Always talking about a healthy diet and controlling the intake of various foods. In fact, for sugar, salt, saturated fat, and alcohol, we are constantly being "consumed" unconsciously. A large number of foods contain these ingredients, and it's easy to exceed the recommended limits without realizing it. Come and learn from nutrition expert Fan Zhihong on how to actually eat for a healthy diet.
People often say that certain foods are unhealthy and should be eaten in moderation. But which foods should we not eat freely? Does "in moderation" mean we can't have any at all?
A healthy diet pattern is characterized by variety and high nutrient density, and it can be personalized. But does that mean there are no restrictions at all?
Of course there are restrictions, but they come from a different perspective than many people imagine. A healthy diet first focuses on how to get the foods you should be eating into your diet—discovering foods that are high in nutritional value and preparing and combining them in an enjoyable way—rather than first fixating on what you can't eat, which can make life very frustrating and miserable.
When choosing food varieties, especially processed foods, it is indeed necessary to consider limiting added sugars (not including the natural sugars in fruits, vegetables, and dried fruits), salt (including other sodium-containing food additives), and also to appropriately control the total amount of saturated and trans fats. Finally, the amount of alcohol must also be limited.
Why are these food components so unwelcome?
This is because adding sugar, saturated fat, and trans fat significantly reduces the nutrient density of food and may increase the risk of developing diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. It can be said that without limiting these components, it is very difficult for people to achieve a healthy eating pattern.
In the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, there are quantitative limits on the following components.
1. Added sugars in food must not exceed 10% of total daily calories.
This figure is not demanding at all. Calculating based on a daily intake of 2000 kcal (the recommended calorie intake for women with light physical activity in China is 1800 kcal, and for men, it is 2250 kcal, with an average of about 2000 kcal), 10% of that is 200 kcal, equivalent to 50 grams of granulated sugar. In 2015, the World Health Organization's recommendation for added sugars was to limit them to within 50 grams per day, preferably within 25 grams per day. It can be seen that the U.S. dietary guideline's recommendation takes the upper limit.
So, which foods are sources of added sugar? You might be surprised by how many there are.
- Sweet Chinese and Western pastries: such as sweet breads, cookies, cakes, egg tarts, flaky pastries, pies, peach crisps, and countless others;
- Sweetened congee and pastes: such as whole grain pastes, sweetened instant breakfast cereals, sesame paste, peanut paste, etc.;
- Sweet savory dishes: such as steamed yams dipped in condensed milk, steamed potatoes with sugar, candied sweet potatoes, honey-glazed pumpkin, osmanthus lotus root, etc.;
- Sweetened fish and meat dishes: such as lychee meat, sweet and sour spare ribs, sweet and sour pork fillet, pineapple shrimp balls, etc.
- Sweetened soups and puddings: such as egg and corn soup, fruit soups, fermented rice balls with glutinous rice balls, red bean soup, mung bean soup, tremella soup, and various sugar syrups;
- Sweet snacks and desserts: such as tangyuan, mooncakes, sweet zongzi, eight-treasure rice pudding, mi san dao, rolling donkey, sugar ears, yokan, red bean paste, mung bean cake, double-skin milk, ginger milk curd, almond tofu, and countless others;
- Sweetened dairy products, such as most yogurts, flavored milks (e.g., multigrain milk, chocolate milk, fruit-flavored milk), milk tablets, Chinese sweet cheese, etc.;
- Sweetened fruit products: such as canned fruits, fruit soups, jams, jellies, preserved fruits (please note, this does not include unsweetened dried fruits);
- Sweetened or honeyed homemade beverages, such as brown sugar water, honey water, sweetened soy milk, pear water rock sugar, mung bean soup with white sugar, rock sugar-infused fruit and flower tea, etc.
Sweet commercial beverages, sweet ice cream, popsicles, smoothies, sour plum soup, and various candies, sweet chocolates, etc., go without saying—you know what I mean.
Once you look at it this way, it's clear that you don't have to completely avoid sweets, but if you casually eat two or three of these items, it's super easy to exceed the 50-gram limit for added sugar in a day. So, simply put, besides fruits and dried fruits, it's safest to limit yourself to one sweetened item per day.
2. Saturated fat should be controlled to within 10% of total daily calories.
Saturated fat needs to be controlled because excessive intake may increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
So, how much saturated fat does 10% of daily calories actually amount to?
Because the calorie coefficient of fat is much higher than that of sugar, 200 kcal of saturated fat is equivalent to only 22 grams. This isn't a very large amount, as many foods beloved by Americans are excellent sources of saturated fat:
- Pork, beef, and lamb (red meat), especially fatty beef, fatty lamb, pork belly, and pork shoulder. The more "marbling" and "snowflake" a beef has, the higher its saturated fat content. A large amount of animal oil can be rendered from the white, fatty parts. Moreover, the proportion of saturated fat in the fat of beef and lamb is higher than that of lard. The general rule for red meat is that the more expensive the meat, the juicier the texture, the richer the flavor, and the higher the fat content.
