Porridge is one of China's traditional therapeutic foods and is also suitable for all ages. There are many varieties of porridge, and drinking porridge should have different focuses for people of different ages and professions.
Green Lean Meat Porridge
Supplementing with porridge for different groups
For children and the elderly, cook it softer to aid digestion. The elderly and children whose digestive systems are not yet fully developed have weaker digestive and absorption functions. Eating too many coarse grains can increase the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. For this group, easily digestible coarse grains such as millet, broomcorn millet, and brown rice can be chosen. When cooking, the porridge should be cooked until it is soft and mushy to facilitate digestion and absorption. Additionally, adding easily digestible ingredients like yams, lotus seeds, and pumpkin to the porridge is also a good idea.
For teenagers and manual laborers, add nuts and seeds to supplement protein. People who engage in a lot of physical labor and teenagers who are growing have a greater demand for nutrients like protein. In addition to choosing grains high in protein, such as oats, to cook porridge, you can also add nuts and seeds like peanuts, crushed walnuts, and melon seeds. This not only supplements nutrition but also makes the porridge more fragrant. When cooking porridge for this group, you can also add some lean meat, but be sure to use less salt.
For adults with many social engagements, add mixed beans to control blood sugar and fat. Especially for men, many face the problem of weight gain in middle age. Long hours sitting in the office with little activity easily leads to fat accumulation, and frequent drinking for social engagements is not good for liver and gastrointestinal function. For this group, mixed beans (such as red beans, mung beans) and vegetables can be added to the porridge to increase dietary fiber intake, which is beneficial for fat and cholesterol metabolism, and can also maintain stable blood sugar levels.
For women of childbearing age, adding pork liver or lean meat helps to supplement iron. According to relevant surveys, 1/6 of women of childbearing age have an iron deficiency problem. Animal foods are a good source of heme iron, so this group can add pork liver or lean meat when cooking porridge.
For office workers, dark-colored ingredients help protect the eyes. Office workers often face computers, so they can add eye-protecting foods to their porridge, such as dark-colored broomcorn millet, millet, black rice, purple rice, goji berries, and carrots. Carotenoids in dark-colored ingredients like broomcorn millet and millet can be converted into vitamin A in the human body, which is good for eye health, while black rice and purple rice contain a large amount of anthocyanins, which can resist eye aging.
Several porridge supplement recipes:
Carrot Two-Grain Porridge
Longan Millet Porridge: 15 grams of longan pulp, 100-200 grams of millet. Wash the longan pulp and cook it with the millet. First, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat to make porridge. Longan pulp is sweet and warm in nature, and can benefit the heart and spleen, nourish blood, and calm the mind. Walnut Porridge: 20 grams of walnut meat, 100-200 grams of japonica rice. Wash the walnut meat and crush it, then cook with japonica rice to make porridge. It can moisten the lungs and relieve cough, nourish the kidneys and strengthen essence, and moisten the intestines to relieve constipation. However, it is contraindicated for those with phlegm-fire, accumulated heat, or diarrhea.
Yam and Chestnut Porridge: 15-30 grams of yam, 50 grams of chestnuts, 2-4 red dates, 100 grams of japonica rice. After peeling the chestnuts, cook them with yam, red dates, and japonica rice to make porridge. Yam is sweet and neutral in nature, and can tonify the spleen and stomach, and benefit the lungs and kidneys; it is especially suitable for those with deficiency of spleen and kidney qi. However, it should not be eaten in large quantities at one time, otherwise it is easy to cause food stagnation and indigestion. Suitable for middle-aged and elderly people. Yam is sweet and neutral in nature, and can tonify the spleen and stomach, and benefit the lungs and kidneys; it is especially suitable for those with deficiency of spleen and kidney qi. However, it should not be eaten in large quantities at one time, otherwise it is easy to cause food stagnation and indigestion. Ginger and Red Date Porridge: 6-9 grams of fresh ginger or dried ginger, 100-150 grams of japonica rice or glutinous rice, 2-4 red dates. Wash the ginger, chop it, and cook with the rice and dates to make porridge. It has the effect of warming the stomach to dispel cold and warming the lungs to resolve phlegm, but it should be used with caution by those with yin deficiency or pregnant women.
Carrot Porridge: 50 grams of fresh carrots, 200 grams of japonica rice. Cut the carrots into small pieces and cook with japonica rice. First, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer slowly over low heat. It has the effect of strengthening the stomach and spleen, and aiding digestion. Chicken and Century Egg Porridge: 200 grams of chicken, 2 century eggs, 200-300 grams of japonica rice, and appropriate amounts of seasonings like ginger, scallion, and salt. First, cut the chicken into small pieces, add water to cook into a rich stock, and cook the japonica rice with the stock. When the porridge is almost ready, add the chopped century eggs and the cooked chicken, and add appropriate seasonings. It has the effect of tonifying qi and blood, nourishing the five organs, whetting the appetite and promoting fluid production, and is suitable for people with qi and blood deficiency.
Congee with green vegetables and lean meat
oatmeal fried bananas