Eating porridge for breakfast is a traditional eating habit of many Chinese, and Dr. Zhang Wenhong suggested that parents prepare high-protein breakfasts such as eggs and milk for their children, and also emphasized that "porridge is not allowed". This makes many people "the porridge in their hands suddenly becomes unscented"...
What's wrong with porridge? Can't I drink porridge for breakfast? Should I drink less porridge when I am sick? During the epidemic, will drinking porridge lead to insufficient nutrition? How can I drink porridge healthily? In the face of many questions from netizens, the China Food Rumor Debunking Alliance asked nutrition experts to answer the truth about "drinking porridge" for you.
Truth 1:
Don't just drink white porridge, the nutrient content is very simple
Can't I drink porridge for breakfast? In fact, you can't just drink "white porridge".
Ruan Guangfeng, a member of the expert group of the China Food Rumor Suppression Alliance and director of the Science and Technology Department of the Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center, said: "Zhang Wenhong said that porridge is not allowed, but in fact, he is talking about our traditional breakfast habits - drinking white porridge, adding pickles, and then ordering steamed buns, oil cakes, fritters, or simply eating a large bowl of white porridge. This unhealthy model is 'no allowed', not simply forbidden to eat white porridge. ”
Why white porridge is not recommended, this should be analyzed from its nutritional composition. White porridge, as the name suggests, is porridge cooked with white rice. Ruan Guangfeng said that the current white rice is refined rice, in the refining process, vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber have been few, its own nutritional value is very low. After cooking porridge, it will only get worse.
From the perspective of nutrient composition, there is a lot of water in the porridge, especially the porridge that is thinly cooked, and the others are mainly gelatinized starch (carbohydrates). Its nutritional composition is very simple, basically can only provide energy and water to the human body, protein, dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are very low.
Moreover, because the white rice is boiled very badly after cooking into porridge, the digestion speed of white porridge is faster than that of white rice, which is very bad for blood sugar control and hunger is also fast, which is not conducive to energy control. Even as a staple food, white porridge is not a good staple food.
Ruan Guangfeng suggested that white porridge is not a good breakfast choice, breakfast or eat less or do not eat white porridge, let alone just eat white porridge.
For children, they are in a critical period of growth and development, and the body's demand for high-quality protein is higher. If you still follow the traditional Chinese eating habits, drink a bowl of white porridge for breakfast and eat some pickles, it is obviously unhealthy. Eating like this for a long time will only delay the healthy growth and development of the child's body. Ruan Guangfeng said that from the perspective of health, at least to ensure that children have eggs, milk and other high-quality proteins in their daily breakfast, a cup of milk, an egg is a relatively healthy and easy to operate choice.
From this point of view, Zhang Wenhong's "no porridge in the morning" actually means to remind parents to pay attention to the diet and structure of their children's breakfast, especially to pay attention to the intake of high-quality protein, and can not only eat white porridge, which has a very single nutritional content.
Truth 2:
When sick do not always drink porridge Supplement protein supplement is the key
In fact, this is not the first time Zhang Wenhong has issued a similar reminder, before that, he reminded overseas Chinese to maintain nutrition when they have a fever, enhance immunity, drink more milk, eat more eggs, and drink less porridge.
However, in many Chinese concepts, "illness" and "drinking porridge" are often associated. Cold fever has no appetite to drink some porridge, gastrointestinal discomfort to drink some porridge, the beginning of the illness should not be greasy to drink some porridge ... But in fact, drinking porridge is not the best choice when you are sick.
Especially during the pandemic, adequate nutrition is very important for disease control. Zhang Wenhong said that protein is the most important nutrient that produces antibodies, porridge and pickles can not produce antibodies, and if the appetite allows, we must eat enough milk and eggs to supplement protein.
In addition, Chinese folk also have the saying that "white porridge nourishes the stomach". Indeed, white porridge is a semi-liquid food, easy to digest, for people with weak gastrointestinal function, people who usually have stomach diseases or diarrhea symptoms, porridge can reduce the burden of spleen and stomach, so it is suitable for people with weak spleen and stomach and poor appetite.
However, Ruan Guangfeng pointed out that for people with a bad stomach, it is okay to drink porridge in the short term, but after the body recovers, it should be a normal diet, rather than drinking porridge or eating some soft and rotten food for a long time, so that the digestion ability of the gastrointestinal tract will become worse.
Truth 3:
Reasonable combination of balanced nutrition Drinking porridge should also be exquisite
Although there are many problems with white porridge, for healthy people, white porridge is not a kind of "junk food", not that it cannot be drunk, but that it must be exquisitely drunk. Ruan Guangfeng suggested that everyone, whether eating at home or eating out, if you want to drink porridge healthily, you should do the following.
01
First of all, pay attention to drinking porridge in moderation. Porridge has a lot of moisture and large volume, drinking porridge is easy to occupy the stomach volume, if you drink a large bowl of porridge, other foods may not be able to eat much, easy to cause imbalance in nutritional intake. So, eat porridge for breakfast, try not to have too much, a small bowl, and leave some room for other foods for the stomach.
02
Second, drink porridge as much as possible without salt, sugar and alkali. Salt and sugar are not good for health, and alkali can destroy the B vitamins in porridge. Therefore, when cooking porridge, try not to put sugar, salt and alkali.
03
Third, cook porridge with high nutritional value, not just white porridge. The nutritional value of white porridge is low, but as long as you master the material of boiling porridge, porridge can also be nutritious. For example, multigrain porridge, meat porridge, vegetable porridge and so on. When boiling porridge, you can try more colorful ingredients to match, so that you can eat porridge more deliciously and healthier.
04
Finally, drink porridge pay attention to reasonable collocation and balanced nutrition. Porridge is only a staple food, when drinking porridge, do not only match pickles, steamed buns, oil cakes, fritters, etc., not only a single nutrition, but also easy to cause excessive intake of sodium. Drink porridge must pay attention to some vegetables, such as cold spinach, white-seared kale, etc., and then a little high-quality protein-containing food, such as milk, tofu shredded, vegetarian assorted, sauce beef, white-seared shrimp and the like, and then some fruits, so that it will be much healthier.
Editor: Xi Yuxuan
Source: Popular Science China