Top 10 Tips for Healthy Eating

1. Eat enough 1 catty of vegetables and half a catty of fruits every day, half of which are dark colors； 2. Whole grains account for more than 1/3 of the staple food, so there is no need to eat whole grains every meal. ； 3. Give priority to fish, poultry, eggs, and lean meat, and eat less processed meat products. ； 4. Drink enough 1500-1700ml of water every day and less sweet drinks ； 5. Control oil and limit salt. 25-30g of oil per day and no more than 5g of salt. ； 6. Eat until you are half full, chew slowly and don’t gobble it up in a hurry ； 7. Eat more than 25 kinds of food every week. There is no need to eat them together. Just eat them in different ways. ； 8. Drink less high-alcohol alcohol and don’t drink if you can help it. ； 9. Eat less highly processed foods that are high in oil and sugar. Don’t use potato chips and cream cakes as daily snacks. ； 10. Don’t be superstitious about “super foods”. The best ones are what suits you.

Some people may say after reading this, "Isn't this just a cliché?" But when it comes to putting it into practice, 90% of people have fallen through the trap. Based on the real cases I have come across in the past few years, I will share with you the details that are easily overlooked and how people with different physiques can adjust flexibly.

Let’s first talk about the whole grains that people are most likely to go to extremes. In the past two years, whole grain diet has been a big trend. I saw a little girl who just went to college. In order to lose weight, she ate brown rice and boiled oats. She had acid reflux for half a month and couldn't sleep. After going for a checkup, she found out that she had superficial gastritis, a problem caused by repeated irritation of the gastric mucosa by rough dietary fiber. Nowadays, two opinions are quarreling fiercely on the Internet. One side says that whole grains are a magic tool for losing weight and must be eaten every day, while the other side says that whole grains are harmful to the stomach and should not be touched. In fact, both are too extreme. The ratio of 1/3 is the universal recommendation given by the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents. If you have a weak stomach, you can reduce it to 1/4, or soak whole grains in advance and make porridge, or even replace them with tubers such as yams and pumpkins. This can also supplement dietary fiber, and there is no need to bear the stomachache from eating brown rice.

When it comes to controlling food intake, in the past few years, it was very difficult to fast and not eat after lunch. I have had several clients follow this trend. They were either so hungry that they fainted on the subway due to hypoglycemia, or they developed gastric ulcers in their stomachs. In fact, there is currently no conclusion in the academic world on the long-term effects of light fasting. Some studies say that short-term light fasting can improve insulin resistance, while other studies say that long-term insufficient caloric intake can lead to a decrease in basal metabolism, hair loss, and reduced immunity. For ordinary people, it is safer to make every meal seven to eight cents full than any fancy diet. There used to be a male salesman who was eating too much with the customer. His belly was too big to fit into a custom-made suit, so he stopped eating until he could fit in two mouthfuls but was not hungry at all. He lost 12 pounds in 3 months, and his fatty liver changed from mild to almost invisible.

Many people say, "I add too little salt in cooking, but my blood pressure is still high." Last time, a 62-year-old aunt came for consultation. I kept a food diary for her for three days before discovering the problem: She only had two pieces of fermented bean curd for every meal, and sometimes she would eat pickled radish. These two pieces of fermented bean curd contain 3g of salt. Adding in the invisible salt in soy sauce, oyster sauce, and chicken essence, the salt intake in a day is almost 10g, which is twice the recommended amount. Later, she changed to eating fermented bean curd once every other day, and the pickles were replaced with fresh cucumbers as a refreshing side dish. After half a month, she no longer felt dizzy and her blood pressure stabilized a lot. Before, she had always thought that the antihypertensive medicine was not working.

Another point where everyone often pays IQ tax is "super food". When quinoa and chia seeds were popular two years ago, I had a college student client who saved his living expenses to buy imported chia seeds, soaked them in water and drank them every day. As a result, he could eat fried chicken and burgers every time, and he didn't lose any weight. To put it bluntly, there is no magic super food. The protein content of quinoa is about the same as that of eggs, and the dietary fiber of chia seeds is not as high as that of fresh celery leaves. Ordinary people cannot afford to pay several times the price to pay this IQ tax. Eating enough daily ingredients is better than anything else.

Someone asked me if people with diabetes cannot eat fruits at all? Neither. If you choose fruits with a low glycemic index, such as strawberries, grapefruits, and cherry tomatoes, and eat about 100g each time, and eat them between meals, there is no problem at all. On the contrary, if you don't eat fruits at all, you will be prone to vitamin deficiency and reduced resistance. Several people with diabetes I have contacted have adjusted the way they eat fruit, and their blood sugar levels have not fluctuated at all. They also said that they finally have sweetness in their mouths and no longer have to chew cucumbers every day until they feel nauseous.

It was previously said on the Internet that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day. Many people bought cups with graduations and set alarms to drink one cup every hour. As a result, some people actually got water poisoning and came to consult. In fact, 1500-1700ml is a little more than 3 bottles of ordinary bottled mineral water. It doesn’t need to be so stuck. Drink more in summer if you sweat more, and drink less in winter. I put a large 1L cup at my work station. I drink half a cup in the morning, one cup in the afternoon, and two more sips before getting off work. It’s enough for one day, which saves a lot of trouble.

The remaining items are not so stringent: eating processed meats does not mean you will get cancer if you eat it. Occasionally eating a sausage while camping or having a bacon pizza with friends is perfectly fine. Don’t just fry bacon for breakfast every morning.； When it comes to wine, you really don’t have to believe in “drinking red wine to soften blood vessels”. To achieve an effective dose of resveratrol, you have to drink more than a dozen bottles of red wine every day. Your liver will be damaged by it already. So don’t drink it if you can. If you really want to drink it, choose low-alcohol drinks and drink less. ； It is really not difficult to make up 25 kinds of food every week. In the morning, add walnuts and a few black beans to the soy milk, add fungus and carrots to the stir-fry at noon, and eat fish in the evening. You can easily make up enough for a week, and you don’t have to buy ingredients that you have never heard of before.

In fact, I have been doing nutrition consulting for so long, and my biggest feeling is that healthy eating is never a strict self-restraint. You don’t have to feel guilty just because you eat milk tea hotpot occasionally. As long as you follow these rules most of the time, your body will naturally give you feedback - for example, you won’t feel sleepy at work, you won’t catch colds easily when the season changes, and your weight will gradually stabilize in the appropriate range. That’s enough, right?