Which dietary habits are prone to the "three highs"?
As people's living standards improve, coarse grains on the dining tables of ordinary people have gradually decreased, while chicken, duck, fish, meat, refined rice, and white flour have gradually increased. However, as diets become more and more refined, patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, tumors, and other illnesses are also on the rise. What's going on here?
"As diseases enter through the mouth," with the accelerating pace of modern life, fast food has gradually become popular, dietary structures have tended to Westernize, and junk food floods the market. People are increasingly consuming high-calorie foods such as high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt foods. Excessive intake of high fat leads to the deposition of large amounts of cholesterol, triglycerides, and other substances in the blood vessels, forming lipid plaques like congee. At the same time, the arterial walls thicken, harden, and the lumen narrows. This pathological change is called arteriosclerosis. If this change occurs in the coronary arteries, it is called "coronary atherosclerosis." When coronary atherosclerosis develops to a certain extent, it affects the blood and oxygen supply to the heart muscle, leading to myocardial ischemia or necrosis, causing angina pectoris or myocardial infarction. Similarly, when cerebral atherosclerosis develops to a certain extent, it can cause ischemia and hypoxia in the cerebral arteries, leading to acute cerebrovascular accidents such as cerebral infarction or cerebral hemorrhage. The recommended daily salt intake for a person is around 5-10 grams per day, while the average daily intake for Chinese people is about 27 grams.
A high-salt diet can lead to water and sodium retention in the body. Over time, it can cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as hypertension. High-sugar and high-fat diets can lead to obesity and being overweight in the body, increasing insulin resistance, which in turn causes excessive insulin secretion. Over time, the pancreas becomes overwhelmed, the function of pancreatic β-cells is damaged, leading to the onset of type 2 diabetes. Therefore, in recent years, young people have more opportunities to suffer from hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, acute myocardial infarction, and stroke. The probability of sudden death among young people is also increasing year by year. Therefore, one should not eat too many high-fat, high-calorie foods, such as animal offal, animal fat, cream, chocolate, etc. It is advisable to eat more vegetables, fruits, bean products, lean meat, fish, vegetable oil, etc., and develop healthy living habits.
Modern people have many social occasions, with more opportunities to eat big fish and meat, greasy and rich foods, and to drink alcohol. It seems that every gathering is not enough without a bout of heavy drinking to show camaraderie. Unknowingly, over the long term, the chance of developing fatty liver significantly increases. Moreover, the main component of alcohol, ethanol, can cause degeneration and necrosis of liver cells, leading to alcoholic liver disease. The pathological changes of alcoholic liver disease are: fatty liver -- alcoholic hepatitis -- cirrhosis. Cirrhosis can lead to many life-threatening complications, such as massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatic ascites, spontaneous peritonitis, hepatorenal syndrome, primary liver cancer, etc.
Fried, smoked, and pickled foods are delicious and have a long shelf life. In winter, fresh vegetables are relatively more expensive. Bringing pickled vegetables from the summer season to the dining table is not only economical and affordable but also stimulates the appetite. However, pickled foods often have a hidden danger, which is "nitrosamines": fried foods contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; smoked foods contain