05 - Dietary Choices: How to Eat Right Without Going Hungry?

 Hello, welcome to "Scientific Weight Loss Course". I'm Jessica.

In the last lesson, we learned how to create an energy deficit. But

when it comes to specific daily meals, we face new challenges.

Chinese people have so many dietary choices every day - rice or

noodles? Hot pot or barbecue? Even for the same fish, should it be

steamed or braised? The differences are significant.

Are they all healthy? Can we eat them while losing weight? How should

we arrange weight loss meals to be both filling and healthy and

delicious? This is what we'll solve in this lesson.

If the last lesson was about how to eat right, this lesson explores how

to eat well.

Four Principles for Food Selection

Under the premise of creating an energy deficit, various weight loss

institutions have their own approaches to meal planning. Some directly

deliver nutritional meals, some eliminate carbohydrates, and others

have extreme recipes like "one pound of green leafy vegetables every

evening"...

But most of these are temporary, while life is lasting and colorful.

Without forming your own stable eating pattern, the weight you lose

might "vanish into thin air". So only by teaching you the method of

meal planning can you truly learn to adjust your diet.

The method is actually simple - just four words: learn to be picky

about food. Yes, Dr. Jessica tells you to be picky about food. Because the

process of being picky is the process of selection and combination.

Once you learn to be picky about food, you learn the scientific

combination of foods.

How to be picky about food? I've summarized four golden principles for

you. Above these principles, you have complete freedom to eat however

you like.

Principle 1: The less processed the ingredients, the better.

For main meals, it's best not to eat heavily processed finished foods.

Choose fresh ingredients and cook them simply. Cold mixing, steaming,

and boiling are all good, paired with small chili peppers, soy sauce,

or mustard, drizzled with some oil - sesame oil, olive oil, oyster

sauce, or Sichuan pepper oil - all work. It's that simple.

If you really want to cook? Remember one thing - hot pot is better

than stir-frying, stir-frying is better than pan-frying, and pan-frying

is better than deep-frying. Yes, hot pot is what I recommend.

However, don't choose beef tallow for the broth base, and don't use

sesame paste for dipping sauce, as they contain a lot of fat, which is

not conducive to weight loss.

As for snacks and beverages, whether it's chips and cookies from the

supermarket, or desserts from cake shops and milk tea from tea shops,

almost all are weight loss traps. You might think, I'll eat some

low-energy snacks, like dried fruit, preserved plums, or yogurt - that

should be fine, right? Sorry, no. Fresh plums indeed don't have much

energy, but when pickled into preserved plums, 1/3 sugar is added; a

150ml cup of flavored yogurt also contains 1/3 sugar; when fruit is

dried, its energy density increases several times.

Of course, processed foods aren't completely off-limits, but remember

to check the labels. In the ingredient list, besides the food

ingredients themselves, the fewer additives, the better. For example,

with nuts, those with only nuts in the ingredient list are good, but if

there's a long list of sugar, cream, salt, etc. after nuts, don't

choose them.

Many people might say that less processed foods are healthy but don't

taste good - eating them daily would be too bland, right? But actually,

processed foods taste good not because they're truly delicious, but

because our taste buds are covered by layers of complex, rich flavors,

unable to perceive pure, authentic taste. As mentioned in "Caigentan":

"True flavor is bland, the sage is ordinary". Trust me, if you stick to

fresh ingredients for 21 days, your taste buds will gradually recover.

Not only will you appreciate the deliciousness of fresh ingredients,

but you'll also find heavily processed foods with many additives

increasingly hard to swallow.

Principle 2: The more complete the food, the better.

This refers to various vegetables, fruits, and grains. It's simple -

for vegetables and fruits, don't peel if you don't have to, don't juice

if you don't have to; for grains - various coarse grains, wheat, rice -

keep them coarse rather than refined. The more complete the whole grain

remains, like whole wheat and brown rice, the more beneficial for

weight loss.

Because these complete foods contain rich fiber. As mentioned before,

fiber cannot be absorbed by the human body, but it can fill the stomach

and reduce hunger. Moreover, complete foods retain nutrients to the

maximum extent, especially vitamins and trace elements that are most

easily lacking during weight loss. Eating this way is both filling and

healthy.

Principle 3: Choose natural unsaturated fats.

Plants and marine animals on Earth don't need to store fat to resist

cold, so nature gave them unsaturated fatty acids that are not easily

stored, while leaving saturated fatty acids that are easily solidified

and stored to land animals. So, as long as we consume saturated fatty

acids that aren't burned off, they'll basically be stored in the body;

while unsaturated fats can't be accumulated. During weight loss, the

higher the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in the fats we

consume, the better the weight loss effect.

Where to find unsaturated fatty acids? Of course, from various plants

and marine animals. Except for coconut oil and palm oil, almost all

oil-producing plants work. Olive oil, rapeseed oil, flaxseed oil,

sunflower oil, corn oil - all are fine. Don't use too high

temperatures; don't wait until the oil smokes before adding vegetables.

