Academician Chen Junshi
Chart source: the official website of the Chinese Nutrition Society
Chen Junshi suggested that people should return to the traditional Chinese dietary model - mainly plant-based foods, with appropriate animal foods.
Recently, some people on the Internet have strongly advocated vegetarianism, which has aroused heated discussion among netizens.
Is it good to be vegetarian? Does it meet essential nutrients? Are vegetarians healthier? How should you think about vegetarianism? Chen Junshi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an expert on nutrition and food safety, recently accepted an exclusive interview with this reporter and answered these questions.
■ If properly matched, vegetarian food can meet the nutritional needs of the human body. But to do this, adequate knowledge of nutrition and corresponding food supply conditions are required.
■ There is no special physiological stage that people cannot eat whole vegetarian. For different groups, the key lies in a targeted and scientific rational collocation.
■ There is no good or bad food, the key lies in whether the food combination and diet structure are reasonable, and eating only vegetarian food is not necessarily healthier than the appropriate meat and vegetarian combination.
■ Studies have proved that compared with the traditional Chinese plant-based diet, the Western diet based on animal foods is more likely to cause chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes.
■ Nutritionists advocate a "balanced diet" and advocate a diet model based on plant foods and appropriately matched with animal foods.
■ Eating vegetarian or not is a personal choice, do not advocate or oppose people to eat vegetarian, but let all human beings eat vegetarian is not our direction.
■ Eating vegetarian does not necessarily mean weight loss, the key is energy balance; exercise is a healthy element that can never be ignored, eating and moving are equally important, and advocating eating and moving balance.
A question: What is vegetarian food?
"'Meat' is not a division of scientists, but a classification that people gradually form in practice." Chen Junshi said that the so-called "vegetarian food" refers to the diet composed of plant foods, mainly including grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and so on. Correspondingly, "meat food" refers to animal foods, such as chicken, duck and fish meat.
Everyone's eating habits are different, and "vegetarian food" has gradually derived a variety of classification terms in practice, such as "whole vegetarian", "semi-vegetarian", "ichthyosa", "omelette" and so on.
"I don't think it's too complicated to divide into 'whole vegan' and 'semi-vegetarian'." Chen Junshi explained that "whole vegan" means that chicken, duck, eggs, milk and fish do not stick to any animal food, and "half vegetarian" is not a monolith, people who eat "half vegetarian" can choose to eat one or two types of animal food, for example, some people eat eggs and dairy products, but do not eat animal foods other than these; some people eat fish, but do not eat animal foods other than fish.
"One thing is clear, whether you eat 'whole vegetarian' or 'semi-vegetarian', it does not include red meat such as pigs, cattle and sheep." Chen Junshi said.
Second question: Can vegetarianism meet nutritional needs?
Can a vegetarian diet meet the essential nutrients of the human body?
"Yes, but there is an important premise - to make a scientific and reasonable collocation." Chen Junshi said that this requires people who eat vegetarian food to have sufficient nutritional knowledge.
What nutrients does a vegetarian diet provide to the human body? Chen Junshi pointed out that vegetarian food can provide all the essential nutrients for human beings, including energy, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.
energy. People have to get the energy needed from food throughout their lives to meet the needs of various physiological activities, and vegetarian foods such as grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts can provide enough energy for the human body.
protein. There is protein in grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts, but there is less protein in vegetables and fruits, and there is relatively more protein in grains and nuts. Protein also has advantages and disadvantages, protein is composed of amino acids, the more reasonable the composition and collocation of amino acids, the higher the quality of protein. "So why don't you just stare at one food?" From a nutritional point of view, food should be mixed reasonably, so that amino acids complement each other, which can effectively improve the nutritional value of protein. Chen Junshi stressed that people do not have to obtain protein from animal foods, if properly matched, it is possible to get more reasonable amino acids from grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts to meet the needs of the human body. Among them, soybeans are a very important source of high-quality plant protein, and if you want to obtain enough high-quality protein through vegetarian food, beans and soy products are indispensable.
Fats and carbohydrates. Vegetarian food can meet the needs of the human body fat, such as vegetable oil can provide the human body with enough essential fatty acids; plant foods are rich in carbohydrates, animal foods have fewer carbohydrates.
Vitamins and minerals. "The vast majority of vitamins and minerals can be obtained through the proper combination of plant foods to meet the needs of the human body. There is only one thing to be careful about – vitamin B12. Chen Junshi said that vitamin B12 is mainly present in animal foods, and general plant foods do not or only contain very little vitamin B12, which cannot meet the needs of the human body. However, some plant foods will produce vitamin B12 after fermentation, such as fermented soy products - tempeh, soy sauce tofu, stinky tofu, etc. contain vitamin B12, which can meet the needs of the human body.
Chen Junshi said that if you have the corresponding scientific knowledge, you can scientifically and carefully match plant foods, consume a variety of and sufficient plant foods, and achieve a balance between various nutrients, so that vegetarian food can meet the various nutrients needed by the human body.
Three questions: Is it good for pregnant women and children to eat vegetarian food?
For special groups such as children and pregnant women, can only eating vegetarian food meet their essential nutrients?
