The hottest topic on my blog, apart from air pollution, is always food safety in China. The newspapers are filled almost daily with the latest scandal, or a repeat of old scandals, and it’s a legitimate question to wonder just what is safe to eat. I’d like to share my tips both as a doctor …

I’ve lived in Beijing almost five years now and often write about food safety issues in China — but the recent deluge of new scandals seems to be setting a new high (or low?). The latest involves a very scary story from Xinjiang, where at least 11 persons died two weekends ago from eating food …

Summer is in full swing, and many of us are enjoying one of life’s favorite past times — eating barbecued foods. Who can’t resist ears of corn, or a burger or hot dog? I certainly can’t, and have no intention of stopping — but I am now more careful about what and where I eat …

Last week I discussed the fascinating results from a large study which showed how regular use of yogurt can actually cause weight loss. Yes, this is for real, and I found the findings impressive enough to encourage all my readers to start eating yogurt daily. Sounds easy, yes? Sure, it should be — but not …

How many of you get a bit queasy in a Chinese restaurant when you watch everyone dipping and re-dipping into the shared dishes with their own chopsticks? Well, you’re not being a hypochondriac or showing Western cultural insensitivity — there is indeed a major transfer of viruses and bacteria from all that back-and-forth in the …

This is part 3 of my analysis of the results from my recent online survey of Beijing health, which I called the Health Snapshot Beijing 2010. It’s the first of what I hope will be an annual survey to assess Beijing’s healthcare and expat’s perceptions of their health. Part one reviewed overall perceptions, while part …

Many readers may be following the story in the U.S. about an epidemic of stomach infections from eggs contaminated with salmonella bacteria. This bacteria can live both inside and outside eggs, which otherwise may look perfectly normal. The main way to prevent such outbreaks is for the chicken farms to prevent rodents and other animals from …

Emperors and kings used to have food tasters screen their foods for poisons; I have my own tester — my skin. Whenever I eat unfresh foods that have toxins or chemicals in them, my skin will quickly break out with little itchy spots. The culprit is almost always seafood, especially shellfish, which I love to …

Case study: A 45 year old woman eats leftovers of sushi and salad (1 day in fridge). Two days later, she has diarrhea, stomach cramps, gas, and vomiting… The Basics Literally, gastroenteritis means “inflammation of the stomach”. This is the treaded traveler’s diarrhea, also known as Turista. It is an infection of the stomach tract, …

I’ve made so many posts regarding pollution in Beijing that I’ve created a new category to make it easier for everyone to find. Now, at the top of the website is a new link to “POLLUTION”, which lists the top articles about what I feel are the four major categories of pollution in Beijing: Outdoor …

Next week is Dragon Boat Festival (duanwu 端午), and the big dish is the very tasty rice dumpling wrapped in banana leaf. Known as zongzi (粽子), these come in both savory and sweet flavors. It’s a great tradition, and probably your Chinese friends and relatives are passing them around as gifts — but there can …

I think we’ve all had enough of depressing food safety articles, haven’t we? So, I’ve decided to provide a ray of hope and tell you about a Chinese restaurant chain that is extremely healthy, inexpensive, fun, family friendly, and clean (“A” rating). It should be #1 on the expat mag lists of Top Chinese Restaurants, and …