Balanced diet ratio

There is no uniform standard for balanced diet proportions that is universally applicable. The general reference frame for healthy adults is that carbohydrates provide 50%-65% of the total daily energy, protein 10%-20%, and fat 20%-30%. All proportions need to be dynamically adjusted based on age, exercise habits, basic physical diseases and even daily taste preferences. There is no absolute "golden formula".

Don’t underestimate the fluctuation of more than ten percentage points. If the fit is slightly different, the effect may be very different. When I first passed the exam as a registered dietitian, I was very superstitious about numbers. When making plans for users, I wanted to be precise about the amount of salt per gram. It wasn’t until I met a young man who was an outdoor team leader who took the standard ratio chart I gave him and ate it for a week. He said that every time he got halfway up the mountain, his legs felt weak and he started sweating. Only then did he realize that he had made a rigid mistake. - He walked more than ten kilometers of mountain roads three or four days a week, and his carbohydrate consumption was more than double that of an ordinary sedentary office worker. Later, he directly adjusted his carbohydrate energy supply ratio to more than 65%, and also specially added fast carbohydrate supplements such as bananas and bread before exercise. Within half a month, he said that he did not panic after completing the entire climb.

The major diet schools that are currently quarreling on the Internet are essentially completely different in terms of proportioning logic, and it is impossible to say who is right and who is wrong. For example, the low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet, which has been popular for many years, directly reduces carbohydrates to less than 10% of total energy, and more than 70% of the energy comes from fat. Many people with type 2 diabetes rely on this to stabilize blood sugar, which is indeed effective. However, I have also seen many ordinary people follow the trend and find that their blood lipids spike after two months. There are also people with ketosis and stubborn constipation, not to mention people who cannot handle the reaction of carbohydrate withdrawal. It is common for them to feel dizzy, weak, and lose their temper. There are also high-protein diets promoted by the fitness circle, which increase the protein proportion to 30% or even higher. Young men in the muscle-building period can indeed lose fat and gain muscle faster by eating this way. However, if people with damaged kidney function eat this way, it will simply put extra burden on the kidneys. In order to lose weight, a friend who was an e-commerce operator followed the internet celebrity's high-protein and low-carbohydrate ratio and ate four protein bars plus one pound of chicken breast and only half a bowl of rice every day. As a result, she was constipated for almost half a month and had acne breakouts on her face. I adjusted her carbohydrates to 55%, added a lot of whole grains such as sweet potatoes and corn, and the protein dropped to about 18%. Within a week, her bowel movements were normal, and most of her acne was gone.

To be honest, for most ordinary people who work nine to five and exercise no more than three times a week, there is really no need to hold a calculator to calculate the calorie ratio of each bite. The advice I give to friends around me is that the "hand test method" is enough: one punch of staple food for each meal (half of it is better to replace it with whole grains), a palm-sized portion of lean meat/fish and shrimp/soy products, a handful of dark green vegetables, and two spoons less oil when cooking. Occasionally, it doesn't matter if you are craving for milk tea hot pot, as long as the overall difference is not bad. My mother still doesn't care what the ratio is. She eats two bowls of rice every meal with green vegetables and stir-fry. She has been eating like this for decades. All the indicators in this year's physical examination are normal, and she is in better health than my friends who use food scales to weigh grams every day. This is actually the meaning of adaptation - the diet you have been eating for half your life, as long as you are comfortable and the physical examination indicators are OK, there is no need to mess around with changes.

Of course, if you have underlying diseases, it’s a different matter. For example, patients with kidney disease should strictly limit protein, patients with gout should control the proportion of high-purine foods, and patients with diabetes should try to choose low-GI carbohydrates. In this case, don’t blindly copy Internet celebrity recipes. Find a clinical nutritionist to adjust according to your specific indicators. It is more reliable than any general ratio formula. In the final analysis, the core of a balanced ratio is never to get the "right" number, but to make what you eat just matches your current life status.