nutritious diet plan

There is no universal nutritious diet plan that is suitable for everyone. The core of a truly effective plan is "a basic framework that matches individual characteristics + leaving room for flexible adjustments." All "universal recipes" that do not take into account your age, underlying diseases, exercise habits, and dietary preferences are essentially ineffective or even have health risks.

Don’t underestimate the impact of individual differences. A while ago, I came into contact with a 27-year-old Internet operator girl who followed the trend and copied Pamela's fat-reducing diet. After half a month, my aunt postponed it for 10 days, and there was a circle of acne on her face and chin. She was extremely aggrieved when she came to me for consultation - she weighed only 88 pounds and had a body fat rate of only 18%. That recipe was designed for people with a body fat rate of 25% or more and a clear need to lose fat. The calorie gap was higher than her basal metabolism, so it was normal for her to have trouble eating. There is also an elderly man in the family who has been eating a vegetarian meal for three months following the short video. He was diagnosed with severe anemia during his last physical examination. He came to me with a bag of health products and asked me if he could continue to eat. I looked at the hemoglobin value on his report and couldn’t laugh or cry. The elderly man has bad teeth and a low absorption rate of plant proteins. He didn’t even touch eggs and milk. It would be strange if he was not anemic.

Speaking of this, I have to mention the debate between diet schools that has been quarreling for many years in the nutrition circle. No one can convince anyone, but there are actually applicable scenarios for individuals. For example, the low-carb/ketogenic diet has been popular for several years, and the clinical data of its supporters are indeed there: people with abdominal obesity and insulin resistance will see significant improvements in body fat percentage, fasting blood sugar, and fatty liver indicators if they adhere to it for about three months. I have a friend who is a programmer and has moderate fatty liver disease. He followed the doctor's advice and followed the low-carb diet for half a year. The last review has turned into mild disease. But from the perspective of the traditional balanced diet school, the problem of long-term insufficient carbohydrate intake is also very clear: heavy manual laborers, students who need to concentrate for a long time, and people who do high-frequency aerobic training. Insufficient carbohydrate supply is prone to problems such as concentration loss, dizziness, and decline in sports performance. My sister is a high school teacher. She used to follow the low-carb trend. When she stood on the podium in the third period, her eyes turned black and she almost fell. Later, she switched to a multigrain steamed bun every morning and a corn in the afternoon, and she never had any problems in class again.

In fact, for ordinary people, there is no need to engage in such complicated weighing and caloric calculation. It is enough to use the "hand rule" that has been popularized in the nutrition field for many years as a basic framework: the amount of a meal is about a fist-sized staple food (if you need to control sugar, switch to low-GI cereals such as quinoa and oats. , accounting for at least half), a palm-sized amount of protein (fish, poultry, eggs, milk, and soy products are acceptable, but gout patients should avoid high-purine seafood and animal offal), 2 fists of vegetables (half of dark green leafy vegetables are best), and a thumb-tip amount of high-quality fat (olive oil, avocado, and nuts all count). It doesn’t have to be accurate to the gram. A difference of ten or twenty grams won’t affect anything at all. After all, you can’t weigh every meal with a scale, right?

Another topic that everyone is arguing about is whether to take supplements. One group says that as long as you eat well, you can get enough nutrients and there is no need to spend extra money. ； The other group says that the nutrient density of today’s food is much lower than it was a few decades ago, and ordinary people simply cannot eat enough of the recommended dietary allowance. This actually depends on the situation: if you can eat 12 different kinds of food every day and 25 kinds every week, and there is no shortage of meat, eggs, milk, vegetables and cereals, then there is really no need to take supplements, and the excess nutrients will be metabolized by the body, which is a pure waste of money. But if you eat takeout every day, and the only vegetables in your meal are two pieces of lettuce on top of a rice bowl, and you can't eat deep-sea fish once a week, then it's okay to supplement with some multivitamins and Omega3. My colleague eats braised chicken and rice every day. Last year, he was deficient in vitamin D during his physical examination. The doctor asked him to take one pill a day and get more sun exposure. After three months of reexamination, he was normal.

Speaking of which, I have fallen into the "perfect diet" trap before. In the past few years, I followed people in the fitness circle and did not touch any refined carbohydrates. When I went out to have hot pot with friends, I would bring home-cooked brown rice. I felt guilty after taking two sips of milk tea. As a result, I overeat every now and then, and I could eat an entire cake in one meal. Later I figured out that a nutritious diet is meant to serve life, not to be a shackles on life. It is perfectly fine to go out with friends to have barbecues and drink milk tea on weekends. I just need to add more vegetables and less refined carbohydrates to replenish my next meal. I have been eating this way for more than two years now, and my physical examination indicators are all normal. Even the chronic gastritis I had before has not occurred for a long time.

To put it bluntly, there is no standard answer to a nutritional plan. If you feel comfortable after eating, have enough energy, have normal bowel movements, and have annual physical examination indicators within the normal range, then this plan is the most suitable for you - after all, eating should be based on health, and eating happily is the most important thing.