Mealtime is a serious subject, and how to eat healthily is a common concern. The following new concepts can help you a great deal.
Concept 1: Eat by Time
Scientists have recently divided food into two main categories: daytime food and nighttime food. Daytime food, primarily containing oxygen and rich in solar energy, is best consumed between 6 AM and 3:30 PM. Foods on this list include beef, lamb, tomatoes, carrots, citrus fruits, and green peas. Nighttime food, rich in carbon dioxide and possessing a moon-like cool energy, includes apples, bananas, pears, potatoes, cucumbers, dried fruits, dairy products, fish, and eggs. It is best to eat these after 3:30 PM. This arrangement not only aids in weight loss but also offers certain health benefits.
Concept 2: Mind the Order of Eating
There is a saying, "Soup before a meal is better than any prescription," which highlights the order between soup and rice. This is also scientifically sound. Drinking a few sips of soup before a meal acts as a "lubricant" for the digestive tract, allowing subsequent food to pass smoothly, preventing dry and hard foods from irritating the gastrointestinal mucosa, and thus aiding digestion and nutrient absorption. It can also reduce the occurrence of diseases like esophagitis and gastritis. (Conversely, drinking water before a meal can dilute gastric juice, affecting digestion and absorption.) As for fruit, its main component is fructose, which does not need to be digested by the stomach but is directly absorbed by the small intestine. Foods like rice, noodles, and meat, which contain starch and protein, need to stay in the stomach for a period of time. If you eat rice and dishes first and then fruit, the slowly digested starch and protein can hinder the faster digestion of fruit. This causes all food to mix in the stomach, where the fruit can ferment or even spoil at the stomach's high temperature of 37°C, leading to symptoms like bloating and constipation, and negatively impacting the digestive tract.
Therefore, experts suggest that people should eat in the following order: soup, vegetables, rice, meat, and then fruit after half an hour. If you have eaten seafood rich in protein and minerals, such as squid, lobster, or algae, you must wait 2-3 hours before eating fruit. Never eat them together, especially with persimmons, pomegranates, grapes, bayberries, or sour pomelos. This is because these fruits contain a lot of tannic acid, which not only reduces the nutritional value of protein but also easily combines with calcium and iron in the seafood to form indigestible new substances. While this diminishes the pleasure of eating, the worse part is that it can irritate the stomach and cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and become a root cause of disease.
Concept 3: Don't Judge by Appearance or Taste
A tip for selecting food is not to use appearance or taste as a standard, otherwise you might miss out on many healthy foods.
Let's start with appearance. Take chives, for example. The "pretty" ones are often meticulously "cared for" or "made up" by growers. The most common method is using pesticides, as pesticides both kill insects and have a fertilizing effect. Therefore, pesticides are applied when they should be and even when they shouldn't, causing the chives to be "nurtured" into a "charming" appearance. They look delightful but are harmful when eaten. As for bananas, according to Japanese research, their greatest contribution lies in an anti-cancer component called TNF, which is more abundant in bananas that are riper with more black spots on their skin. In other words, the uglier the banana, the better its anti-cancer properties. What about soybean sprouts—are long ones better than short ones? When soybeans sprout in a specific environment, they retain the nutritional value of soybeans and develop many new nutrients, such as 2-3 times more carotene, 2-5 times more Vitamin B2, 2.5 times more niacin, 9-10 times more Vitamin B12, and Vitamin C from scratch. Especially when they are 3-4 cm long, that is the time to "pluck them when they bloom." If you wait for them to grow longer, their nutrient content will gradually decrease.
What about taste? Recent research by American scientists has found that many people dislike the taste of certain vegetables. In fact, these unpleasant tastes are natural insecticides and other chemical compounds formed by plants during long-term evolution to protect themselves. Consuming these substances can enhance the body's ability to resist cancer. For example, take the bitter taste. There is a country in the Pacific called Fiji, with a population of over 600,000, and to this day, no one has suffered from cancer, earning it the title "the cancer-free country." This is thanks to a bitter food—dried apricots. Dried apricots contain Vitamin B17, the natural enemy of cancer cells. The main components of this vitamin are cyanide, benzaldehyde, and glucose. Although cyanide is not chemically very active, it can effectively destroy cancerous tissue without harming normal human cells.
Concept 4: Vary Your Diet to Reduce Cancer Risk
The latest survey data from scientists shows that a monotonous diet, long-term pickiness, and food aversion are the main culprits inducing cancer. Research has found that a long-term diet based on coarse fiber-rich foods like corn, sweet potatoes, and beans can easily wear out the cells of the upper digestive tract, such as the esophagus and stomach. This requires a considerable amount of protein for repair. If the diet is also lacking in protein, it can lead to abnormal differentiation of upper digestive tract epithelial cells, severe cell damage, and thus promote the early onset of cancer. As for a long-term diet mainly consisting of high-fat foods like meat, fat tends to accumulate around the lower digestive organs, such as the large intestine and pancreas, forming a thick fat membrane. This affects cell division, causing epithelial cell proliferation, and over time, also induces cancer.
Concept 5: Pay Attention to Color
Which foods are the most nutritious? Which foods contribute the most to health? The brightly colored agricultural products hide an "arsenal" for fighting diseases, and the "weapons" in this arsenal are called phytonutrients in medicine, which are closely related to the color of the food.
Take red or purple, for example. Vegetables or fruits of these colors contain anthocyanins, which have a strong anti-arteriosclerosis effect and can prevent diseases like heart attacks or strokes. These foods include black strawberries, cherries, tangerines, eggplants, plums, red grapes, red apples, red cabbage, black pepper, and red wine.
Next, orange, represented by carrots, contains carotene, which is beneficial for eye and skin health and reduces the risk of cancer. Examples include oranges, pumpkins, apricots, mangoes, and sweet potatoes.
What about yellow? It is rich in lutein, which protects cells from damage, better protects the eyes, and helps prevent cataracts and macular degeneration. Examples include nectarines, oranges, papayas, peaches, pineapples, tangerines, and yellow pomelos.
The advantage of green is that it is rich in a natural chemical that stimulates the production of liver enzymes that fight cancer, such as in bok choy, cabbage, and cauliflower.
Finally, white foods like garlic and onions contain allicin, a "fighter" in the battle against tumors. Mushrooms contain chemical components that fight other diseases. A common feature of these foods is that they are rich in flavonoids, which can play a health-protective role such as protecting the heart and preventing cancer. Therefore, when planning your meals, fully consider the color of the food. Make your dining table colorful year-round, and you will reap great benefits.