New Year's Diet: Remember "3 Less, 2 More"
Introduction: As the New Year approaches, gatherings with friends, reunions with family, and business dinners will lead to feasting. Do you indulge in all the delicious delicacies? While enjoying a feast for the senses, you might be neglecting your health. How can you eat healthily during the New Year? Experts remind us to pay attention to "3 less, 2 more" in our New Year's diet. Come and take a look with us.
The Spring Festival is just around the corner, and it's inevitable to have gatherings with family and friends, with all kinds of delicious food spread out. Without a scientific and reasonable diet, enjoying the feast can be detrimental to your health. Health experts remind us that our New Year's diet should follow the "three less, two more" principle:
"Three Less"—1. Eat Less Fat
We do not recommend completely avoiding fat, as a healthy body cannot function without it. However, we must control the types of fat we consume.
Saturated fat increases blood cholesterol levels and raises the risk of heart disease. Biscuits, cakes, meat patties, ham, cream, cheese, and foods containing lard, coconut oil, or palm oil are all high in saturated fat.
We must replace foods containing hydrogenated vegetable oil and saturated fat with those containing unsaturated fat. This is because unsaturated fat helps the body lower cholesterol levels. Fish, avocados, nuts, sunflower seeds, canola oil, and olive oil are all rich in unsaturated fats.
Of course, more unsaturated fat is not always better. We also need to reduce the total amount of fat consumed. Only by doing so can we reduce calorie intake and prevent obesity.
Health TIPS:
When buying food, pay attention to the labels. Foods containing 20g of fat per 100g are considered high-fat foods, while those containing 3g or less of fat per 100g are considered low-fat.
Foods containing more than 5g of saturated fat per 100g are considered high-saturated-fat foods, while those containing 1.5g or less of saturated fat per 100g are considered low-saturated-fat foods.
"Three Less"—2. Eat Less Salt
In daily diet, it is essential to control your salt intake. As we all know, salt is composed of sodium chloride, and excessive sodium intake can lead to high blood pressure.
Although not adding salt yourself can reduce some of the salt in your diet, three-quarters of the salt in our diet actually comes from the food itself. Therefore, we must also carefully read food labels when purchasing products.
Health TIPS:
Compare the salt content of different foods to buy the ones with the lowest salt content. Foods with more than 1.5g of salt per 100g are considered high-salt foods, while those with 0.3g or less of salt per 100g are considered low-salt foods.
In addition, try to avoid eating foods high in salt, such as bacon, cheese, pickles, and smoked fish.
"Three Less"—3. Eat Less Sugar
Reducing sugar intake is very difficult for many people. Many foods contain sugar, such as fruits and vegetables. The sugar in fruits and vegetables is naturally occurring and does not need to be deliberately avoided.
However, sugary foods and drinks, such as biscuits, jam, and carbonated beverages, contain large amounts of added sugar, and the intake of these foods must be limited.
Carbonated beverages have very little nutritional value, and the added sugar can easily cause cavities, increase satiety, affect normal eating, and long-term consumption can easily lead to malnutrition.
Health TIPS:
The method for reducing sugar intake is simple. People who are used to adding sugar to hot drinks can gradually reduce the amount of sugar until they can do without it completely. People who are used to spreading jam on bread can use sliced bananas, peanut butter, or low-fat cheese as a substitute.
In addition, pay attention to the food labels when purchasing. The ingredients are usually listed in descending order of content, so if sugar is listed at the beginning, it indicates that the food is high in sugar.
"Two More"—1. Eat More Fish
It is recommended to make eating fish a regular part of your daily diet. You should eat fish at least twice a week, especially oily fish, which contain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that help prevent coronary heart disease.
However, shark and swordfish are not suitable for children and pregnant women, and other adults should also not eat them more than once a week.
The omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid content in canned oily fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, and trout is not significantly different from that in fresh fish. This is not the case for tuna, however. Although tuna is a good source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, its content is significantly reduced once it is processed into a can.
Health TIPS:
Both white fish (such as haddock, flounder, halibut) and oily fish (such as sardines, salmon, trout, and mackerel) can provide the body with high-quality protein, vitamins, and a large amount of minerals.
"Two More"—2. Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
As we all know, we need to consume a large amount of fruits and vegetables every day. They provide a large amount of vitamins and minerals that the human body needs. Fruits and vegetables should account for more than one-third of our daily food intake, but most people do not achieve this.
Experts recommend that we should eat at least 400g of fruits and vegetables every day. Regardless of the form you choose, such as fresh, chilled, dried, fruit and vegetable juices, or canned fruits and vegetables, all are acceptable. But be careful not to count potatoes as a vegetable, as they are a starchy food.
At this point, many people might wonder, how do I know if I'm eating enough fruits and vegetables? An apple, banana, pear, or orange, two plums, half a grapefruit, a slice of melon or pineapple, and other fruits of a similar size all weigh about 80g each.
In addition, there is 150ml of juice, a handful of grapes or cherries, or a serving of salad. If you pay attention to supplementing with vegetables during your main meals, you can basically ensure an intake of about 160g. If you moderately add some fruits with your meals, you can easily reach the 400g intake of fruits and vegetables.
Health TIPS:
At breakfast, you can add a handful of dried fruit to your porridge, eat half a bunch of grapes or an apple, or drink a glass of juice.
For lunch, eat a salad or a banana sandwich. For dinner, eat more vegetables, especially when eating fish, chicken, and pork, be sure to eat at least two or more types of vegetables at the same time.
In addition, when reading, watching TV, or browsing the internet, you can also have an apple, which not only adds to the fun but also increases nutrition.