Balanced diet content

There has never been a standardized template that is universally applicable to a balanced diet. The core essence is to combine the individual's metabolic level, dietary preferences, and life scenarios to achieve a ratio of macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) that adapts to one's own needs. Micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber) cover daily needs, and can maintain a long-term eating pattern that does not cause psychological burden. It is not at all the stringent standard of "eating by the gram, only one bite of each food, and not being high in oil and sugar" posted online.

In the five years I have been doing nutrition consulting, the most common misunderstanding I have encountered is that people use the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" to apply to their own lives, regardless of the actual situation. A little while ago, a young girl who works in Internet operations came to me and said that she had been eating a balanced diet recipe online for almost half a month. Not only had she not lost any weight, but she could not help but eat instant noodles late at night every day, and she felt extremely guilty. I looked through her recipes. In the morning, I need to steam Babei pumpkin, boil hard-boiled eggs, and make sugar-free soy milk. I need to bring 300 grams of stir-fried green leafy vegetables, 150 grams of brown rice, and 120 grams of fried chicken breasts for lunch. I also have a bowl of multigrain porridge in the evening. But she has to go out to catch the subway at 7:30 every morning, and often works overtime until after 8 o'clock in the evening. It takes almost 2 hours just to prepare these ingredients. It is already an extraordinary willpower to persist for half a month.

When it comes to this, there must be some people who want to criticize it. Are the dietary guidelines wrong? Really not, the guideline gives a reference baseline that is suitable for most ordinary healthy people, not a standard answer that must be replicated 1:1. Now the nutrition circle itself also has different practical directions: for example, groups that support low-carb diets advocate reducing the intake of refined carbohydrates and increasing the ratio of protein to high-quality fat. This is especially suitable for people with insulin resistance and those who are prone to hunger during the fat loss period. I have seen many obese friends with a BMI over 28. In the early days, using this model, they were able to lose weight without going hungry, and their blood lipids and blood sugar also improved. ； However, many researchers in the traditional nutrition field believe that long-term low-carb consumption will increase the burden on the kidneys and may also affect female hormone levels. They recommend that ordinary people use a balanced model with 50%-65% of carbohydrates, especially those with high muscle mass and heavy daily exercise. Sufficient carbohydrates can maintain training status. Many fitness enthusiasts rely on a high-carb and low-fat diet to maintain their body fat rate below 15% all year round and are in very good condition. It’s hard to say who is right or wrong between these two models, as they are suitable for completely different groups of people.

If you really want to put it into practice, it doesn’t really require that much attention. If you sit in the office every day and do not exercise much, when you are in a hurry in the morning, buy a multi-grain pancake without sweet sauce downstairs, add an egg and an extra piece of lettuce, and bring a small box of cherry tomatoes along the way. This will basically be enough nutrition for the morning, and it will be much more comfortable than trying to stuff a whole-wheat bread that you can't swallow. If there are elderly people at home, don’t force them to eat all whole grains. Many elderly people have weak stomachs and are prone to acid reflux if they eat too much millet and quinoa. Mixing white rice with 1/3 of oats or corn grits and boiling until soft will slow down the rise of sugar and will not burden the stomach. If the elderly are willing to eat it, it is better than anything else.

Many people think that a balanced diet means not touching "junk food" such as milk tea, barbecue, and hot pot at all, which is really unnecessary. Last week, I went to eat charcoal grilled skewers with my friends. We ate more than 20 skewers of fat lamb and drank iced Coke. For two meals the next day, I cooked more spinach and broccoli, and ate some steamed fish. I didn't touch any refined sugar. The calories and nutrients throughout the week were still balanced, and I didn't gain weight. To put it bluntly, balance depends on the long-term average state. It does not mean that you have to stick to the standard every time. If you become anxious and induce vomiting because of a hot pot meal, it will be much more harmful than eating hot pot itself.

By the way, there is another interesting debate. Now there is a group that advocates "food diversity", saying that it is best to eat 25 different kinds of food a week to ensure that there are enough trace elements.； There are also minimalist dieters who eat three or four fixed foods every day and rely on supplements to supplement the missing nutrients, and still live well. I know a friend who runs ultra-long-distance cross-country. His year-round diet is brown rice, chicken breast, broccoli, bananas, plus multivitamins and deep-sea fish oil. All indicators in his annual physical examination are normal. When he runs 100 kilometers, he is in better shape than many athletes who eat fancy food. You can't say that his diet is unbalanced, right?

To be honest, now everyone makes a balanced diet too complicated, counting calories and weight. Instead, they forget that the most important thing about diet is to make people feel comfortable. As long as your eating pattern keeps you from feeling sleepy, your blood sugar, blood lipids, and uric acid indicators are normal during physical examinations, and you can maintain it all year round without feeling pain, then that is your balanced diet. You really don’t need to copy cookie-cutter recipes from online bloggers.