Some netizens often ask: "I work outside, and I often don’t have enough vegetables. What should I do if I don’t have enough nutrition?" I always feel uncomfortable if I don’t eat vegetables! Is there any food that can replace the nutrition of fresh vegetables? Can taking multivitamin pills replace eating vegetables? "
Indeed, many people go to barren hills or deserts, to foreign countries, to frontier areas and to poverty-stricken areas because of work needs, or for reasons such as teaching and helping the poor. These places often do not have enough fresh vegetables to supply. Even if there are vegetables, they are mostly radishes, cabbages and potatoes, especially leafy vegetables lacking dark green.
If it’s ten days and a half, that’s fine. Get over it first, and then make it up when you come back. However, if it is a few months, or even a year or two, the lack of vegetables will inevitably affect your health.
As we all know, adequate vegetables are very important for supplying vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B2, vitamin K, potassium, calcium, magnesium, dietary fiber and various antioxidant substances.
Ideally, there should be vegetables in the meal, and 300 to 500 grams of vegetables are eaten every day, and this weight does not include the part thrown into the trash can, but the part that is directly imported.
In the case of really not eating enough, you can take the following seven remedial measures. Although it can’t completely solve the problem, it can at least reduce some damage to the nutritional balance and make the body get more comprehensive nutritional and health care ingredients.
Temporarily supplement multivitamins.
If the dose of vitamin supplements is not too large, close to the normal amount of reasonable dietary intake, taking supplements is harmless. All the worries about supplements are in the case of large quantities. The vitamin content of some products is ten times or even dozens of times the daily recommended value, which is not suitable for long-term use.
It must be recognized that although these nutrient supplements can prevent vitamin deficiency, they cannot replace all the health functions of vegetables, such as supplying potassium, calcium and magnesium, dietary fiber, antioxidants and other phytochemicals.
Prepare some dried vegetables.
You can buy some dried vegetables that can rise after soaking in water, take them to your work area, or order them online. Such as dried seaweed (Undaria pinnatifida, kelp, etc.), dried mushrooms, dried mushrooms, dried fungus, dried bamboo shoots, and evergreen (dried vegetables), as a supplement to the lack of vegetables.
Dried products are convenient to store and carry, and it is also convenient to cook dishes after soaking. For example, put some soaked fungus and mushrooms in cooking, add some soaked bamboo shoots and mushrooms in stew and chicken, and add some soaked Undaria pinnatifida in soup, all of which are quite delicious.
Although there are fewer vitamins after drying, at least a lot of minerals and dietary fiber can be supplemented. Minerals such as potassium, calcium and magnesium can still be preserved after drying. In particular, most dietary fiber can be preserved, which is very helpful to prevent constipation.
Substitute potato, sweet potato, yam and other potatoes.
Potato is a kind of food between vegetables and staple food. It contains starch, vitamin C, rich potassium, and some antioxidants, and its dietary fiber content is much higher than that of white rice and white flour.
If potatoes are used to replace part of white rice and steamed bread, more vitamin C, B vitamins, potassium and dietary fiber can be obtained on the premise of the same total carbohydrate.
For people who need to lose weight, we must pay attention to the fact that when eating potatoes, we should not put oil and salt. Instead, we should put them in a rice cooker and steam them with rice, and reduce the amount of white rice and flour while eating potatoes.
For people who need to gain weight, adding some potato foods such as potatoes and yam to their daily staple food, such as stewing potatoes into vegetables, is just conducive to gaining weight.
Increase the number of daily vegetables
In some remote areas, although there are no fresh green leafy vegetables, there are still some storable vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, radish, onion and carrot.
Although Chinese cabbage is not as nutritious as green leafy vegetables, it still contains a certain amount of vitamin C, dietary fiber and minerals.
As long as you increase your food intake and eat more Chinese cabbage, you can get more nutrients and partially make up for the loss of insufficient varieties. This is the so-called "quantity compensation for insufficient quality". Carrot itself is a good thing. Eating some often can at least prevent vitamin A deficiency.
Send bean sprouts and bean sprouts to increase green leafy vegetables.
You can use soybeans, black beans, peas, etc. to soak them and eat them yourself to increase the variety of vegetables. Bud sprouts can spread green leaves as long as they see light, which belongs to green leafy vegetables. Common sprout vegetables include radish seedlings, buckwheat seedlings and peanut seedlings. The sprouts taste good and can be fried. Radish seedlings and buckwheat seedlings can also be eaten raw and cold directly.
Even if there are only wheat and barley seeds, they can be made into wheat seedlings, then cut off and beaten into juice with their own beater. This is the best "green juice".
It would be better if you could bring some seeds of green leafy vegetables such as Chinese cabbage and rape. You can get fresh vegetables by growing your own vegetables.
Order canned vegetables online
At present, there are many canned vegetables, such as canned tomatoes, canned green beans, canned mushrooms, canned asparagus, canned pickles, canned corn shoots, canned/bagged ketchup, etc., and the price of ordering in boxes is not high.
Although canned food loses some vitamin C, it is not zero, and there is no loss of dietary fiber and potassium. It is convenient for storage and transportation, so direct order is enough. Take it out every day and eat a little at every meal, which still plays a big role in supplying nutrition.
With all kinds of flower and fruit tea materials that can be soaked in water.
Prepare your favorite tea, coffee, dried rose, dried chrysanthemum, dried roselle, dried lemon, etc., and make a drink with hot water. Although the quantity is limited, it can increase the supply of potassium, vitamin C, organic acids and some antioxidant substances.
The so-called methods are always more difficult. As long as these methods are used in combination, we can overcome the difficulty of insufficient vegetables, and make our diet life much richer and healthier.
Text/Fan Zhihong (Director of China Nutrition Society)
