Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

I plan on living on a budget in bali and frequenting the warungs, but I'm also trying to shed a few pounds. Is balinese food typically healthy or is there alot of fat and oil?

any good healthy meals to suggest? or unhealthy ones to avoid?

any good healthy meals to suggest?

Try sticking to fruits, red rice and vegetables.

I think it's very hard to answer the question, "how healthy is bali food" (or any type of food for that matter) without knowing the context of the people consuming it.

Take Indians living in Canada for example - they now have a massive problem with diabetes. Why? Because they eat a diet rich in fat and carbohydrates but don't burn them off working 12 hrs a day in the sun as their ancestors did. For their ancestors, the diet was perfect - for the new generation sitting in an office or wherever (e.g. A taxi) all day, that excess energy gets immediately stored as fat - and they're eating the same calorie rich food year round, unlike their ancestors, who probably only ate what they could farm themselves or trade their produce for. Its not just india and indians - its happening everywhere around the world, where peoples lifestyles are becoming a whole lot more physically inactive, while their diet remains unchanged, and of course even worse, often becomes 'infiltrated' by bad western habbits of using refined sugars, etc.

Roy's recomendation for someone like me for example wouldn't work. Red rice and fruits are full of carbs. I definitely couldn't shed any pounds on that - I would need to stick to proteins - with not too much fat, limited complex carbs like multigrains and green vegetables. But if you're balinese, and enjoy a very active lifestyle, white rice, lots of fruit and a decent dose of fat is all probably very healthy.

Just my 2 cents.

Ct

Unfortunately it is all too easy to gain weight in Bali despite the heat and fresh food.
Much is fried and has added fats such as peanuts, oils, coconut milks etc. I have a number of friends who stacked on kilos in the first year.
Basically though you should be able to eat the same as you do in your home town, there is a huge variety of restaurants in Bali offering cuisine from all parts of the globe.

Personally I lost heaps of weight when living in Lombok - the diet is similar to Bali, perhaps spicier and no pig of course. At first I was concerned about the fried food, peanuts, and amount of carbs from fruit and rice. But then, I relaxed and just ate whatever and it dropped off. Unfortunately, after 2 years back in Australia, all back on again now.

I put it down to 1. I didn't drink alcohol, 2. I very rarely had any type of processed food - no bread, biscuits, sweets, icecream, chocolate etc. And hardly ever ate snacks as I don't like the Indonesian snacks much. But I have to admit I ate mostly what I cooked myself bought fresh at the markets, not warung food, and no mie goreng.

Just watch your portions, watch how much alcohol you drink as it is pure empty calories, and take a lovely walk on the beach every day. The food itself is really healthy - the only fat Balinese you see are generally those that can afford western food, or who are wealthy and eat too much. Has to say something about the diet.

Yep, I think the beer, cocktails, cakes and just mostly eating out and getting greedy did it for my friends
It's hard for them also when friends from overseas do visit so often and want to go to great places like Blossom and even the warungs have some good fattening delights.

I stay 2 months in Bali every year. I eat mostly food in the willage and I loose about 3 kg, ervery time I am there ( put them back on again when I go back to Norway )

When I am away I eat because there is nothing else to do. When I am at home I eat all the food I have missed when I am away. Does nothing for my figure

I usually lose weight in Bali, mainly because I am eating smaller portions even though I have more meals per day there, and definitely because I walk more. I eat mostly Indonesian food in Bali and I find it sits lighter in the stomach than bread, pasta or large serves of meat. My husband would have to be the healthiest person I know, he prefers to eat rice, seafood, vegetables and fruit, doesn't like sweet or fatty food and rarely drinks alcohol. Even if I cook something like pasta or a meat dish, he will have a big plateful of the rice and vegies with just a little of the other food on the side. He actually puts on weight when we are in Indonesia, mainly because he makes the most of all the food not easily available here, he still sticks to the rice, vegies, seafood and fruit - but in huge quantities.

In Australia, my cholesterol level was high, now 21 months later in Bali, way down. What do we eat? We eat out a bit - not seeking western menus very often. We buy in meals for home, particularly ikan bakar, and then we cook some of the time, and that is a fusion of local and western.

Hi there! From my experience, the foods I’ve eaten and the recipes I’ve seen, I can tell you Balinese food is pretty healthy. There’s a lot of rice and spices, it’s quite hot and spicy, which raises your metabolism. Some meat (mostly pork), fish, sea foods, coconut milk etc. make very nutritious ingredients that are good for you, and for cooking no fat or anything is used, so it’s healthy.