Balanced Diet Recipes

There is no fixed recipe that is universally applicable. The core of a true balanced diet is to "cover five major categories of food every day (whole grains, high-quality protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, high-quality fats, milk/soy products), in a proportion that suits your body condition, and can be eaten continuously for more than 3 months without pain." All recipes that require you to be precise to the gram, eat boiled water for every meal, and make you feel greedy and scratch your heart after eating are essentially anti-human and cannot achieve long-term balance.

I helped my sister adjust her diet a while ago. She used to follow the fat-reducing meal template on the Internet, which included 100g of chicken breast, 150g of broccoli, and 100g of brown rice for five days. She got up in the middle of the night to eat the leftover cream cake from her son. Later, she ate three hot pot meals in a row to fill her mouth, and she gained two pounds. I made a very rough change for her: mix half of the steamed pumpkin into the brown rice, fry the chicken breast over low heat until golden brown on both sides, sprinkle with cumin and black pepper, and add an orange and 6 original walnuts in the afternoon. She has been eating it for two months now, and has lost 6 pounds. Last week, she even took the initiative to cook vegetables at home on weekends, and she didn’t have the suffocating feeling of “go eat a big meal after you’ve had enough time” before.

The mainstream matching ideas on the market now are actually divided into two schools. One is the plate method recommended by our country's dietary guidelines, which is the ordinary plate you usually eat. Half is filled with colorful vegetables such as dark green and orange-red, a quarter is filled with high-quality proteins such as fish, poultry, eggs, and beans, and the remaining quarter is filled with whole grains or mixed beans and potatoes. This is suitable for most ordinary people. For daily cooking at home, stir-fry garlic lettuce, steam seabass, and stew multi-grain rice mixed with quinoa. It just comes together and is suitable for a family of three. Speaking of this, some people may want to argue, saying that I had been eating on the plate for half a month, so why was my uric acid still high? Hey, that’s because you just focus on the proportions of the plate and forget to eat seafood with cold beer every time. No matter how good the recipe is, it can’t stop your other bad habits, right? There is also a flexitarian diet popular in Europe and the United States, which is to choose not to eat red meat for two or three days a week, and replace it with plant proteins such as chickpeas and tofu. It is suitable for middle-aged people with high blood lipids. However, some clinical nutritionists have mentioned that this way of eating is not very friendly to young girls who already have iron deficiency anemia. If it is applied rigidly, it will make them dizzy and weak, so they need to supplement with red meat or iron supplements.

Oh, by the way, there is another very controversial school that I have to mention. It is the ketogenic diet that has become very popular in the past few years. It cuts out almost all carbohydrates and eats fatty meat, butter, and avocado. There are indeed studies proving that this dietary pattern has an auxiliary therapeutic effect on refractory epilepsy. However, if ordinary healthy people eat more than 3 consecutive meals Months later, there is a high probability of problems such as elevated low-density lipoprotein, constipation, and heavy breath. A fitness blogger I met last year followed ketosis for half a year, and his body fat dropped. However, his physical examination revealed cholesterol crystals, and he quickly changed back to a normal diet. Don’t try this extreme on yourself.

Speaking of eating methods that ordinary people can implement, there is really no need to make it so complicated.

If you are a nine-to-five office worker, there is no need to get up half an hour in advance. In the morning, take a sealed bowl with about 30g of instant oatmeal, make half a cup of hot milk, add a boiled egg, grab two small tomatoes and 5 almond corks in a bag when you go out, and eat slowly at the office. It is ready in 10 minutes. It contains all five major categories of nutrients and is much healthier than the fried dough sticks and soy milk you buy on the roadside.

If you have elderly children at home, don’t cook all-grain rice every meal. The elderly have weak stomachs and are prone to acid reflux, while children find whole grains jarring and won’t eat them. When you cook white rice, add a third of chopped sweet corn or diced sweet potatoes. Everyone will love it because it’s so sweet. When cooking, add some shredded pork to a vegetarian meal, and stew pork ribs or sea fish once a week. Children will have enough calcium and protein to grow, and the elderly’s blood sugar will not rise too fast.

If you usually like to exercise and want to gain muscle or lose fat, you don’t have to eat boiled chicken breast every time. Braise a large piece of beef tendon in advance and cut it into two or three slices for a snack, or boil a shrimp and smooth egg, which is a hundred times more delicious than boiled chicken breast. After training, eat half a bowl of rice. You will not gain weight at all, but can help you quickly regain your strength.

I used to be obsessed with precise grams. I bought a kitchen scale that was accurate to 1g. I had to weigh 200g to fry vegetables and 120 grains of brown rice to cook rice. Later, I went out to have a dinner with friends and had a barbecue. I was anxious for two days when I came back. I always felt that all the previous efforts were in vain. Later, a nutritionist friend who I know well told me that a balanced diet is calculated on a weekly basis, not a meal. If you eat too much oil and salt in this meal, you can make up for it by eating more stir-fried vegetables and two tablespoons less oil in the next two meals. There is no need to feel guilty just because of one meal. On the contrary, it will cause psychological stress and make it easier to overeat.

Oh, by the way, there is another point that many people tend to miss, that is, don’t drink sweet drinks and milk tea as water. Drinking about 1500ml of warm water every day is more effective than how many imported supplements you take. Really, a balanced diet is not so important. If you feel comfortable after eating, don't feel sleepy all day long, and all the indicators during the physical examination are normal, then this is the perfect recipe for you.