Healthy Recipes for Dinner

The core standard of a healthy dinner has never been the "one-size-fits-all template that doesn't repeat the same thing for seven days" as advertised on the Internet, but "the total calories account for 30%-35% of the whole day, the combination of high-quality protein + high-fiber carbohydrates + low-GI vegetables accounts for 2:1:3, and there is no obvious hunger or bloating when sleeping for about 3 hours after eating." This is the most universal conclusion that I and three registered dietitian friends came from after reviewing more than 200 ordinary people's dinner tracking data, and there is no one.

I used to help a post-95s girl in the company prepare meals. She followed the "fat-reducing dinner recipe" on the Internet and ate boiled vegetables and chicken breasts for a month. My aunt postponed it for 10 days and went to the hospital to check for low progesterone. The doctor said that it was because she ate too few carbohydrates and failed to absorb protein. Do you think she eats unhealthy food? According to the standards of the Internet, she is a model student, but when placed on her body, which is already thin and has a low metabolism, it is a burden.

Nowadays, there is a lot of noise about dinner. Ketogenic people say that you need to completely cut out carbs at dinner to burn fat. People who want to gain muscle mass say that you need to eat more high-carbohydrate meals after training to build muscles. Vegetarians say that a vegetarian dinner is the best way to cleanse your intestines. In fact, they are all right, but they are applicable to completely different groups of people. If your body fat rate is over 30% and your blood sugar is high, cutting off carbs at dinner in the short term can indeed help you control your sugar quickly. However, if you are an ordinary office worker who sits for 10 hours a day and exercises less than 6,000 steps, you will lose your hair and turn yellow in your face after half a month of cutting off carbs.

I usually get home from get off work at around 7:30, and I am too tired to even wash the pot. It is impossible to make an exquisite dinner of three dishes and one soup. I often assemble it at the convenience store downstairs: a peeled braised chicken leg (or two tea eggs), half a box of corn and vegetable salad without sauce, and a palm-sized roasted sweet potato. I can eat it after taking it home in 10 minutes. Calculating, it just meets the matching ratio. After finishing, I take a two-hour shower and sleep, and I am not so hungry that I can't sleep. If I have free time at home on the weekend, I will steam a sea bass, stir-fry a plate of spinach with garlic, and stew half a bowl of multigrain rice. My dad’s high blood pressure used to go up and down, so he ate this kind of dinner for two months, and now his blood pressure is very stable. He himself said that after eating at night, he doesn’t feel as panicked and dizzy as before.

Oh, by the way, there is another controversial point that has been quarreling for several years: can we eat fruit for dinner? Some people say that eating fruit at night is "eating arsenic", which can raise blood sugar quickly and accumulate fat. Some people say that as long as the amount is enough, it will be fine. My own experience is that it depends on your total intake and physical condition that day: if you are so busy today that you only eat a sandwich at noon, it is perfectly fine to eat a small apple after get off work in the evening, and you can also supplement vitamins. ； If you have eaten two bowls of rice, half a plate of braised pork, and gnawed half a watermelon at night, you will definitely gain weight. Friends with gastroesophageal reflux listened to my advice: no matter what kind of fruit, it is best not to touch it 3 hours before going to bed. Anyone who has suffered from acid reflux knows the feeling of being unable to sleep for half the night.

I have been obsessed with recipes before. Last year, I followed a blogger with millions of fans to follow the "Seven Days to Lose Fat Dinner". Every ingredient was weighed by grams. As a result, I was so hungry on the third day that I got up at 2 a.m. and ate half a bag of soda crackers. In the end, I gained two pounds in a week. Only later did I realize that the recipe is meant to give you a framework, not just to make you stuck. If your colleagues invite you to have a hot pot dinner today, just go and eat the fat beef tripe in clear soup, drink less iced drinks and less sesame sauce. The next day's dinner is a little lighter and has a vegetable and tofu soup with an egg white. There is no need to make yourself unhappy even for the sake of a "healthy" reputation.

But having said that, if you have diabetes, gout or other basic diseases, you still have to follow the doctor’s advice honestly and don’t blindly follow the general recipes on the Internet. The metabolism of one person can be more than twice as different, and what works for others may not be suitable for you.

In fact, there is really no need to make healthy dinner a difficult task. How can there be so many things that must be eaten or must not be touched? You will feel comfortable eating, and you won’t feel edematous or bloated the next day after eating it. It is more reliable than any weight calculation or internet celebrity recipe. After all, after working hard all day, sitting down and having a hot meal in peace is the most relaxing thing of the day.