The Art of Culinary Nutrition

Author: Zhao Xingming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-01-01
Features: Ten Major Nutrients and Their Sources
1. Protein: Lean meat, poultry, fish, soy products, green peas, eggs, cheese, nuts, and seeds.
2. Sugar: Grains, potatoes, dried beans, corn, bread, fruits; honey.
3. Fat: Butter, animal fats, cream, margarine, cured meats, sausages, nuts, seeds, peanut oil, rapeseed oil, and soybean oil.
4. Vitamin A: Liver, carrots, sweet potatoes, leafy vegetables, cream, margarine, egg yolks, and cod liver oil.
5. Vitamin C: Cauliflower, lemons (citrus), papaya, mango, strawberries, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes; leafy vegetables.
6. Vitamin B1: Lean meat, nuts, coarse grains, and staple food nutrition crystals (e.g., coarse bread, fortified cereal).
7. Vitamin B2: Liver, kidneys, heart, milk, yogurt, egg yolks, eel, leafy vegetables, coarse grains, soybeans, and nutrient-rich grain products.
8. Niacin (Antibberi Disease Vitamin D): Liver, meat, milk, poultry, fish, peanuts, coarse grains, nutrient-rich grain products, dried beans, green peas, and nuts.
9. Calcium: Milk, yogurt, sardines, meat rolls, vegetables, mustard, radish leaves, shrimp shells, kelp, sesame sugar, beans, and bean products.
10. Iron: Beef and mutton, liver, fortified starch, dried beans, green peas, leafy vegetables, and nutrient-rich grain products.
A Combination of Salty and Sweet Foods Benefits Health
Combining salty and sweet foods can regulate taste, enhance appetite, promote digestion, and benefit health. However, in most Chinese households, salty and sweet foods are often served separately. For example, some people have sweet milk with sweet bread, sweet steamed buns, or sweet cakes for breakfast, feeling "overly sweet" afterward and experiencing discomfort in their stomachs. This is because excessive sweet foods stimulate stomach acid secretion, yet fail to replenish the salt content in gastric juice (which requires a moderate amount of salt to replenish sodium ions), resulting in a feeling of excessive sweetness. Conversely, some people eat only salty foods for three meals a day, even without a single sweet seasoning. Over time, this can lead to a singleized taste perception and eventually affect appetite. A more scientific and reasonable dietary approach is to combine salty and sweet foods. For example, for breakfast, sweet dishes should be paired with light bread or slightly salty bread; sweet porridge should be paired with salty pancakes or meat buns; if eating sweet bean paste buns or fried cakes, they should be paired with savory meat porridge or salty meat soup. However, some argue that combining sweet and salty foods harms taste perception, which is actually a misconception. How to proceed can be flexibly adjusted based on personal preferences and taste.
Avoid Cross-Contamination Between Raw and Cooked Foods
Raw foods refer to the ingredients used in food preparation, such as various vegetables, poultry, fish, meat, milk, eggs, rice, flour, beans, etc. Cooked foods refer to processed and cooked foods that can be eaten directly, such as cooked meat, roast chicken, roast duck, pastries, and certain soy products. Plant-based raw foods require fertilization and watering during cultivation, especially plants like potatoes and radishes grown in soil, which can be contaminated with bacteria, viruses, and parasite eggs, even with feces. During harvesting, picking, transportation, storage, and processing, they can also become contaminated. Animal-based foods like poultry, meat, milk, and eggs may also be infected with bacteria during raising, carrying viruses and bacteria in their meat, milk, eggs, and organs. According to surveys, 64.5% of diseased pigs infected with Salmonella and slaughtered for urgent disposal tested positive for the bacteria, with high detection rates in various organs, such as 85% in the liver, 83% in the spleen, 75% in the kidneys, 72% in the lungs, 69% in muscle, and 3% in eggs. This is just one type of pathogenic bacteria; others also exist. In addition to carrying bacteria and viruses, raw foods can be contaminated through flies, dust, containers, and the hands of food processors. Raw foods also contain nutrients, not only preserving bacteria but also enabling their growth and reproduction, leading to an increasing number. When raw foods are steamed, boiled, fried, or stir-fried, they become cooked foods, killing bacteria, viruses, and parasite eggs during the heating process. This makes them easier to digest and absorb, safer to eat, and reduces the risk of infection and food poisoning. However, if cooked foods are still placed together with raw foods, or if knives, boards, cloths, and containers used to process raw foods are not properly disinfected before processing cooked foods, bacteria, viruses, and parasite eggs from raw foods can directly contaminate cooked foods. Since cooked foods are more nutrient-rich, bacteria will multiply rapidly, and some may produce large amounts of toxins. Consuming such cooked foods directly can lead to foodborne diseases or food poisoning. To prevent contamination of cooked foods by raw foods, raw and cooked foods must be stored separately and processed separately. Knives, boards, and other utensils should be used exclusively for raw or cooked foods. If only one set is used, it must be thoroughly washed and disinfected after processing raw foods before reuse.
