Diet Detours: Chinese takout

Chinese takeout is convenient, quick, and easy - but it can also be a diet sabotage.

Lemon chicken, not only looks delicious but looks light too.

But, don't be fooled. It packs over 1400 calories - the same as eating nearly 5 McDonald's Cheeseburgers!

"Chinese takeout can be healthy and it can be very very unhealthy," said Emma Fogt, Registered dietitian nutritionist.

She says beware when ordering, some Chinese food dishes are not only loaded with salt, but fat too.

"Sometimes it seems like a mystery we don't know what we are getting, how much fat how much salt," said Emma.

And because of the fat, Emma says the calories can add up.

Before we even got to the meal, we talked about appetizers, an egg roll versus a spring roll"

"The calories in here are double what the spring roll is," said Emma.

Emma added that a deep fried egg roll can pack nearly 300 calories.

Although fried, the smaller size and thinner wrapper of this spring roll cut the calories in half, making it her green light.

We had some more appetizers, pork dumplings versus one of our favorites, wonton soup."

"I would give a green light to the wonton soup, only because it has less of a dumpling in it," said Emma.

Emma says wonton soup with just one dumpling will fill you up with just 100 calories.

One dumpling is equal to the whole bowl of soup? "Basically," added Emma.

The 500 calories in 6 steamed dumplings drives this dish straight to our next detour.

"And for noodle lovers, vegetable lo mein versus buddah's delight."

Emma says the platter of noodles in the lo mein will get you in trouble.

They call it vegetable lo mein, but there are not many vegetables in it.

Digging into this platter will set you back upwards of 900 calories.

Emma says the Buddah's delight is the clear winner here.

It's packed with veggies and just a few noodles and you can indulge in this dish.

The entire platter only has 200 calories!

Next, Ali and Emma paired up two popular chicken dishes.

Chicken with black bean sauce versus a chicken with sno peas.

Emma says, "One of them is twice the calories!"

She says the black bean sauce sabotages this dish!

Our next detour was 800 calories per serving!

The chicken stir-fry with sno peas gets Emma's green light, with just half the calories.

So with all these Chinese food dishes you of course also are going to add rice!

Both brown and white rice have around 150 calories per cup.

Emma says the brown rice is your best bet, because it packs more fiber.

"How about the fried rice?"

"This is about 370 calories for one cup," said Emma.

Driving this salty, fried dish to the next detour.

"So it turns out at the end of Chinese takeout there actually is good fortune!

Emma says, "That's right, we've got our fortune cookies and they are about only 25 calories a piece!

That's not bad at all!

Emma says to pick healthier choices on the menu check off one of her three S's. Stir-fried, steamed or sauteed. Everything else is bound to be a diet detour.

She says it's okay to indulge, but with Chinese food you should stick to just once a month.