Chinese Diet

I occasionally wonder how the Chinese stay so thin. Yes, they are generally more active. Yes, the typical Chinese diet omits dairy. But a new thought occurred to me after my secretary dumped a pile of boiled Chestnuts on my desk. Almost all their snacks are a real pain in the ^&%*% to eat. You have to gnaw, crack, peel and struggle to get the most measly amount of food out of whatever it is that's in front of you.

She has never come in with a can of deshelled nuts and said "have at". Instead, you get shells, skins, whatever that you have to fight your way through. By the time you get to the edible part, you're so tired you can barely chew. And in my case, I generally need a bath, because I'm covered in whatever it was that protected the food. I'm also sweating because I attach the exterior with the intensity of a starving Ethiopian child. It's as if I'm afraid the food will have spoiled by the time I reach it. All of it. Whatever is in front of me. The more there is the bigger the challenge.