"There is no special physiological stage of people can not eat vegetarian, the key is to carry out targeted, scientific and reasonable collocation." Chen Junshi said, for example, pregnant women need to eat more iron-containing food, plant foods have a lot of iron content, but it is not easy to be used by the human body, the iron content in grain is not low, but the iron in no meat is easy to be used by the human body, "If you understand these knowledge points, you know how to take targeted measures." Therefore, for these special groups, if they only eat vegetarian food, their families need to have richer and more targeted nutritional knowledge.
"It can be found in the literature that there are a small number of world-class athletes who are vegan and have achieved excellent results, of course, there are still very few such people." Chen Junshi pointed out that some vegetarians know that they are deficient in some nutrients, so they do not reject taking nutrient supplements, such as vitamin and mineral tablets, which is also a supplementary method.
Four questions: Is it healthier to eat vegetarian?
Are people who eat whole vegans healthier than people who go with meat and vegetables?
"Not necessarily, the key is 'proper matching, nutritional balance'." Chen Junshi said that if you eat vegans for a long time without achieving a balanced diet, it is easy to cause nutritional deficiencies and cause health problems such as decreased immunity.
"The traditional Chinese dietary model is based on plant foods, with appropriate animal foods." Chen Junshi pointed out that a large number of scientific studies have proved that compared with the traditional Chinese diet based on plant foods, the Western diet based on animal foods is more likely to cause chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes.
"One of the important reasons for the rise of chronic diseases in China now is that the diet has become Westernized, that is, there has been a large increase in animal foods and a decrease in plant foods." Chen Junshi stressed that nutrition advocates plant-based food and appropriate animal food.
"The priorities here are very clear." Chen Junshi explained that to plant foods, it is necessary to eat more grains, vegetables and fruits, do not listen to rumors and do not eat staple foods, appropriately match animal foods such as chicken, duck, fish, eggs and milk, like to eat what can be appropriately matched, pay attention to animal foods should also be diversified, that is to say, it is best to eat everything a little, but do not eat anything more, to achieve appropriate collocation.
The "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" issued by the Chinese Nutrition Society in 2016 has 6 core recommendations: food variety, cereal-based; eating balance and healthy weight; eating more vegetables and fruits, milk, and soybeans; eating fish, poultry, eggs, and lean meat in moderation; less salt and less oil, controlling sugar and limiting alcohol; eliminating waste and rejuvenating new foods.
Chen Junshi stressed that these 6 points do not mean that only one of them can be done, but must be done all to eat healthy. Therefore, in addition to following the "balanced diet pagoda" in food pairing, exercise is a healthy element that must not be ignored. Eating and moving are equally important.
Five questions: Can you lose weight by eating vegetarian?
Many people are concerned, is eating vegetarian food can lose weight?
"Yes or no, it mainly depends on how you eat it and how you mix it." Chen Junshi pointed out that why do people increase their weight? Because its energy intake from food is greater than the energy consumed by its physical activity, that is, income is greater than expenditure, it has nothing to do with vegetarian or meat, and conversely, if the human body consumes more energy than the energy ingested, the weight will be reduced.
"Although obesity has a certain relationship with genetics, as long as you can achieve energy balance, you can maintain a normal weight." Chen Junshi stressed that any weight loss method should consider the intake and consumption of energy, combine "eating" and "moving", and "eating and moving balance" is the key to maintaining normal weight. Under the premise of the same amount of exercise, if the same amount of food is provided, animal food is more likely to make people fat - compared with plant foods, animal foods have more fat, even if it looks lean beef, the actual fat content is still very high.
"Ordinary people often say that this is healthy food and that is unhealthy food. In fact, there is no good or bad food, the key lies in whether the food combination and diet structure are reasonable. Chen Junshi explained for example that few people think that braised pork is healthy, but why can't you accidentally eat one or even two pieces of braised meat, and then strengthen your exercise after meals to consume it? Moving and eating balance is the real science.
Six questions: Do you want to encourage everyone to eat vegetarian?
"From the perspective of nutritionists, we do not advocate or oppose people eating whole vegetarians." Chen Junshi pointed out that vegetarian and meat can achieve nutritional balance, but all need a certain amount of nutritional knowledge; compared with the two, it is more difficult to achieve nutritional balance by eating vegetarian, and the combination of vegetarian food is higher, such as high-quality and rich protein in plant foods only beans and nuts, eating whole vegetarian is to find a way to make a fuss on beans, and eggs, milk, fish, shrimp, chicken and other animal foods are rich in high-quality protein, which is relatively easy to match.
Chen Junshi pointed out that man is an omnivore, no matter what the reason to eat vegetarian or semi-vegetarian, is a personal choice, "No country in the world mandates that the people are vegetarian or meat, but it is not our direction to let all human beings eat vegetarian." ”
"Judging from the current situation in China, we need to reduce the intake of animal foods to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases." Chen Junshi pointed out that in this sense, the introduction of some new plant foods to replace traditional meat is good for human health, and it is conducive to environmental protection and should be encouraged.
"But there are always positive and negative sides to things." Chen Junshi pointed out that some companies have launched "artificial meat" made of plant protein, such as replacing beef and pork with legume protein, "will definitely pursue taste, if the taste is not good, people will not buy." But the pursuit of taste is likely to increase a lot of fat, because oil-rich foods are more delicious, which may lead to the so-called 'artificial meat' than animal meat fat content does not drop but increases, resulting in the opposite of people's expectations, it is worth vigilance. (Reporter Wang Meihua)
People's Daily Overseas Edition ( December 17, 2021, 11th edition)