The importance of a balanced diet

A balanced diet is never a health regimen that restricts appetite, nor is it a weight-loss formula that says "eat and lose weight" spread online. It is one of the few most cost-effective options for ordinary people to maintain health for a long time and reduce the risk of common chronic metabolic diseases by more than 60% without investing high additional costs.

A while ago, I helped a post-95s operator in the next door department adjust his diet. He used to eat fried chicken and milk tea with white rice, or he would only eat boiled vegetables for a week in order to reduce his belly fat. However, last year's physical examination showed that uric acid was close to the critical value. He lost a handful of his hair and had to rely on two glasses of iced American food at three o'clock in the afternoon. He was not energetic when trying to fish. I told him that he didn’t need to count calories, and that for each meal he just had to gather “a fistful of staple food (at least one-third of which is grains), a palm-sized portion of high protein (any fish, shrimp, poultry, eggs, and soy products are acceptable), and two fists of dark green vegetables.” If he was in a hurry and bought a vegetable bag downstairs, added tea eggs, and sugar-free soy milk, it would still be considered up to standard. He has been eating it casually for more than two months. Last week, his uric acid level dropped by almost 80%. He said that he can now fish without feeling sleepy until six o'clock, and he has saved a lot of money on coffee.

Oh yes, there is a lot of noise in the diet circle now. The ketogenic party says that carbohydrates are the culprit of obesity, while the vegan party says that animal protein increases the burden on the body. I have also seen fitness bloggers who lost 8% of their body fat in three months by relying on ketosis, and I have also seen middle-aged and elderly people who went vegan and returned their cholesterol to normal levels. But ask them if they can persist for ten years? The fitness blogger found out that her low-density lipoprotein was high after half a year of ketosis, so she quickly resumed some carbohydrate intake. ； The vegan aunt was diagnosed with a severe vitamin B12 deficiency three years later and now takes supplements every day. To put it bluntly, these special dietary patterns are phased plans that are targeted at specific needs. If you want to prepare for a bodybuilding competition or assist in the treatment of epilepsy, it is okay to follow the doctor's instructions. However, for most ordinary people who have to go to work every day, take care of their children, and do not have a nutritionist to follow them, cutting off carbon and animal protein at every turn will easily cause problems for the body. A balanced diet is the best long-term choice.

Many people think that a balanced diet is troublesome. They have to do it every time and calculate the weight. It really doesn't matter. I used to work on a project for two weeks, eating instant noodles and ham. As a result, the corner of my mouth was sore for almost a week and burned for two days. Later, I learned the lesson and kept ready-to-eat vacuum corn, hard-boiled eggs, and freeze-dried broccoli in my office drawer all year round. Even if I worked overtime until nine o'clock, soaking broccoli, eating corn, and adding an egg was still more comfortable than eating takeout rice bowls that were heavy in oil and salt. The last time I looked at the survey data from the Chinese Nutrition Society, more than 60% of Chinese residents have unreasonable dietary patterns. People who eat a balanced diet have a 45% to 62% lower risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and hyperlipidemia than people who eat an extreme diet. Even the frequency of colds and fevers is about 30% lower. These are real data, not made up by some health bloggers.

In fact, after all is said and done, eating is the least serious thing in daily life. To put it bluntly, a balanced diet means don't compete with your body. Don't just focus on what you like to eat, and don't dare to eat this or touch that in order to lose weight. You give it the nutrients it needs, and it will naturally give you feedback: you don't feel sleepy at work, you don't catch a cold when the season changes, and your indicators are normal during physical examinations. Isn't this much more cost-effective than spending tens of thousands of yuan to buy health care products and get a fitness card?