healthy eating light recipes

The core of a healthy and light recipe that is truly suitable for ordinary people to practice for a long time is never a one-size-fits-all, oil-free, salt-free, all-vegetarian boiled recipe. Instead, on the basis of meeting the daily needs of complete nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, fats, and trace elements, the intake of added salt, free sugar, and saturated fat is controlled within a reasonable range. It also adapts to personal physique and eating habits, which can not only reduce the body's metabolic burden, but also prevent it from being too bland and unsustainable.

Two years ago, my mother heard that a light diet was good in a community health class, so she replaced the wok with a steamer when she got home, boiling cabbage and steaming pumpkin every time without even adding more soy sauce. After half a month of eating, not only did her body feel weak and her hair fell, but she also developed hyponatremia when she went to the hospital for a checkup.

When it comes to "light diet", there is no unified standard answer. In the context of traditional Chinese medicine, lightness refers to avoiding fat, sweet, spicy, and hot foods. The essence is to avoid adding extra transportation burden to the spleen and stomach. The elderly with weak spleen and stomach, and people who have just recovered from illness, really need to eat less fried, sweet, and spicy food.； The definition of lightness in modern nutrition has clear quantitative standards: the daily intake of refined salt should not exceed 5g (about the amount of a beer bottle cap), the free sugar should not exceed 25g, and the energy supply of saturated fat should not exceed 10% of the total calories. As long as this standard is met, even if you occasionally eat something spicy or oily, it does not count as crossing the line.

I have been adjusting to a light diet for almost two years. I have been through the pitfalls of boiled vegetables, and I have also tried to eat without adding any seasonings to reduce salt until I feel nauseated. I have slowly accumulated a few home-cooked recipes that I can use without complicated processes. They are delicious and fragrant and fully meet the standards of lightness. For example, last week when friends came to my house for dinner, I made steamed chicken with mushrooms. I chose half a pound of three-yellow chicken cubes cut into small pieces, added two dried shiitake mushrooms that had been soaked in advance, 3 slices of ginger, only 1g of salt, half a spoonful of light soy sauce, and marinated for 10 minutes. No need to add additional oil, just boil water and steam for 20 minutes. The small amount of chicken oil precipitated from the chicken skin was coated with the fragrance of the mushrooms, so fresh that everyone even mixed the juice at the bottom of the plate with the rice. There is also the Shrimp Egg Smoothie that I usually make quickly after get off work. 5 fresh shrimps are cut open from the back, two eggs are beaten with half a spoon of warm water, put 1g of olive oil in the pot and fry the shrimps until they change color.

When it comes to seasonings, many people think that they have to completely avoid spicy food when eating light foods. In fact, it is really not necessary. This is something that varies from person to person. If you have gastric ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, or diarrhea and stomachaches when eating spicy food, you should definitely avoid it. ； But if you are like my best friend in Hunan, who has been addicted to spicy food since she was a child, she can't last for half a month without eating spicy food at all. Now she adjusts her diet by replacing the chopped chili peppers and hot sauce she put in every meal with fresh hot pepper coils. She cuts half of the peppers and throws them in every time she stir-fries. Some people think that if they are light, they must eat vegetarian food. This is what my Aunt Zhang downstairs thinks. She stir-fries vegetables every time. But she was found to have high blood lipids during a physical examination last year. After asking a nutritionist, she found out that she adds three to four spoons of vegetable oil every time she cooks. She also likes to add oyster sauce and chicken essence to enhance the freshness. These invisible oils and invisible salts add up to a heavier burden than eating two ounces of lean pork.

To be honest, what bothers me the most is when people list a fixed menu from Monday to Friday for light recipes. Everyone’s tastes and physical conditions are different, so how can there be any universal template? If you like to drink whole milk, it’s absolutely fine to drink one cup every day, as long as you don’t drink milk tea and eat cream cakes all the time. ； If you like to eat whole grains, replace half of the white rice with corn and sweet potatoes. There is no need to force yourself to eat quinoa and chia seeds that you don’t like. I still have a little habit when cooking, which is to replace the salt shaker with a salt-limited spoon. I know how to add salt every time. If I add light soy sauce or oyster sauce, I simply don’t add any extra salt. Gradually, my taste buds have become more sensitive, and I can even taste the sweetness of the dish itself. Now when I go out to eat dishes that are heavy in oil and salt, I feel panicked after just two bites, and I don’t want to eat more.

In fact, at the end of the day, a healthy and light diet is never a shackles on life. There is no need to pursue perfection to the point where salt must be accurately weighed to 0.1g, and there is no need to follow other people's recipes and copy them mechanically. Eat more fresh, less processed ingredients and less compound seasonings with a bunch of additives in the ingredient list. If you feel comfortable when eating, your stomach does not feel bloated or bitter and sticky after eating, and your physical examination indicators will be normal in the long run, then this is the best light diet for you.