What should we eat daily for a balanced diet?
What should we eat? What is too much and what is too little? What time should we eat? What should we eat for an everyday diet so that we can be healthy and live to be 100?
Should we go back to the old food pyramid or should we all be eating organic and gluten free foods now?
With so much contradicting evidence out there we are confused as to what diets and fads to follow. As practitioners in Chinese Medicine, we talk to our patient’s daily about good eating habits and healthy lifestyle. We find too many people out there eat excessive sweets and spicy and not enough bitter and sour flavours.
The typical Chinese diet usually consists or a variety of foods, meat, fish, vegetables and carbs. We should be eating a little from each food group and not only having excessive meats or carbs. We should also be having different flavours in our diets such as salty, sweet, spicy, bitter and sour, which is able to balance each organ and energy in our bodies.
My top tips to healthy eating are:
* Glass of warm lemon water first thing in the morning
* Have a good breakfast that includes protein to kick-start your metabolism
* Cut down on alcohol (1 wine/night max), coffee (max 2) and too much caffeinated teas
* Have only 1-2 portions of red meat a week
* At least 3 servings of fruit and vegetables daily
* Cover a balance of all 5 flavours (sour, bitter, salty, spicy, sweet) of food in your diet
* Don’t eat too much complex carbs after dark
* Have at least 2-3 litres of warm water daily
* Have a few servings of fish a week
* Switch processed foods for raw organic foods where possible
* Reduce dairy intake
* Reduce gluten intake
* Eliminate processed sugar
