In Chinese's food culture, staple foods occupy an important place. Fried wheat with oil cakes, fried noodle bread, shredded potato burritos... Wait, is staple food plus staple food really good...
Some people claim not to eat meat, only staple foods, and use this method of health regimen. There are also some people who lose weight avoid staple foods and hope to replace staple foods with meat to lose weight quickly. How much staple food should be eaten, is eating too much or too little harmful to the body, and how should I choose staple food?
How much to eat staple foods
If the food is divided into five categories, then they are: cereals, potatoes, vegetables and fruits, livestock, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, soybeans, nuts and fats.
These types of foods have their own characteristics, and maintaining an appropriate proportion when eating can ensure comprehensive nutrition and maintain good health.
Among the five food groups, the largest intake should be cereals and potatoes, which we call staple foods. The dietary guidelines for Chinese residents point out that the energy provided by staple foods should account for 50%~65% of the total energy of the day's diet [1], which means that adults should eat 250~400 grams of staple foods per day. If the weight is 60~70 kg, then the staple food of each meal requires about 1~1.5 bowls of rice (about 2~3 taels) or 1~2 steamed buns [1].
Figure 丨 Giphy
Eat very little with staple foods (
70%) people who control the amount of staple food at 40%~70% of the total daily energy have the longest life.
This is because when staple foods are too low, animal protein and fat are usually consumed, while when staple foods are too low, refined rice noodles (rice, noodles or white bread, etc.) are intaked in large quantities, both of which are harmful to health [2,3].
What is good to eat for staples
Adults' daily staple foods should generally contain 50~150 grams of whole grains and miscellaneous beans, and 50~100 grams of potatoes.
Whole grains are grains that have not been finely processed or have been treated to retain the endosperm, germ, bran and their natural nutrients of intact grains. Rice, wheat, barley, oats, corn, barley, buckwheat and barley can be used as staple foods.
Rice, wheat, barley and oats are all whole grain ideas
Mixed beans refer to beans such as red beans, mung beans, kidney beans and pintose beans in addition to soybeans. Mixed beans have high dietary fiber, calcium and iron content, and can be eaten with refined white rice noodles to achieve a balanced nutritional effect.
Potatoes refer to root crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and taro. Potatoes are rich in fiber, hemicellulose and pectin, which can promote intestinal peristalsis and prevent constipation.
Compared with refined rice noodles, whole grains, mixed beans and potatoes can provide more healthy nutrients and phytochemicals such as B vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber, and whole grains, mixed beans and potatoes raise blood sugar more slowly, which plays an important role in reducing the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and tumors [4]. Replacing 50 grams of refined grains with 50 grams of whole grains per day has a significant effect on improving health [5].
How to eat staple foods
At least one of the three meals a day should be staple with whole grains, beans and potatoes.
1. You can use whole grains to cook porridge (such as millet porridge) or make pasta (such as whole wheat flour steamed buns), you can also add brown rice, red beans or sweet potatoes and other steamed multigrain rice to white rice, when making multigrain rice, the most suitable ratio is whole grain: polished rice noodles are 1:2.
Figure 丨 Giphy
2. Mixed beans can be cooked directly into porridge or stir-fried after cooking.
3. Potatoes can be directly used as staple foods after steaming, boiling or roasting, and potatoes can also be added to dishes, such as fried shredded potatoes and stewed ribs with yam. However, dishes such as fried shredded potatoes need to be classified as staple foods, and when eating this dish, reduce the intake of other staple foods. If the amount of rice is the same as before while eating shredded potatoes, it is easy to cause the intake of staple foods to exceed the standard.
4. Eat less fried staple foods such as fried fried fried sticks, oil cakes, French fries and fried steamed buns.
5. When making staple foods, reduce the amount of refined rice noodles. After refining and processing, only the endosperm part of the grain remains, and the loss of dietary fiber originally contained in whole grains is serious, and the loss of B vitamins and minerals is as high as 60%~80%.
In addition, fruit cannot be eaten as a staple food, cereal potato food is the staple food. Some people who lose weight will also make fruit into juice, and drinking only juice for breakfast or dinner is also not feasible. First, because the nutrients in fruits cannot replace cereal and potato foods. Second, the carbohydrates in fruits are mainly fructose and glucose, and excessive intake will also lead to elevated blood lipids and obesity.
For the sake of good health, do not go to extremes, do not eat staple food at all, do not eat a lot at once, the amount of staple food is controlled within a suitable range is the most reasonable.
bibliography
[1] Chinese Society of Nutrition. Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2016).Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House, 2016.
[2] Seidelmann SB, Claggett B, Cheng S, et al. Dietary carbohydrate intake and mortality: a prospective cohort study and meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health. 2018;3(9):e419-e428.
[3] Dehghan M, Mente A, Zhang X, et al; Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study investigators. Associations of fats and carbohydrate intake with cardiovascular disease and mortality in 18 countries from five continents (PURE): a prospective cohort study. Lancet. 2017;390(10107):2050-2062.
[4] Reynolds A, Mann J, Cummings J, et al. Carbohydrate quality and human health: a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):434-445.
[5] Zazpe I, Santiago S, Gea A, et al. Association between a dietary carbohydrate index and cardiovascular disease in the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) Project. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2016;26(11):1048-1056.
Author: Dai Tian Yi
Editor: Mu Yi Yang Yang