A bowl of fragrant rice and a coarse cornbread are placed before you, which would you choose? 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 we dislike foods that are bitter, coarse, and bland. Yet, it is precisely in these foods with less appealing textures that unexpected nutritional and health benefits can be found.
Coarse foods
Some people prefer refined fragrant rice and white flour products and dislike brown rice and cornbread because they feel "scratchy" to the throat. In reality, it is the precious dietary fiber that causes this scratchiness. It stimulates intestinal peristalsis, aids in 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 an intake of 20-30 grams of dietary fiber daily. It is recommended to replace traditional congee made with white rice with multigrain porridge for breakfast, and switch from refined white rice to whole wheat steamed buns.
Astringent foods
The presence of tannins, phytic acid, and oxalic acid can make food astringent. This is because they bind with salivary proteins in the mouth, causing them to precipitate and lose their lubricating properties, which leads the tongue's epithelial tissue to contract and produce an astringent taste. However, these substances are highly antioxidant and beneficial for preventing diabetes and hyperlipidemia. For instance, 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.
Sour foods
Compared to sweet oranges, watermelons, and bananas, fewer people love sour fruits like sand pears and hawthorns. In fact, the sourness in these fruits mainly comes from natural organic acids like citric acid and malic acid, which can promote the absorption of minerals such as iron. If you find sour foods unpalatable, you can make them into a fruit jelly by adding a small amount of rock sugar and chilling it in the freezer, which will greatly improve the texture.
Bitter foods
Naturally bitter substances in food also have certain health benefits. For example, naringin in lemons and grapefruits, polyphenols in tea, polyphenols in red wine, and polyphenols in chocolate are all components that help prevent cancer and heart disease. Quinine in bitter gourd can also enhance 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 grapefruit peel after eating it; you can cut it into strips to make honey grapefruit tea. For bitter gourd, you can blanch it in hot water, then chill it and eat it with honey.