Dietary Contraindications and Preferences

Dietary taboos and preferences are personalized dietary choices influenced by genetic inheritance, cultural customs, health cognition, and individual physiological differences. There is never a unified standard that is universally applicable. The optimal solution is the one that suits your own situation.

A while ago, I was helping my uncle with type 2 diabetes adjust his diet, and we had a minor conflict: On the general list given by the nutritionist, leeks were recommended ingredients with low GI and high fiber, but my uncle immediately crossed them out after reading them, saying that he would get acid reflux and heartburn after just one bite of leeks, and eating them for three days in a row could even induce gastric ulcers. Who do you think is wrong? That's right. The nutritionist's conclusion is a general result of large-sample statistics. The uncle's reaction is a physiological threshold unique to him. This is a personalized taboo brought about by individual differences. There is no reason to apply public standards.

Don’t believe it, your dietary preferences may hide the survival wisdom of your ancestors. Let’s just talk about lactose intolerance. 70% of adults around the world have varying degrees of lactase deficiency. Drinking ice milk and running to the toilet is not a “weak stomach” at all. It’s just that our ancestors did not develop the milk-drinking habits of nomads and did not have this skill in their genes. There is no need to force yourself to drink milk to supplement calcium. Drinking yogurt or eating cheese can also supplement calcium. There is no need to have trouble with your stomach. Even more extreme is favismosis, which is glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Eating broad beans can induce acute hemolysis in patients, which can be life-threatening in severe cases. This is a hard and fast taboo, and there is no room for negotiation.

When it comes to taboos, we cannot avoid the theory of "fawu" in traditional Chinese medicine. Many young people think this is feudal dross. However, in the past three years of keeping family food records, I have really come across many cases that are consistent with the logic of "fawu": a friend with a history of chronic urticaria relapsed in a large area after eating seafood, and a patient who had just had surgery My mother's wound became red, swollen and itchy after eating two pieces of mutton. Modern nutrition can also explain it. It's either histamine intolerance or high protein that increases the metabolic burden. The two systems just have different explanation logic. There is no need to compete with others. If you feel uncomfortable eating it, just avoid it. It's better than anything else.

In addition to physiological reasons, more taboos and preferences are actually engraved in culture. Last year, the company team went to Qinghai. There was a little Hui girl with us. We went to a halal restaurant for the whole meal. There was a kid who had just joined the company and asked her, "Are you really not eating pork?" Don't you think it's a pity? ”, causing the whole scene to freeze. In fact, cultural dietary taboos have nothing to do with health. The essence is the identity and belief consensus of the group. Respect is enough, and there is no need to question it. Food preferences in different places are even more interesting. My colleagues from Guangdong always drink hot raw porridge for breakfast, saying that eating anything else will make their stomachs feel empty. My little boy from the Northeast likes to eat cold corn and salted garlic for breakfast, and says that Cantonese-style porridge is as bland as drinking water. No one needs to be convinced. After decades of eating habits, trying to change them will only make you feel bad and affect your health.

Nowadays, the food trends on the Internet are like a hundred flowers blooming. The ketogenic party accuses rice-eating people as sugar addicts, the vegetarian party accuses meat-eating people of destroying lives, and some bloggers say that drinking hot water can cause cancer, which makes people laugh and cry. In fact, most of these extreme diet ideas are solutions for specific groups of people: The ketogenic diet was originally used to treat epilepsy in children. It does have a short-term weight loss effect on some obese people with insulin resistance. However, long-term eating for ordinary people can easily increase the burden on the liver and kidneys. There is really no need to follow the trend. I once had a reader who went vegan for half a year in order to lose weight. In the end, he fainted in the subway station. He was diagnosed with severe anemia and B12 deficiency. It took him half a year to switch back. He really couldn't do it.

I have a special "diet blacklist" in my cell phone memo. Mango, iced American style, and fresh bamboo shoots are all three that I feel uncomfortable eating. No matter how healthy they are on the Internet, I won't touch them. On the contrary, I particularly like to eat fermented bean curd. Every time I meet my nutritionist friends, they always complain about the high salt content. I don’t change my mind. I only eat half a piece every time.

In fact, diet is the most personal thing. Taboos are red lines drawn for oneself, not rules used to kidnap others. Preferences are small pleasures given to oneself, not capital used to show superiority. After all, after so many years of eating, who hasn’t followed their own little rules? As long as you feel comfortable eating, have no physical problems, and don't offend others, you can be happy however you want.