed egg, shredded pork skin, beef roll, bean curd skin, sausage, and shrimp paste.  Among them, charboiled beef or pork will be the better choice since the charboiled cooking method leaves the meat with less fat content.  Steam eggs with ground pork (not lean) inside will be higher in cholesterol, sausage itself is a very high fat and high sodium meat, and bean curd skin and shrimp paste are deep fried items that are less desirable in a weight conscious meal.

“Vermicelli”, the very thin rice noodles, is a good choice to substitute for the rice as vermicelli’s caloric density is less than rice and “pho”.  The vermicelli plate “Bun Kho” usually starts with lots of greens laying at the bottom, and then comes the layer of vermicelli, and top with your choices of the meat/protein foods. This serves as a very good choice for healthy eaters.

Although there are plenty of low fat healthy options with Vietnamese dishes, you need to be careful when ordering beverages.  The best bet will of course be Ice Lemon Tea, Fresh Lemon Drink (not with soda), and Soy Bean Milk. Other drinks are usually loaded with sugar, including coconut juice.  If you are a coffee lover, you probably love the Vietnamese coffee. However, since you will not be able to choose skim or lowfat milk with your coffee, be aware that the use of condensed milk might affect your cholesterol and glucose level. 

Vietnamese desserts are usually made with beans and coconut milk. It gives you higher fiber but the saturated fat in coconut milk will adversely affect your blood cholesterol levels. So, try to make coconut juice and coconut milk your infrequent choice of food.