When temperature is too high, not only do unsaturated fatty acids

disappear, but carcinogens might also be produced.

Nuts are also good - pistachios, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, cashews,

almonds - all work, one handful per day. Measure with your own palm - a

flat handful is just right, don't eat too much.

For fish, prefer deep-sea fish, though freshwater fish are also fine.

It's recommended to eat fish at least twice a week.

Note: absolutely do not eat artificial trans fatty acids - don't even

touch them. Because trans fatty acids have three intolerable harmful

effects: first, they adhere to blood vessels, increasing the

probability of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases by 50%;

second, they adhere to visceral fat, increasing abdominal obesity;

third, no matter how much you exercise or eat less, they still

accumulate in the body and are very difficult to metabolize.

So in 2018, the World Health Organization formally proposed requiring

the global food industry to eliminate trans fatty acid additives within

5 years. But these trans fatty acids still frequently appear in

processed foods like cakes, bread, cookies, ice cream, and fried foods.

If you can't avoid all of them, what to do? The old method - check food

labels. The fat section of food labels will indicate trans fatty acid

content. If it's not zero, don't buy it.

Principle 4: The purer the protein, the better.

Protein is very filling, so it's recommended to supplement more during

weight loss - at least 1 gram per kilogram of body weight daily, and

1.5 grams would be even better. That means if you weigh 60 kilograms,

reaching 90 grams of protein daily would be better.

However, foods with protein usually also contain considerable fat. How

to choose? I'll give you a trick - if you can choose what swims in

water, don't choose what flies in the sky; if you can choose what flies

in the sky, don't choose what runs on land; if you can choose what runs

on land, don't choose what can barely run.

More simply, I recommend ten types of meat you can choose during weight

loss - fish, shrimp, pigeon, rabbit, chicken breast, duck breast,

donkey meat, lean beef, lean mutton, pork hind leg, and pork chop.

Of course, you can also choose soy products, which are plant proteins.

To summarize simply: first, the less processed, the better; second, the

more complete the food, the better; third, choose natural unsaturated

fats; fourth, the purer the protein, the better. Following these four

principles, as long as you maintain a daily energy deficit of 500-750

calories, you can mix and match freely and still gradually lose weight.

How to Arrange Three Daily Meals

After discussing the four principles for food selection, let's talk

about arranging three daily meals. For three daily meals, remember just

two points -

First, you must eat breakfast. Science has found that skipping

breakfast means weight gain.

Second, dinner should not be later than 9 PM. Set an alarm, and

brush your teeth at 8 PM. After brushing teeth, the urge to eat will

greatly decrease.

As for other things, like whether to eat three, six, or nine meals a

day; how to distribute energy among breakfast, lunch, and dinner;

whether to eat fast or slow - none of these affect weight loss. As long

as there's an energy deficit, arrange freely.

Combination and Selection for Each Meal

For specific meals, how do you proportion vegetables, meat, and rice

above the principles?

I recommend buying a divided plate. Search online for "four-compartment

plate" - they're everywhere. It has four sections, and you can arrange

according to the 2-1-1 principle.

What's the 2-1-1 principle? Fill half the plate with vegetables and

fruits - you can pile them up, about half a pound of various colored

vegetables plus 4 liang of fruit; of the remaining half space, 1/2 goes

to meat - spread it out in one layer, about 2 liang of lean meat, plus

1 liang of tofu; finally, 1/2 goes to whole grain staples, about 3

liang. Brown rice, whole wheat noodles, potatoes, yam, pumpkin, corn -

all count here.

This way, you've eaten nearly 1.5 pounds of food and will feel very

satisfied, greatly increasing the possibility of long-term adherence.

This is currently the most recommended dietary ratio worldwide,

effective not only for weight loss but also for preventing "three

highs", cardiovascular diseases, and tumors.

With the plate model, you can customize your own exclusive menu.

For example, if you don't want to eat so many staples and want to

replace them with lean meat, no problem. As mentioned before,

carbohydrates and proteins release similar energy and can be exchanged

equally. If you don't want tofu and lean meat but want half-fat,

half-lean meat, that's fine - just discount it, changing 3 liang to 2

liang.

If you really can't feel full at first, you can add a little meat and

reduce staples accordingly. After 2 weeks, when your body adapts, try

adding more vegetables and reducing staples.

See, it's all very flexible.

Key Points

1. Four principles for food selection: less processing, complete foods,

natural unsaturated fats, pure protein.

2. Cooking methods: hot pot is better than stir-frying, stir-frying is

better than pan-frying, pan-frying is better than deep-frying. However,

don't choose beef tallow for hot pot base, and don't use sesame paste

for dipping.

3. Remember two points for three daily meals: eat breakfast, don't have

dinner after 9 PM.

4. Meal arrangement: half the plate for vegetables and fruits,

remaining 1/2 for staples, 1/2 for lean meat and soy products.

5. Don't even touch snacks with trans fatty acids listed on food

labels.