A complete list of balanced diet recipes for one day

The core of a balanced diet for ordinary people in a day is actually very simple. Based on the size of your fist, you should eat enough "2 fists of fresh vegetables + 1 fist of staple food (whole grains account for 1/3-1/2) + 1 fist of high-quality high-protein food + half a fist of low-GI fruits" every day. Three meals should be in this proportion. Flexible allocation is enough, and there is no need to remember complicated grams. Ordinary people can meet 90% of their daily nutritional needs by following the instructions. This is the universal basic framework given by the Chinese Nutrition Society's "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)", which can be used by office workers, student parties, and middle-aged and elderly people.

To be honest, I used to help a dozen of my friends adjust their diets. At first, everyone was chasing me for a "standard recipe accurate to the gram," but later I found it was useless - who would carry a scale with them when eating? Especially for office workers who catch the subway in the morning, order takeout at noon, and occasionally have dinner together in the evening, there is no way to calculate cards in grams. This fist measurement method is the most practical solution I have found. I have been using it for almost 3 years. My weight is stable and all physical examination indicators are normal. It is more reliable than any fancy Internet celebrity recipes.

Oh, by the way, some people must say, I want to lose fat/build muscle/control sugar. Can this framework also be used? Of course you can, just adjust the proportions a little. People who want to lose fat can reduce their staple food to 2/3 fists, add vegetables to 2.5 fists, and keep high protein to 1 fist. This can basically create a reasonable calorie gap without starving. ； For those who want to gain muscle, add 1.5-2 fists of high protein and 1.2 fists of staple food, which is enough to coordinate with training. ； People who control sugar should increase the proportion of whole grains to 2/3, and replace fruits with types with a glycemic index lower than 55, such as blueberries, strawberries, and grapefruits, which can be eaten between meals.

I have come across a lot of "low-carb diets" and "no staple food diets" that are so popular on the Internet. There are many fitness enthusiasts around me who adhere to the ketogenic diet. Their logic is to reduce the intake of refined carbohydrates and avoid large fluctuations in blood sugar, which is indeed suitable for short-term fat loss. But from the perspective of long-term health, the mainstream nutrition community still does not recommend that ordinary people avoid eating staple foods for a long time. I have a friend who did not eat carbohydrates for 3 months in a row. Eventually, he lost his hair and his aunt became disordered. He went to the hospital to see a doctor and asked him to quickly add staple foods back. Especially for people with weak gastrointestinal function and prone to acid reflux, eating too many whole grains or not eating staple foods at all will increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. So you don’t have to stick to a certain diet, the one that suits your body is the right one.

To give you the most down-to-earth example, an ordinary nine-to-five office worker can make up for the day without having to open a fire. If you are in a hurry in the morning, steam the corn and sweet potatoes in advance over the weekend and keep them in the refrigerator. Take them out and bake them for 30 seconds in the morning, add a hard-boiled egg, and a box of sugar-free yogurt. Grab a handful of cherry tomatoes downstairs when you go out, sit down and eat them slowly at work, and it doesn’t take even 10 minutes. It is much safer than the fried dough sticks and soybean pancakes on the roadside, and you won’t feel hungry from morning to 12 o’clock. If you like to eat Chinese food, a bowl of multigrain porridge with a small plate of cold vegetables, a tea egg, and half a tortilla is totally fine. Just don't add the salty and bitter pickles.

It’s easier to bring rice for lunch. When cooking the night before, put out a little more and stir-fry 2 fists of green vegetables, lettuce, broccoli, and celery of your choice. 1 fist of braised beef or steamed fish or fried chicken breast. Add 1 fist of multigrain rice. Put it in a lunch box and take it with you the next day. It only takes 2 minutes to eat at work. If you order takeout, you don’t have to choose expensive light food. Last time, my colleague ordered ordinary braised chicken, and specifically made a note of “add more vegetables, reduce the rice by half, and add an extra portion of blanched vegetables.” When he got it, he skimmed off the upper layer of oil, peeled the chicken and ate it. The ratio was just right, and it was healthier than eating those “pseudo light food” covered with a layer of salad dressing.

Many people worry about whether to eat dinner or not, and even think that "not eating after lunch" is healthy. In fact, it is really unnecessary. If you normally go to bed before 11 o'clock, eat 1 fistful of boiled vegetables or stir-fried vegetables for dinner, with half a fistful of staple food, plus half a fistful of shrimps, tofu, and eggs. You will be 70% full and you won't be hungry before going to bed. But if you work on the Internet and often stay up until 12 o'clock or even 1 o'clock before going to bed, you can definitely increase the staple food to 3/4 fist. Otherwise, if you get up hungry in the middle of the night and order barbecue or instant noodles, the gain will outweigh the loss. I used to catch up on projects and often didn't go to bed until after 12 o'clock. If I was hungry an hour before going to bed, I would drink half a cup of hot milk or eat 3 almonds. This would neither bloat nor affect my sleep.

Vegetarian friends don’t panic, just replace the high-protein part with tofu, dried beans, chickpeas, quinoa and other plant proteins. I have a friend who has been a vegetarian for 5 years. He brings a chickpea salad for lunch every day, plus 2 fists of roasted vegetables, and 1 fist of multigrain rice. During the physical examination last year, all the indicators were normal, and he was healthier than many people who eat red meat every meal. If you are an elderly person with bad teeth, boil the vegetables until soft, replace the staple food with easy-to-digest foods such as millet porridge and pumpkin porridge, and replace the high protein with steamed eggs or stewed soft fish, which can still meet the nutritional needs.

To be honest, I have been exposed to nutrition-related content for so long, and I have found that many people make a balanced diet too complicated. They have to buy a bunch of food scales, a bunch of imported superfoods, and count every meal by the gram. In the end, they give up after not being able to persist for half a month, and start overeating instead. In fact, is there any perfect recipe? If you are craving for ice cream or fried chicken today, just eat it. As long as there are five or six days in a week that can roughly meet this fist ratio, it is completely enough. Eating is a happy thing, don't put so much burden on yourself, otherwise it will be worth the loss. Oh, by the way, if you feel gastrointestinal discomfort or poor health after eating a certain type of food, just don’t eat it regardless of how healthy the experts say it is. Your body is more reliable than any standardized diet.