Nutritional Diet Guidance

Based on your existing dietary preferences and life rhythm, try to have a variety of foods with reasonable proportions, and then fine-tune them according to your own health goals and physical condition.

I met a girl who was an e-commerce operator last year. When she came to me, she had been eating fat-reducing meals for three months with Internet celebrities. Every meal was boiled vegetables and chicken breasts. I looked through her menu, and there wasn’t even a bite of serious staple food. I completely ignored her work rhythm of watching live broadcasts every day and staying up late. To put it bluntly, she was copying other people’s templates without considering her own actual situation.

There is a lot of debate on the Internet right now about "Should we give up refined carbohydrates?" Both sides of the argument actually make sense: Supporters of low-carb diets say that polished rice and white flour raise sugar quickly, and the excess sugar is easily converted into fat accumulation, and will also aggravate skin acne and insulin resistance. This is true.； However, the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents puts cereals and potatoes at the bottom of the dietary pagoda, and recommends eating 250-400g per day. This is not just a simple decision - carbohydrates are the most direct source of energy for the human body. If you have to do physical work every day, or have just completed high-intensity training, a bowl of white rice will be more effective than any supplement. You can't let the eldest brother at the construction site eat quinoa all the time, right? The advice I usually give to consultants is to look at daily consumption: sitting in the office for a day does not require much exercise, just replace one-third of the polished rice and white flour with oats, sweet potatoes, and mixed beans. There is no need to give up completely. ； If you move a lot on a daily basis, it’s perfectly fine to eat polished rice and white noodles as normal, and you don’t have to feel guilty.

To be honest, there is really no need to pursue those superfoods that are so popular. Chia seeds and kale are not bad, but you don’t have to spend a lot of money to import them from abroad. Ordinary spinach, rapeseed, and broccoli are not bad at supplementing vitamins. There is an aunt in my hometown who takes health classes every day and buys quinoa that costs hundreds of dollars per pound. As a result, she only dares to eat her own pickles when eating vegetables. Don’t you think this is putting the cart before the horse? There are also those so-called "detox foods" and "anti-cancer recipes". I have been working as a nutrition consultant for 6 years, and I have never seen anyone who can prevent disease by eating only a certain kind of food. On the contrary, I have encountered several people who suffered from malnutrition because they only ate a certain kind of "healthy food" every day.

There is another topic that has been debated for many years: Should we become vegetarian? Among the vegetarian lovers I have come into contact with, there are those who have been in great shape for ten years, and others who have developed iron deficiency anemia after only half a year. The core is not whether the vegetarian diet itself is good or not, but whether you can match it. If you insist on a vegetarian diet due to religious beliefs or animal protection, remember to supplement with extra vitamin B12 - there is almost no vitamin B12 in plants. Long-term deficiency can easily cause irreversible nerve damage. Usually eat more fermented soy products such as fermented bean curd and tempeh, eat more dark green leafy vegetables to supplement iron, and pair it with some nuts to supplement high-quality fats. There is no problem at all. ； But if you don’t have any special preferences, eating red meat two or three times a week, with a palm-sized piece each time, can save you a lot of thinking about matching, and you don’t have to supplement this or that.

Many people have complained to me that they are pressed for time in the morning and have no time to make a healthy breakfast. In fact, how can it be so complicated? You can buy unsweetened soy milk at the door of the subway station, add a tea egg, and take some corn with you. The total of the three items only costs a few yuan. It contains carbohydrates, protein, and dietary fiber. It is much healthier than eating a meat floss bread with a lot of salad dressing. ； When you are too tired after get off work in the evening and don’t want to turn on the fire, when cooking quick-frozen dumplings, throw in a handful of green vegetables, cut a tomato, and cook together. It can be done in 5 minutes, which is not a bit better than ordering a takeout full of oil.

Oh, by the way, don't pursue the "perfect diet" too much. Today I saw someone saying that drinking milk tea is not good, so I stopped drinking it. Tomorrow, I saw someone saying that eating fried food is not good, so I stopped completely. But after holding it in for half a month, I couldn't help it. I showed off three cups of milk tea and two boxes of fried chicken at one time, but it actually resulted in higher caloric intake than usual. I usually tell people who consult me ​​that you can eat anything, but don’t eat too much of anything. Drinking milk tea and eating barbecue once a week will not affect your health at all. On the contrary, your mood will be better and your metabolism will be smoother.

In fact, nutrition is a complex matter. If you want to dig into it carefully, everyone's age, gender, underlying diseases, and amount of exercise are different. Suitable dietary plans vary widely, but it is simple to say. You don’t need to turn yourself into a nutrition expert or count the grams every time. As long as you try to eat as many different types of food as possible, avoid things that are processed to the point where you can’t recognize the raw materials, make your body feel comfortable after eating it, and all the indicators during the physical examination are normal, then that is the most suitable nutritious diet for you, and it will work better than any recipe prescribed by an expert.