Choosing the right "staple food" is also very nutritious! These 3 things prevent cancer, control blood sugar, and help lose weight

When winter comes, we need to eat nourishing food. On a cold night, a bowl of mutton hotpot, medicinal spare ribs, yam and lotus root soup... can always warm the heart. However, modern people have enough food and clothing, and food is easily available, so people are more worried about metabolic diseases such as obesity, high blood sugar, and high blood sugar caused by overnutrition. Therefore, when taking supplements in winter, many people will choose "light supplements". But does it count as "light" just by eating less meat and drinking less soup?

In fact, the taro, chestnuts and lotus seeds stewed soft and dense in the tonic soup have all absorbed the soup. When paired with bowls of white rice, the amount of staple food may far exceed the standard! Nutritionist Cai Yixuan reminds you that this is the right way to choose whole grains and rhizomes!

Whole grain roots are rich in dietary fiber and trace elements and have many benefits in replacing white rice

Replacing white rice and white noodles with whole grains and root vegetables as staple food can greatly increase the intake of dietary fiber and trace elements, maintain intestinal health, and prevent constipation and chronic diseases. Yams, taro, and chestnuts are also great staple food choices when it comes to tonic food:

Yam/Prevent cancer

Yam can provide a variety of essential amino acids and plant hormones for the human body. It is an important nutrient for synthesizing protein, forming body tissues, and maintaining the secretion of hormones and enzymes. It can relieve women's menopausal discomfort and delay aging.

In addition, the mucous polysaccharides in yam have good antioxidant capacity, which can also help promote the phagocytic ability of macrophages and enhance the toxic ability of natural killer cells, which helps to enhance immunity and inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells.

Taro / Stabilize blood sugar and help lose weight

Taro contains resistant starch, which has properties similar to dietary fiber. After being eaten and entering the small intestine, it is difficult to digest and decompose, and the utilization rate is slow until it is fermented and utilized by intestinal bacteria in the colon. Because it stays in the intestines for a long time, it can bring a sense of fullness and prevent blood sugar spikes. As a staple food source, it helps stabilize blood sugar and prevent obesity.

Chestnut/stabilizes blood pressure, waterproof

Chestnuts are sweet and delicious, and are loved by everyone, young and old. In addition to being delicious, chestnuts are also the best in dietary fiber and potassium content among whole grains and root vegetables, far higher than white rice, noodles, and even sweet potatoes, taro, and potatoes.

Adequate dietary fiber can bind cholesterol, promote excretion, reduce the risk of arteriosclerosis, increase satiety, and help control weight. Both are indispensable for stabilizing blood pressure. In addition, every 100 grams of chestnuts contains about 760 mg of potassium ions, which is a high-potassium food (>300 mg/100 grams of food). Moderate intake can balance the high sodium content obtained from a refined diet, help maintain water stability in the body, improve edema and stabilize blood pressure.

Starch tastes good and is very delicious, but be careful of excessive sugar!

Whole grains and root vegetables that are common in tonic soups, such as taro, chestnuts, and lotus seeds, must be cooked for a longer time to absorb their flavors, become softer and denser, and melt in your mouth. At this time, it is difficult not to add an extra bowl of white rice, or a handful of vermicelli or ramen to eat with them. One meal is equivalent to eating 2 or 3 bowls of staple food, and this does not include the whole grains and root vegetables that were just served with the rice!

According to dietary guidelines, healthy adults should consume 1.5 to 4 bowls of whole grains and root vegetables a day. However, one tonic meal almost uses up the entire day's quota. Eating a large amount of carbohydrates in a short period of time can not only cause blood sugar to fluctuate dramatically, stimulate the secretion of large amounts of insulin, and further convert these sugars into fat and store them, but also increase the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic diseases. In addition, eating whole grains and roots that have absorbed a lot of soup will also result in the intake of large amounts of sodium, fat and purine. Therefore, people with problems such as high blood pressure, high blood lipids, gout, and poor kidney function should be more careful about eating in moderation.

So how do you choose the best one? Read below to see how nutritionists eat it

Choose the rougher the better, as a substitute rather than an additional supplement

Therefore, if you want to "lightly supplement" without any burden, it is very important to correctly choose the type and amount of whole grain roots and rhizomes!

1. Avoid refined staple foods that have complicated processing (such as white rice, white flour, rice cakes, rice blood...)

2. Increase the proportion of staple foods with high dietary fiber content and low GI value, such as chestnuts, sweet potatoes, and lotus roots, which are low GI foods

3. Replace rice and noodles with whole grains and root vegetables. For every half bowl of taro or sweet potato, eat 1/4 bowl less of rice (see the picture below). The amount of food per meal should be limited to 1-1.5 bowls.