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In hospitals, we often hear advice on a light diet, but that doesn't mean you can't eat meat or oil at all. Extreme light diets are not conducive to nutritional balance, which will lead to a decline in physical fitness and make people more susceptible to diseases. For example, if you refuse to eat meat, eggs and soy products are not ingested, it will cause protein deficiency, cause a decrease in immunity, and skin elasticity will become worse; If the intake of oils and fats is insufficient, especially the deficiency of essential fatty acids, it can cause fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E deficiencies, dry eye, osteoporosis, etc.
Today, we will ask the dietitian to talk about the "light diet".
Many people will feel: a light diet is too difficult to do, too difficult to insist on it!
This is because many people understand the "light diet" often white porridge, white noodles, and green leafy vegetables without any oil.
Stop! Porridge is not a light diet!
It's ok to eat a meal or two once in a while. If you eat it every day, you will not only be hungry and hungry, but you will also lack vitamins and protein [1-2]!
1. Only eat white porridge and noodles, easy to lack B vitamins:
The refined white rice noodles themselves will lose a lot of vitamin B1 during processing. Vitamin B is a water-soluble vitamin, and the process of boiling porridge and cooking noodles will also cause vitamin B1 loss [3].
Eating like this for a long time, it is easy to lack vitamin B, making people feel tired and weak, loss of appetite and so on.
2. Only eat vegetarian, do not eat meat, easy to lack protein
Every day, "porridge and noodles" are eaten without enough protein, and after a long time, "protein malnutrition" may occur, and even damage organs [4].
Since the "light diet" is so harmful to health, why do doctors and nutritionists always advise everyone to "eat light"?
Because the "light diet" in the doctor's mouth has never been a porridge dish white noodles!
The real light diet can be summed up in three words: natural ingredients, food variety, and refusal to "heavy taste".
1. Eat more whole foods and control processed foods
Eat more fresh, natural foods and less processed foods.
Common processed foods include instant noodles, jellies, canned foods (including meat, soups, drinks, etc.), cured meats, etc., which are also made from natural foods.
Although processed foods also have nutritional value, after processing, adding ingredients and food additives are often high in salt, sugar, oil and energy density.
If you must buy processed foods, first read the nutrition facts list on the food packaging [5]:
- Sugar content≤ 0.5g/100g (100ml) is a sugar-free food and can be considered;
- Sodium NRV (nutrient reference value) more than 30% of the food, try to buy less and eat less;
- Try to choose foods that are "free of trans fatty acids".
2. Mix ingredients reasonably and balance dietary intake
The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents recommend that an average of more than 12 foods be ingested per day and more than 25 per week [6].
Don't look at the number "25" and think "it's too much"! Refer to the following 6 tips, which are easy to do:
1. There are vegetables in the meal: fresh vegetables should be eaten at each meal, and dark vegetables are mainly used (such as spinach, rape, celery leaves, hollow cabbage, mustard greens, lettuce, artemisia annua, leeks, bean seedlings, broccoli, etc.);
2. Eat fish, poultry, eggs and lean meat in moderation: one bite of meat per meal, one egg per day. Eat more white meat (poultry and fish), eat red meat (pigs, beef, mutton) in moderation, and eat less fat meat;
3. Add whole grains and beans to staple foods: when making staple foods, you can put a handful of grains or beans;
4. Eat fruit every day: eat an appropriate amount of fresh seasonal fruits every day, and pay attention to the fact that freshly squeezed juice cannot replace fresh fruit;
5. One cup of milk a day: take milk as a daily necessity, so that one cup (250 ~ 500ml) of milk per day, you can also eat a variety of dairy products;
6. Often eat soy products: eat more beans, often eat tofu, dried beans, soy milk, soy skin and other soy products.
All in all, eat everything! But don't eat too much; No more, no less, the right amount is the best!
3. Cooking with less salt, less oil and less sugar
Eating too much salt, oil, and sugar can affect your health [7-8]. You can refer to the table below to control your oil, salt and sugar intake:
(Click above for a larger image)
Of course, for some elderly people or people with underlying diseases, it is best to increase the variety and quantity of food gradually, not to be hasty, and to give the digestive system an adaptation process.
If eating more at a time is not easy to digest, you can consider the way of "eating less and eating more meals", you can eat 4 to 5 meals a day, and only eat 70% of the fullness each time.
Seeing this, you have been "eating lightly" for several days, don't you hurry up to eat some chicken, duck, fish, and meat supplements? Let's click "Watching" by the way!
Review expert: Lin Chen
Dietitian, Department of Clinical Nutrition, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University
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[4] Abderrahim Oussalah, Julien Levy, Clémence Berthezène, et al. Health Outcomes Associated with Vegetarian Diets: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses[J]. Clinical Nutrition, 2020, 39(11): 3283-3307.
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[8]A. H. Lichtenstein, L. J. Appel, M. Vadiveloo, et al. 2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association[J]. Circulation, 2021, 144(23): e472-e487.
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