Raw Foods Benefit Health
Medical experts have pointed out that if humans moderately adjust their current refined cooked food diet and adopt the ancient habit of eating raw fruits and vegetables, it could significantly reduce the incidence of modern civilization diseases, such as malignant tumors, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Over a century ago, Jewish physician Dr. Max Gerson pioneered the "raw food therapy" for cancer prevention. Meanwhile, American scientist Ann Wigmore became a typical example of overcoming cancer through raw food consumption. At the age of 50, Wigmore was diagnosed with cancer but completely defeated it by adopting the "raw food therapy" and lived to be over 80. Thousands of patients with cancer, heart disease, and diabetes worldwide have shown improvement or even been cured by following Wigmore's raw food therapy. Medical research has shown that consuming certain plant-based foods raw offers the following benefits:
1. Protects the Human Immune System Function. Purely cooked foods keep human immune cells in a high state of stress and alertness. Without a mix of raw foods, immune cells can become overly fatigued over time, weakening their disease-fighting ability.
2. Prevents Excessive Nutrient Destruction. The vitamins, chlorophyll, enzymes, plant hormones, fiber, and energy substances in foods are easily destroyed by heat or additives during cooking, leading to a lack of these essential nutrients. Raw foods, however, avoid this issue, promoting better health.
3. Prevents Food Contamination. During food processing, additives such as salt, sugar, soy sauce, MSG, spices, dyes, and preservatives are often added to improve sensory qualities. However, improper use of these additives can harm health. Additionally, some chemicals produced during cooking, such as benzopyrene, are carcinogenic. Therefore, to combat cancer and other non-communicable chronic diseases, dietary habits must shift toward raw, fresh, green, and wild natural foods, reducing high-calorie foods and minimizing the use of chemical additives.
Many Plant-Based Foods Are Suitable for Raw Consumption
In addition to seasonal fruits, there are also many fresh vegetables and nuts that can be eaten raw, used in salads, or juiced. Of course, there is a gradual adaptation process for eating raw fruits and vegetables. Additionally, when consuming raw vegetables, two points should be noted:
First, hygiene—they must be thoroughly cleaned before eating.
Second, preventing poisoning—some plants should not be eaten raw, such as green beans, wax beans, and green soybeans.
Chicken and Chicken Soup: Which Is More Nutritious?
Chicken is a superior dish, and chicken soup is a traditional supplement, both originating from the same source, so they offer both flavor and nutrition. But which is more nutritious? Let's look at the composition analysis by scientists.
- 100 grams of chicken contain 21.5 grams of protein, 2.5 grams of fat, 11 milligrams of calcium, and 1.5 milligrams of iron, as well as various nutrients such as B1 and B2 vitamins, niacin, etc.
- The protein in chicken is rich in essential amino acids that the human body cannot synthesize, making it easily utilized by the body to synthesize tissue proteins, hence its high nutritional value.
- When chicken is cooked, about 2% of nitrogenous substances are extracted, with organic and inorganic components equally present.
- Chicken soup contains nitrogenous extracts, including myosinogen, carnosine, creatinine, and purine compounds. Additionally, it contains some fat, inorganic salts, vitamins, and partial amino acids, especially a higher concentration of glutamic acid, which enhances the soup's flavor.
Which Is More Nutritious: Chicken or Chicken Soup?
Generally, chicken is more nutritious than chicken soup. After boiling, the chicken loses water, increasing the relative content of protein and inorganic salts. For example, the protein in the soup is only a small part of the protein in the meat, and the content of inorganic salts, fat, and vitamins is also lower than that in chicken. However, chicken soup, in addition to containing the above nutrients, is delicious and can stimulate gastric juice secretion, increase appetite, and aid digestion. Therefore, a scientific dietary approach is to consume both chicken and chicken soup together.
How to Choose Noodles
Noodles are a common food. Consumers should choose based on their taste and nutritional needs. Currently, there are several types of noodles on the market:
1. Spinach Noodles (Green Noodles): Made from refined white flour supplemented with 15% fresh, clean spinach, pressing 10% of the leaves, and carefully rolled. They contain rich chlorophyll, vitamin C, and carotene, combining grains and vegetables into a novel food with excellent color, aroma, and taste.
2. Silver Thread Noodles: Made from refined white flour with 4% first-grade starch added, rolled into noodles less than 0.9 mm wide, thin as silk, with a bright, clean white color. Boiled in boiling water for 1–2 minutes, they are soft and smooth in texture.
3. Egg Noodles: Made from refined white flour with 10% fresh eggs, resulting in yellowish noodles with an egg-like aroma. They have a higher gluten content than ordinary noodles. Each 500 grams of finished product contains about 25 grams of easily digestible protein, as well as various vitamins and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, iron, and essential inorganic salts.
4. Longevity Egg Noodles: Made primarily from refined white flour with fresh eggs as a supplement, adding 0.02 grams of vitamin B2 powder per kilogram of flour, then carefully rolled. These noodles have high calories, a smooth and pleasant texture, and can prevent conditions like angular cheilitis and skin diseases when consumed regularly. Their gluten content exceeds 32%, and they have a chewy texture when cooked.
5. Bamboo Leaf Noodles: Made from refined white flour with 3% first-grade starch, rolled into thin noodles less than 0.8 mm wide, resembling bamboo leaves in appearance, with a bright, clean white color. They have a smooth and chewy texture, are durable when cooked, do not become mushy, and do not stick to the mouth.
6. Sodium Alginate Noodles: Made from refined white flour with 0.15% liquid sodium alginate added, then rolled. Sodium alginate is a polysaccharide high-molecular carbohydrate and a dietary fiber beneficial to the body, hailed as a longevity health food in Japan and a magical food additive in the U.S. Regular consumption of these noodles can help regulate blood sugar, aid weight loss, and inhibit viruses.