40 foods for a balanced diet

Many people ask me if there is any stupid way for ordinary people to eat a balanced diet without counting calories or memorizing nutrition tables? I have been a public nutritionist for 6 years and have helped thousands of users adjust their eating patterns. The most practical answer is - gathering 40 different natural ingredients every week is 10 times more reliable than buying a bunch of supplements and eating at a reduced gram rate.

Speaking of this method, I didn’t come up with it out of thin air. Our country’s Dietary Guidelines already have basic requirements of “an average of 12 kinds of food per day and 25 kinds of food per week.” In the past two years, more and more nutritional epidemiological studies have also proved that the higher the diversity of food, the richer the intestinal flora. The phytochemicals and minerals in different food can also complement each other, which is equivalent to giving a full banquet to the beneficial bacteria in the intestine. They work harder, and their anti-inflammatory ability and metabolic level will naturally increase.

Of course, there was a lot of controversy when this statement was first proposed. Colleagues who follow the ketogenic diet think it is completely unnecessary. Many of their users eat less than 10 kinds of animal-source ingredients a week, and their blood lipid and body fat indicators are very good. Friends who do vegetarian science also say that as long as 40 kinds of ingredients are all plant-derived, they can meet nutritional needs without eating meat at all. There are more serious academics who say that the extra 15 kinds are "redundant requirements", and ordinary people can make up 25 kinds, which is already more than 90% of people. I think these statements are correct. There is no standard answer to eating. If you have dietary restrictions such as gluten intolerance or nut allergies, there is no need to make up the numbers. The key is to try to eat as many variations as possible within the scope of what you can eat.

What impressed me deeply was that a 996 user who worked on the Internet came to me last year. He used to eat no more than 12 kinds of ingredients every week. He kept eating takeaways like braised chicken and Longjiang pig's trotter rice. He would always feel sleepy at 3 p.m., and it was common for him to have constipation every three or four days. When I first told him to make 40 kinds of food every week, he shook his head like a rattle and said that he didn't even have time to cook. I told him that there was no need to cook anything at all. When drinking soy milk in the morning, ask the merchant to add a handful of black beans and peanuts, so there are two more kinds; when choosing takeout at noon, choose a set meal with three different side dishes instead of just a single rice bowl; in the afternoon, replace the milk tea with a fresh-cut fruit box and add a small bag of mixed nuts; when I cook frozen dumplings at home in the evening, throw in two slices of green vegetables and a few shrimps. When cooking noodles, just soak a few fungus in them. After just three months of simple adjustment, he said that the problem of relying on coffee to stay alive in the afternoon was gone, and his bowel movements became regular. At the end of the year, the triglyceride level in his physical examination dropped directly from exceeding the standard to the normal range.

The first reaction of many people when they hear 40 kinds is "How can this be enough?" In fact, it is really not difficult. You cook a multi-grain rice with rice, millet, quinoa, red beans, and oats, and that’s five kinds; you cook a home-cooked side dish with green peppers, carrots, fungus, eggs, and lean pork, and that’s five kinds; you usually drink wolfberry and chrysanthemum soaked in water, and add them in sweet soup. Lily, lotus seeds, even a handful of sesame seeds and minced garlic sprinkled on cold dishes, as long as they are natural ingredients that have not undergone many deep processes, are counted - of course, spicy strips and energy bars with more than a dozen additives are not counted, so don't be opportunistic. Last week I casually counted the ingredients I ate. There were 16 kinds of cereals, potatoes and vegetables. I added fruits, eggs, milk, fish, shrimp, and nuts, and I casually made up 38 kinds. Finally, I boiled sugar water and added some osmanthus and pear, which was exactly 40. It was not deliberate at all.

When I first tried this method, I made a big joke. I stocked up more than 20 kinds of cereals for the kitchen at one time just to make up the money. As a result, I traveled frequently during that time, and when I came back, most of them were infested with insects, and I felt very distressed when I threw them away. Later, I realized that there was no need to set KPIs for myself, and there was no need to buy so many things at once. When I went to the vegetable market every week, I picked two more vegetables that I didn’t usually eat much. This week I’d eat cabbage, next week I’d eat lettuce, this week I’d eat pork, and next week I’d eat beef. Just buy and try whatever you want. Making up the numbers is just a means, not an end. To make up the numbers, stuff yourself with things you don’t like to eat, and the taste of the stir-fried dishes will be hard to describe. That’s not worth the gain.

In the final analysis, "40 types" is never a rigid standard, it is just a clear small goal for ordinary people who don't know how to start a balanced diet. You don’t need to know what macronutrients are, and you don’t need to remember the GI value of each food. As long as you don’t eat the same three or five things over and over again every day, try more different ingredients, so that you can taste new things and get your nutrients in. Isn’t this better than counting calories every day until you have a headache? After all, when it comes to eating, you have to be happy first, and healthy second, right?