Healthy Food

Some of you might be wondering if you can obtain healthy food in Phuket while on your trip of a lifetime. The answer is YES!

Thai food can be quite healthy as it is, or you can choose some other healthy meal options if you’re looking for something specific. Any Thai soup, except something with coconut milk like khao tom gai, is quite healthy. Look for soups with clear or almost clear broth and you’ll be fine. The ingredients in Tom Yum Soup include vegetables and whatever main item you wish – shrimp, chicken, seafood, squid, or something else. Choose something healthy, or even eating squid is not so bad because you’ll have a lot of vegetables with your soup to counteract it.

Anything stir-fried is fried in a light oil, but often times it is cooked so briefly that the oil doesn’t have time to seep into the food – and it can be moderately healthy anyway. Pad pak (various stir-fried vegetables) or pad pak boong (stir-fried morning glory) can both be fairly low in oil – depending on the restaurant.

Noodle dishes are nearly all fried in some oil, and again, it depends greatly on who is doing the cooking. Some chefs will leave a coating of oil on the noodles for pad Thai for instance, and some won’t.

There are vegetarian restaurants all over Southern Thailand, and you’ll find many healthy food options in Phuket because of the Jae Vegetarian Festival held annually. There are many kinds of eggs you can try, including regular chicken eggs, salty eggs (red yolk), and fermented eggs (black!).

The morning and evening food markets are brilliant for finding healthy food – mostly in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition to whole fruits and veggies, you can buy pre-cut pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon and other messy fruit that is already in a container for you with a toothpick to eat it with. Healthy food in Phuket will keep you smiling!

Thai food is filled with salt – and you may want to learn the phrase for please don’t add salt - Mai sai gleu-uh, ka (or ‘krup’ if you’re a male). Replace “gleu-uh” with “num taan” for sugar. To skip the monosodium glutamate, just say “Mai sai pong choo rot nah, ka (krup)” and is pronounced ‘my sy pong choo rote (long o) nah’. It means, “No add MSG.”

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