Food experts recommend replacing rice with alternative staple foods to lose weight and make it healthier

But what is a staple food? Do rolls, steamed cakes, and sesame cakes count? Most people would say: Yes. Ask again, do rice dumplings, glutinous rice balls, and mooncakes count? Some people began to hesitate. Zongzi is made of rice, so it should be counted. Can mooncakes be considered a staple food? Isn't that a snack? Ask again, is mung bean cake a staple food? Almost everyone shook their heads and said that mung bean cakes were definitely snacks.

In fact, the task of the staple food is to supply carbohydrates. Therefore, foods rich in starch and sugar can be included in the ranks of staple foods. At the same time, staple foods can also provide 1/3 to 1/2 of the protein to the meal, so fruits and vegetables with too low protein content are excluded. In this way, all kinds of coarse grains, beans, potatoes, and a few other vegetables rich in starch can replace rice and white flour as the staple food.

For example, oatmeal and breakfast cereals are real staple foods. Mung bean cake and red bean paste are also counted. They just add a little sugar. In fact, the main ingredients are starch and protein. There are also gorgon seeds, coix seeds, lotus seeds, etc., which are consistent with the main ingredients of grain and are also counted as staple foods. Potatoes are a fairly high-quality staple food, and it is absolutely wise for the French to use them instead of bread, because on a dry basis, it has the same protein content as rice, a better amino acid balance, and is rich in vitamin C and potassium.

The same is true for yams, taro, and sweet potatoes. When the above potato foods are used as staple foods, only a ratio of 4:1 is needed. That is to say, eating 3 to 5 kilograms of potatoes is equivalent to eating 1 kilogram of rice. Because potatoes have too much moisture after all and cannot be directly compared with dry rice.

There are also some foods that people do not consider to be staple foods, such as lotus root, kudzu root powder, water chestnut, water chestnut, etc. They all contain starch and some protein, which is similar to potatoes, so they can all be counted as the staple foods. The ingredients of lotus root and potatoes are relatively similar, and the protein content and quality are not inferior to those of rice.

However, for diabetics and dieters who need to control total carbohydrates, they must pay attention to these "alternative" staple foods and deduct the "traditional" staple foods of white rice and white flour. Whether you eat pork ribs stewed with lotus root, boiled water chestnuts, or cold fern root powder, don't forget that this is a staple food, and the total amount of carbohydrates per day cannot be increased.

If you choose to replace white rice and white flour with these "alternative" staple foods, there will be many benefits. For example, the vitamin C content of potatoes is comparable to that of tomatoes, while the vitamin C content of lotus root is higher than that of potatoes; water chestnut, water chestnut, sweet potato, and taro all contain a certain amount of vitamin C, at least more than apples; compared with polished rice and white flour, they also have higher B vitamin content, and all are potassium-rich foods. If you use them instead of white rice, the potassium provided in the staple food will be several times more if you are full.

The most important thing is that the antioxidants and dietary fiber contained in these foods are unmatched by white rice and white flour. For example, based on the same starch content, the insoluble fiber content of lotus root is more than 12 times that of refined white japonica rice. It contains rich polyphenols that white rice cannot compare with. In terms of blood sugar response, these foods are also smaller than white rice. (Editor in charge: Yang Miao)