"Nourish in winter, fight tigers in spring," "Replenish during the Sanjiu cold period, and be free from illness and pain next year." Traditional Chinese Medicine also holds that winter is the season when all things are stored. The human body's digestive function is enhanced, the appetite is good, and nutrients are more easily absorbed, making it the most ideal "health investment period" of the year. However, when faced with all sorts of rich and heavy foods, the public should be careful not to fall into the误区 (mistakes) of nourishment.
As is well known, animal foods are the "good medicine" among tonics, providing us with rich protein and energy. In southern China, people love to eat chicken, duck, and fish. Many families will cook sesame oil chicken to replenish their energy and welcome the cold winter. In northern regions, people eat hot pot lamb, beef, donkey offal soup, sheep offal soup, and other foods to nourish themselves, which are both delicious and dispel cold.
Although animal foods are good, they are not easy to digest. Eating too much can overwhelm the gastrointestinal tract. Furthermore, animal foods have a prominent issue: their relatively high cholesterol content. Especially animal organs, brains, animal skin, pork knuckles, egg yolks, crab roe, clams, oysters, and fatty meat, their cholesterol content per 100 grams basically exceeds 200 milligrams. It is generally believed that the daily cholesterol intake for healthy adults should be below 300mg, while for patients with hypercholesterolemia complicated by coronary heart disease or other atherosclerotic diseases, the daily cholesterol intake should be below 200mg.
Be Careful with Cholesterol During Winter Dietary Supplementation
First, you can consciously eat more foods that can "fight" cholesterol. Plant sterols, known as the "natural nemesis of cholesterol," are a good choice. They compete with cholesterol and hinder the absorption of "bad" cholesterol in the small intestine, reducing the absorption rate by 40%-60%. The human body cannot produce plant sterols. Compared with grains, beans, vegetables, and fruits, vegetable oils have a higher content of plant sterols, and corn oil is the best among them. The content of plant sterols in 100 grams of corn oil is about 600-900 milligrams, with crude corn oil being particularly high, reaching as much as 952 milligrams per 100 grams (nearly 10,000 ppm). The average person consumes about 300 milligrams of plant sterols from their daily diet. If this is the standard, supplementing with some vegetable oil, such as 20-25 grams of plant sterol corn oil, to reach 400-500 milligrams is basically sufficient to add strength to the fight against cholesterol.
Second, avoid high-fat and high-cholesterol foods, especially those rich in saturated fat, such as animal fats, organs, brains, and crab roe. Choose low-cholesterol foods such as poultry, dairy products, and fish. Eat lean meat in moderation, about 50-100 grams per day. Eat more foods rich in dietary fiber and plant sterols, such as various green vegetables, and increase the intake of soy products and mushrooms rich in phosphorus and calcium to reduce cholesterol deposition on the blood vessel walls and maintain vascular function.
Third, drink tea appropriately, especially green tea. The tea pigments in tea can prevent atherosclerosis and thrombosis. Finally, choosing reasonable cooking methods can also reduce cholesterol intake. People should abandon cooking methods that are heavy in oil and sauce, such as stir-frying and deep-frying, and use methods like stewing, steaming, and blanching instead, thus truly achieving healthy nourishment.