How to choose a healthy diet

There is never a unified standard answer to healthy eating that can be directly copied. The core is to first adapt to your own physical condition and life rhythm, and then make dynamic adjustments based on the principle of balance. There is no need to go through the details of the Internet celebrity list.

A while ago, I was still laughing when I was helping two neighbors in the community figure out a plan for adjusting their diet. You can't give the same template to a programmer who is busy with projects every day and often has to eat overtime meals, and a retired aunt with diabetes who has plenty of time, right? What the programmer wants is convenience and easy operation, so that he won’t feel sleepy in the afternoon after eating. He gives priority to staple foods that raise blood sugar slowly, and takeaways with less heavy oil and salt will meet the standard. What the aunt wants is to stabilize blood sugar, so she has to pay more attention to the combination of thickness and control of total calories. The choices of the two should not be the same.

Several diet topics that are hotly debated on the Internet are actually based on this principle. For example, some people say that eating whole grains every day is healthy. A friend of mine with a weak spleen and stomach believed it. After eating brown rice and oatmeal for two months, he suffered from acid reflux and bloating every day. I went to the nutrition department. The doctor said that for the elderly and children with weak digestive function, whole grains should account for one-third of the staple food, and there is no need to force 100% of the proportion. There is also the ketogenic diet, which has been popular for several years recently. Some people rely on it to lose weight quickly in a short period of time, thinking it is a magic way to lose fat. There are also clinical cases from endocrinology departments that show that long-term strict ketogenic diet can easily induce blood lipid disorders and increase uric acid. People with underlying metabolic diseases may cause problems if they try it blindly. If you really want to talk about it, there is no absolutely "correct" eating pattern, only what is suitable for you.

In fact, there is no need to think too highly of healthy eating. It is essentially like choosing a charging cable for your own mobile phone. No matter how expensive the gallium nitride is, it will not charge if the interface is wrong. The most useful one is the one that can adapt to your body and last for a long time. Two years ago, my physical examination showed that my uric acid was a bit high. At first, I followed the fasting list on the Internet and crossed out all high-purine foods. I didn’t even dare to touch the pea tips that I love to eat in spring. Later, when I went for a follow-up visit, I learned that plant-based high-purine foods have a minimal impact on human uric acid. There is no need to eat them. Instead, I need to pay attention to drinking less thick broth and less sweet drinks with a lot of fructose syrup. After the adjustment, I feel much more comfortable with my diet, and my uric acid is stable in the normal range during six months of follow-up tests.

When you are in a hurry at work, you don’t have to roll up a “healthy ritual”. You don’t have to get up an hour early to make a fat-reducing meal with boiled vegetables. Buying a whole wheat sandwich without salad dressing and a box of pure milk from the convenience store downstairs is much better than trying to meet the “healthy standards” by stuffing yourself with things you don’t like, and finally being unable to get up in the middle of the night to eat two bags of potato chips. Some people say that health requires giving up sugar completely. In fact, it is not necessary. The WHO recommends that free sugar intake should not exceed 10% of the total daily energy, and it is best to control it below 5%. Occasionally, if you are craving for a small cake or drink a cup of sweetened milk tea, there is no need to feel guilty as long as it is not eaten as a meal. After all, emotional exhaustion has a much greater impact on health than that little sugar.

If you are really not sure how to choose, first read your recent physical examination report, and then think about whether you can keep up with your daily routine, whether your stomach is comfortable and in good condition after eating. It is more effective than reading ten "world's top healthy diet lists".