Healthy Travel in Thailand
If you are used to maintain a healthy way of living, your travel to Thailand should not be an exception. Everywhere in Thailand – even in the ex-backpackers’ island Koh Phangan you have everything you need to preserve your way of life and even to improve your personal health. In my opinion, the main components of a healthy trip are: healthy food, physical activities and health treatments if possible (in Thailand it is available for any pocket).
1. Healthy food. In Thailand, solid balance between healthy and enjoyable food in unbelievably easy to achieve. Thai cuisine based on fresh ingredients, including an abundance of vegetables and herbs. Of course, there’s no cuisine in the entire world that offers nothing but healthy food; even so, Thai cuisine enables you to assemble a healthy menu, and probably make an exception once in a while for something especially delicious.
Well balanced diet based on whole foods, such as whole wheat, brown rice, , low starch vegetables etc. Some of these foods can be found in Thai cuisine. The list of healthy Thai dishes, available in Koh Phangan (in big urban centers like Bangkok you can always reach more), includes:
a. All kinds of vegetable soups: Tom Kha, Tom Yum etc. These soups can be made out of pure vegetables or they include fish, seafood or meat (the last choice is less recommended). If you are a strict vegetarian – be sure that your soup doesn’t include any fish sauce, a very popular adding in Thai cuisine.
b. Myriads of vegetable salads, including papaya salad, cashew salad, plain vegetable salad etc. If you are a vegetarian – make sure your salad doesn’t include any seafood additives (fish sauce, dried shrimp).
c. Cooked (but not fried) vegetables, such as oriental broccoli, carrot, green beans, spinach, cabbage eggplant; vegetable curries.
d. Usually, you can choose the main ingredient of your dish from the following : Chicken, Pork, Seafood or Vegetables. Of course, from a healthy point of view the best choices are seafood and vegetables…
e. Steamed fish. The fish in the island are usually fresh. From a healthy perspective, the steamed fish will is by far a better choice than the grilled fish, and the grilled fish is preferable over the fried version.
f. Fruit shakes that are made of fresh fruit and ice – with no sugar added.
There are also several dishes, which are neither healthy nor especially unhealthy. This category includes traditional Thai rice (in Thai restaurants is usually served white rice, which has no nutritional value. The more healthy brown rice is still considered in Thailand as a low quality food), and all kinds of noodles. By the way, vegetarians should be aware of the fact, that many noodle dishes include eggs in some form.
Finally, there’re some foods you should avoid if healthy food is your first preference:
a. Deep fried food – meat, seafood, fish, vegetables, egg rolls and so on;
b. If you can see an external ice stand with fish and seafood on it outside the restaurant – avoid it. Ice stands are not reliable means for keeping food properly cooled and fresh especially during tropical seasons.
c. Fatty food, such as pork, which is very popular in Thailand and usually served fried. It could be extremely delicious – but mostly hazardous to your health.
As for me, back home I strictly maintain a healthy lifestyle and a well balanced diet. Despite this principle, I can’t avoid deep investigating of local cuisine while traveling overseas. Consequently, I make an exception once in a while in favor of typically unhealthy but delicious foods.
2. Healthy treatments. Recently, myriads of advanced healthy treatments became available in Koh Phangan. These treatments are provided by the Koh Phangan Sanctuary wellness center and include:
a. Fasting: complete or partial (refraining from eating solid foods). The fasting program can last 1 to 7 days- you choose.
b. Cleansing, including colon cleansing diets, parasite cleanse, kidney cleansing using natural methods etc.
c. Detox: removal of toxic substances from the body using a special diet, certain herbs, juice fasting and/or colonic irrigation.
d. You can add to the above treathments several highly indulging treatments, such as the traditional Thai body massage. These treatments are available everywhere in Koh Phangan, including Sanctuary, spas and massage centers.
3. Physical activities. Koh Phangan has the best selection of organized and/or guided activities: trekking, watersport, biking etc.
