Four foods that taste terrible but are incredibly nutritious!

Introduction: A bowl of fragrant rice and a coarse cornbread are placed before you, which would you choose? Between a piece of watermelon and a segment of pomelo, which would you pick for dessert? When you see onions and garlic on the dining table, would you ignore them? In life, we often love foods that are sweet, refined, and rich, while disliking those that are bitter, coarse, and bland. And yet, it is precisely in these foods with less pleasant textures that unexpected nutritional and health benefits can be found.

Coarse Foods

Some people prefer refined fragrant rice and white flour products, disliking brown rice and cornbread because they feel "rough on the throat." In reality, what feels "rough" is precious dietary fiber. It stimulates intestinal peristalsis, aids bowel movements, alters the types and numbers of gut microbes, and reduces the formation of carcinogens. Dietary fiber is widely found in coarse-textured foods, including whole grains like rice, wheat, and miscellaneous beans, such as brown rice, oats, and red beans. To prevent constipation and colorectal cancer, one should ensure a daily intake of 20-30 grams of dietary fiber. It is recommended to replace traditional white congee with mixed grain congee for breakfast, and fine white rice with whole wheat steamed buns.

Oat Steamed Buns

The presence of tannins, phytic acid, and oxalic acid can make food astringent. This is because they bind with and precipitate salivary proteins in the mouth, causing saliva to lose its lubricating properties and the epithelial tissue of the tongue to contract, producing a puckering sensation. However, these substances are highly antioxidant and beneficial for preventing diabetes and hyperlipidemia. For example, the skins of olives, purple grapes, apples, and walnut skins have stronger antioxidant effects than their flesh. It is recommended to eat apples and grapes with their skins on, and not to remove the brown skin when eating walnuts.

Compared to sweet oranges, watermelons, and bananas, fewer people enjoy sour fruits like sand pears and hawthorns. In fact, the sourness of these fruits mainly comes from natural organic acids like citric acid and malic acid, which promote the absorption of minerals such as iron. If you find the taste of sour foods unpleasant, you can make them into fruit puddings by adding a small amount of rock sugar and chilling them in the freezer to greatly improve the texture.

Lotus Root Starch Fruit Pudding

Natural bitter substances in food also have certain health benefits. For instance, naringin in lemons and pomelos, polyphenols in tea, polyphenols in red wine, and polyphenols in chocolate are all components that help prevent cancer and heart disease. Bitter melon contains quinine, which can also boost the human immune system and help control blood sugar. Therefore, it's important to eat a variety of fruits; don't just eat sweet ones, but also include some bitter and sour ones. Don't throw away the pomelo peels after eating them; you can cut them into strips and make them into honey pomelo tea. For bitter melon, you can blanch it in hot water, then chill it and eat it with honey.

Honey Pomelo Tea