A self-narrative from the "Dietary Biological Clock": Time for breakfast? Why not have some fruit first? It's delicious and whets the appetite! My job is to tell you what to eat and what not to eat at what time. Follow me, and you can enjoy delicious food while absorbing more nutrients.
We all know the body has a biological clock, but food also has its own "nutritional food clock." By eating according to the best "food clock," you can fully enjoy your food while absorbing the most nutrients.
●Fruit Best eaten before breakfast and in the afternoon
10 minutes before breakfast: Eating fruit at this time can increase the absorption of vitamins, and the fruit acid also acts as an appetizer. Many people don't like breakfast, and using fruit to whet the appetite is a great idea. Fruits suitable for eating before a meal should be not too sour and not too astringent, such as apples, pears, bananas, grapes, etc. However, people with stomach problems should not eat fruit during this period.
Around 10 AM: This is a time of high work stress, and most people feel irritable. The sweet and sour taste of fruit can refresh your mind and help relieve tension and impatience.
1 hour after lunch: Eating fruit at this time helps with digestion. Fruits rich in protease, such as pineapple and kiwi, and fruits with more organic acids, such as oranges, hawthorn, and apricots, are suitable.
Around 4 PM: This is a time when you can easily feel hungry, so fruit can be an afternoon snack. The choice of fruit can be similar to what you eat 10 minutes before breakfast. If you are worried about the coldness of raw fruit, you can drink a glass of warm water before eating to ensure gastrointestinal comfort. Having a fruit snack in the afternoon can relieve and relax the fatigue and tension of a whole day of work.
●Vegetable congee and soup dumplings Eat in the morning
For breakfast, a warm bowl of congee is the best care for your stomach. It's best to add some chopped vegetables and an egg to nourish the stomach while also enriching the nutrition.
There are two main reasons for choosing to drink congee for breakfast. When you first wake up in the morning, some people may experience stomach coldness and pain. A warm vegetable congee can immediately relieve these conditions, whereas foods like bread and biscuits can worsen the discomfort. Additionally, the digestion time for vegetable congee is slightly longer than that of milk, about an hour, which is exactly the peak of food digestion. At this time, you are on your way to work, and it can provide you with enough energy.
If you are afraid of getting hungry from just drinking congee, you can add some soup dumplings. The calories of soup dumplings are higher than that of vegetable congee, and they provide a longer-lasting feeling of fullness, which can keep the gastrointestinal tract continuously "warm."
●Potatoes and pumpkin Eat at noon
Starchy foods like sweet potatoes, potatoes, and pumpkin should be eaten during main meals, and preferably as a staple food. Starchy foods not only ensure the supply of carbohydrates but also provide a variety of vitamins and essential trace elements for the human body.
It is incorrect to eat starchy foods after a meal, as it is easy to overeat, and the nutrients are not easily digested and absorbed, which is a real pity. Starchy foods are best eaten at noon as the main meal. This is because the calcium contained in them needs 4-5 hours to be absorbed by the body, and the afternoon sunlight can promote calcium absorption.
Starchy foods are high in carbohydrates, which are an important element for ensuring human energy. Eating them at noon can make the afternoon more energetic and improve work efficiency accordingly.
●Yogurt Drink 1 hour after a meal
Yogurt can help digestion and improve gastrointestinal function, but not drinking it at any time will have this effect. Generally speaking, one hour after a meal is the best time to drink yogurt.
Yogurt is delicious, but to make the active lactic acid bacteria effective, you still need to put in some effort. Under normal circumstances, the pH value of human gastric juice is between 1-3. When the stomach is empty, the gastric juice is acidic, which is not suitable for the growth of lactic acid bacteria. Only when the pH value is higher than 3 can the active lactic acid bacteria in yogurt grow well. About an hour after a meal, the gastric juice is diluted, and the pH value rises to 3-5. At this time, drinking yogurt allows its nutrients to be most easily absorbed.
●Snacks Eat at 4 PM
Around 4 PM is the most tiring time of the day, and it is relatively suitable for eating snacks.
About 4 hours after eating, carbohydrates are basically depleted. At this time, most people cannot concentrate and feel very tired. For office workers with a long interval between lunch and dinner, snacks are the best energy supplement during this period.
When choosing snacks, it is best to choose those rich in nutrients, relatively low in sugar and fat, and with less preservatives, suitable as daily nutritional supplements, such as low-fat cheese, peanuts, figs, seaweed, fruits, etc.
There are also dried fruit and vegetable slices sold in supermarkets, which have a very crispy texture. They are not fried or puffed foods, but are made by high-temperature drying to remove moisture. This not only results in little nutritional loss, but also low fat and calories, and will not cause obesity.
●Milk Drink half an hour before bed
Many people like to have a glass of milk for breakfast, but milk also has its best time to drink, which is before going to sleep at night.
It is wrong to drink milk on an empty stomach in the morning because the protein in milk needs to be broken down by the stomach and small intestine into amino acids before it can be absorbed by the body. In the morning on an empty stomach, the stomach empties quickly, and the milk is excreted into the large intestine before it can be absorbed.
In the evening, energy consumption is low, so protein is preserved. Moreover, milk also has a sedative effect. It is best to drink milk about half an hour before going to bed at night. If you drink it too early, the milk may be digested together with dinner, increasing drowsiness and leading to sleeping with a full stomach, which affects gastrointestinal function and can easily cause obesity. Drinking milk half an hour before bed can avoid the digestion time of dinner, and half an hour later, drowsiness will just set in, allowing for a sound sleep.