Healthy eating recipes for three meals a day

The core principles of healthy three meals a day suitable for most ordinary Chinese adults are "whole grains account for more than 1/3 of the staple food, each meal contains high-quality protein, daily intake of 300~500g vegetables + 200~350g fruits, daily cooking oil consumption of no more than 25g, salt "Not more than 5g". There is no need to deliberately follow extreme models such as ketosis, inedia, and vegetarianism. Ordinary people can follow the practical combinations below to meet daily nutritional needs without taking up too much cooking time. It can also adapt to different needs such as general health care, sugar control, fitness and muscle gain.

When I worked as a nutrition science volunteer in the community, I saw too many people who either couldn't keep up with the nutrition of plain porridge and pickles, or who ate boiled vegetables to lose fat and suffered from physiological nausea. Therefore, when sorting out these combinations, I deliberately left room for adjustment, so as not to overload or cause anxiety. The most important thing is to stay comfortable when eating.

Take breakfast, which is the easiest to deal with. If you are in a hurry, you can make a good meal in 10 minutes: boil quick-cooking oats for 3 minutes (do not buy instant oats with added creamer flavor), throw in two pitted red dates for flavor, add a boiled egg, and grab five or six small tomatoes, and you can take it away in your pocket when you go out. I often eat this way before breakfast in the winter. The warm eggs can be used as hand warmers when I hold them in my hands. I won’t feel hungry after eating them all morning at work. It’s much more comfortable than the thickly oiled hand pancakes I bought downstairs. If you are a person who controls sugar, remove the red dates, replace the oats with raw oatmeal soaked the night before and add a small handful of quinoa, and replace the eggs with soft-boiled eggs fried in olive oil. There is always a debate here: the traditional nutrition school believes that eating enough carbohydrates for breakfast can ensure the efficiency of work and study in the morning, while the low-carb diet school believes that high carbohydrates in breakfast can easily cause drowsiness in the afternoon. You can choose according to your body's reaction. The one that is clear-headed and not drowsy in the morning after eating is the most suitable for you.

Compared with breakfast, lunch is the hardest hit area. After all, most people either bring food or eat out, so it is difficult to completely control the mix. When bringing rice, I usually cook a week's worth of multigrain rice in advance on weekends, pack it into portions of one punch at a time and freeze it in the refrigerator, and just take it out and heat it before eating. For dishes, it takes 20 minutes to prepare the night before: Marinate the chicken breast with light soy sauce, black pepper, and a little corn starch for 15 minutes, pan-fry until golden brown on both sides and sprinkle with zero-calorie barbecue sauce. Add some stir-fried broccoli and carrot slices, and pack it into a box to take away. I once had a colleague who gnawed on boiled chicken breasts for half a month and retched when he saw the chicken breasts. After switching to this method, he didn't even get tired of eating it for a month. If eating out is easy, just choose one meat, one vegetarian and one fistful of rice from a fast food restaurant. For meat dishes, choose steamed fish, boiled chicken and other less oily dishes first. Avoid sweet and sour, braised, and fried dishes. For vegetarian dishes, choose stir-fried instead of dry-cooked ones. If the store has multigrain rice, use multigrain rice. If you don’t eat white rice, it doesn’t matter. There are no absolute standards here: people who are working out and building muscle can ask for an extra portion of meat to ensure that they have enough protein. If ordinary office workers don’t have much physical exertion in the afternoon, it’s perfectly fine to eat two less pieces of meat and two more bites of vegetables. There is no need to limit yourself to a certain macronutrient ratio.

Oh, by the way, don’t think that healthy meals have to be expensive. Avocados, salmon, and chia seeds are healthy. I have calculated that if you eat according to the above combination, the cost of ingredients for a day is only about 20 yuan, which is much cheaper than ordering takeout every day. The healthy diet of ordinary people should be down-to-earth.

As for dinner, it doesn’t have to be so complicated. Many people have problems with healthy eating because of dinner. They either believe that “not eating after noon” makes them hungry all night long, or they can’t help but eat late night snacks and can’t sleep for half the night. People with an ordinary schedule (go to bed around 11 p.m.) can make a mixed vegetable and shrimp soup for dinner. When cooking, add some winter melon, enoki mushrooms, and small green vegetables, add half a head of steamed corn, and add a small dish of cold spinach. After the spinach is blanched, add minced garlic, light soy sauce, vinegar, and a few drops of sesame oil and mix it. It will be very fragrant. I often eat like this in the summer. After a bowl of hot soup, my stomach feels warm and I won't feel full. When I go out for a walk, I feel light in the wind. Of course, if you are used to working out at night, you can definitely increase the amount of dinner. You can cook soba noodles and add two fried eggs. The "no food after noon" rule was only applicable when people went to bed after dark in ancient times. Nowadays, most young people lie down at 11 or 12 o'clock. Hungry and low blood sugar, shaking hands will hurt the body. There is really no need to force it.

In fact, after all, there is no unified standard answer to healthy eating. If you feel uncomfortable eating whole grains, eat white rice. If you don’t like boiled eggs, eat tea eggs. If you don’t deviate from the general direction, if you are craving for hot pot and drink a cup of milk tea occasionally, it will not affect your health at all. Don't make healthy eating a KPI that must be completed. Counting grams and calories every day to the point of anxiety is the most unhealthy thing.