Sometimes you feel like you're already a nutrition expert, with a well-balanced and delicious diet, but why are you still not getting enough nutrients? This month, try changing a small habit, and the results might just amaze you!
1. Try eating only two meals a day!
Eating small, frequent meals has long been considered the healthy way to eat, but current extensive research shows that eating two meals a day is more beneficial to health. Eating twice a day not only helps the body withstand more stress but can also extend our lifespan. A two-year follow-up study of 800 people found that after changing to two meals a day, most health parameters in the blood gradually increased, fat content significantly decreased, and even irritability and depression caused by stress showed improvement. Therefore, health experts suggest that if you can't manage two meals every day, try implementing a "two-meal plan" on weekends (at 10 AM and 3 PM). If you get hungry at other times, you can eat some vegetables, fruits, or nuts. Consistently doing this for the long term will surely yield results.
2. Green vegetables are more nutritious 4 hours after washing
Of course, fresh ingredients contain more comprehensive and abundant nutrients, which is common knowledge we all know—the saying "fresh fish, watery vegetables" exists for a reason. But did you know that while it's right to buy fresh fish, if you buy vegetables that were just picked and still have dew on them, it's best to wait 4 hours after washing them before eating. This is because most leafy vegetables undergo a "re-ripening" process after being stored for 4 hours. This not only improves their texture but also gives any residual trace pesticides time to volatilize and be slowly released. On the other hand, after this re-ripening process, the nutritional value of the vegetables becomes higher, and their vitamins and minerals are less likely to be lost during cooking—the same principle applies to fruits!
3. Add some "beans" to flour for higher nutrition
Soy milk, tofu, and other soy products are appearing more and more frequently in women's diets, but soy flour, made from ground soybeans, is far less popular. This is because, aside from large food industry companies, we rarely use it alone to make flour-based foods at home. Does that mean we can only "admire soy flour from afar"? Of course not! You just need to make a small change to your "flour bag"! Because the best way to consume soy flour is not by itself, but mixed with wheat flour. After mixing, the protein content of the flour mixture will increase significantly, and it will be healthier plant-based protein. The quality of the protein will also improve because soy flour supplements the lysine that wheat flour lacks—here's a little tip: mixing 10% soy flour with 90% wheat flour will raise the international standard protein quality score to 0.99, nearly perfect!
4. Cook rice with boiled water
What water should you use to cook rice? Most people would answer: tap water—it will be boiled along with the rice anyway anyway. What's the difference between using tap water and other water? In fact, tap water is disinfected with chlorine. If used directly to cook rice, the chlorine in the water will largely destroy nutrients in the grain, such as vitamin B1. According to measurements, the degree of vitamin B1 loss is proportional to the time and temperature of steaming rice. Under normal circumstances, about 30% is lost. If you replace the water for steaming rice with cooled, previously boiled water, the loss of nutrients like vitamin B1 can be greatly reduced. This is because in the boiled tap water, most of the chlorine has evaporated with the steam, and 11% more vitamin B1 can be retained!