- Various dishes or snacks cooked with lard or fatty meat, such as tangyuan, savory zongzi, salty meat mooncakes, and eight-treasure rice pudding made with lard.
- Various meat products made with added fatty meat, such as sausages, luncheon meat, meatballs, and various delicacies with added meat filling.
- Various baked goods made with added butter, vegetable cream, or shortening, such as flaky bread, egg tarts, cookies, crackers, pies, and pastries.
- Various pre-packaged fried foods. The vast majority of commercially made fried foods use palm oil as the frying oil, which has a relatively high proportion of saturated fat. This also includes fried instant noodles, crispy rice, potato chips, etc.
- Cheese, cream used on cakes, ice cream, mousse desserts, cheesecake, European-style cakes, etc. The higher-end the ice cream, the more cream it contains, and thus the more saturated fat. Whether the ice cream and cake use vegetable cream or real cream, they are both high in saturated fat.
- High-fat milk and condensed milk. Milk contains a small amount of saturated fat (about 2g per 100g). Drinking one cup is far from the limit, but if you drink three or four cups a day like water, the total amount cannot be underestimated.
- Non-dairy creamer and vegetable creamer. These ingredients are often added to various instant powders (like breakfast cereal, coconut powder, etc.), sweet milk tea, hot chocolate, coffee creamers, etc. Although trans fatty acid content in non-dairy creamer is now very low, its high saturated fat content remains unchanged.
- As for lard, tallow, and butter, it goes without saying that they are strongholds of saturated fat. So, even if you only eat a small amount of red meat, but then eat some cookies and crackers between meals, plus some ice cream and desserts, it's still very easy to exceed the saturated fat limit.
Additionally, by eating less processed high-saturated-fat foods, less fried food, and less margarine, the amount of artificial trans fatty acids can also be effectively controlled.
3. Daily sodium intake should be controlled to within 2300 mg (equivalent to about 6g of salt).
The source of sodium is not just salt. In addition to salt, it also comes from the following sources:
- Various salty condiments, including soy sauce, bean paste, yellow bean paste, sweet bean paste, fermented black beans, various preserved bean curds, broad bean paste, chive flower sauce, chili sauce, mushroom sauce, and rice sauce.
- Various umami condiments, such as MSG, chicken essence, mushroom essence, various bouillon cubes, soup bases, shrimp paste, fish sauce, seafood seasoning sauce, oyster sauce, hydrolyzed protein flavorings, and various instant soup bases.
- Foods containing sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate, such as baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), washing soda (sodium carbonate), various baking powders, self-rising flours, and leavening agents containing sodium bicarbonate; various soft pastries like youtiao, mahua, wotou, date cake, corn cake, and rice cakes made with sodium bicarbonate; and noodles, instant noodle cakes, alkaline zongzi, and wonton wrappers made with sodium carbonate.
- Other sodium-containing additives, such as various sodium phosphates (added to beverages, starch products, pastries, noodles, dumpling wrappers, etc.), organic sodium salts like trisodium citrate, and sodium salts in preservatives and mold inhibitors, such as sodium benzoate, sodium dehydroacetate, and sodium propionate. In fact, most food additives are added in the form of sodium salts.
4. If you drink alcohol, it must be limited.
If you don't drink alcohol, it's best to continue this habit; there's no need to start drinking for the sake of "health." The effects of alcohol—increasing the risk of accidents, reducing the liver's detoxification capacity, and hindering nutrient storage and metabolism—are things people must guard against.
If you do have a habit of drinking, it is recommended that women limit their intake to one alcohol unit per day and men to two alcohol units per day. Minors who have not reached the legal drinking age are not allowed to drink.
One alcohol unit is equivalent to 12 grams of pure alcohol. Calculated based on 4g of alcohol per 100ml of beer, 12g in yellow wine and wine, and 40g in baijiu, this is equivalent to 300ml of beer (one and a half standard disposable paper cups), 100ml of yellow wine and red wine (half a standard disposable paper cup), and 30ml of baijiu. It can be said that it's very easy to exceed the alcohol limit with just a toast at the dinner table.
However, a spoonful of cooking wine added during cooking and a small amount of fermented glutinous rice in a fermented rice egg soup are not included in this limit, because after cooking and heating, the small amount of alcohol that was present has mostly evaporated, and the remaining amount is negligible.
In summary, although there are many varieties of fresh, natural foods to eat, a healthy diet requires less sugar, reduced-salt cooking, and limited use of both umami and salty condiments. For example, if you have a sweet soup, you won't make a sweet and sour dish; if you add chicken essence, you will add less or no salt; if you add garlic chili sauce, you won't add salt, and so on.
Of course, finally, people should also be encouraged not only to eat a balanced diet but also to ensure sufficient physical activity to maintain a healthy body weight, keep body fat from exceeding limits, and especially control the proportion of visceral fat. This is very important for preventing obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, and it is also a key measure to ensure a healthy state and improve the quality of life.