Doctor, can I replace a main meal with two small mangoes? First, the conclusion. It is not recommended to replace the main meal with a fruit (e.g. mango). What is a staple food? As the name implies, it is the main component of a meal, and this “main” can be measured by parameters such as energy contribution, weight, volume or satiety. Generally speaking, the food mix of a healthy weight loss meal is broadly in line with the “dietary pagoda”, that is, carbohydrate-rich grains or potatoes, these carbohydrates constitute the “solid base” of the dietary pagoda. Of course, for the sake of weight loss, I always recommend choosing coarse grains and beans (whole grains) or potatoes as a staple food, and not choosing refined rice and white flour foods as much as possible, and then making a slight reduction in the carbohydrate energy supply ratio, that is, slightly reducing the amount of staple foods. What about mangoes? Mango is a very popular tropical fruit and nutrition is quite good, like the iconic orange color means rich in beta-carotene, and rich in vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, dietary fiber, etc. The sugar content is 7% and the calorie content is 35 kcal/100g. In addition to causing allergies, mangoes seem to be a low-calorie food quite suitable for weight loss, and have good antioxidant and vision maintenance effects. Mango also has a nutritional feature, as a high fructose fruit, because the sweetness of fructose is higher than glucose, so mangoes are very sweet to eat, but also because the glycemic index of fructose is not high (GI = 23), the glycemic index of mangoes is not high (GI = 55), that is, after eating mangoes cause a small increase in blood sugar and insulin levels, so it seems that eating mangoes is less likely to cause a rapid rise in postprandial insulin The rapid rise in insulin after meals and the rapid synthesis and accumulation of fat, which is not more conducive to weight loss? I guess after thinking about the above two aspects, you’ll have the idea of “mango replacement staple”. Well, let me explain: first of all, calories. Generally speaking, excluding durian, avocado and bananas, which are not the mainstream fruit, literally see, the main component of the fruit is water, followed by sugar (fructose, glucose or sucrose), and other pectin, vitamins, trace elements and other nutrients accounted for a small percentage, it is because of the large water content, the fruit gives the impression that calories are much lower than the same weight of grains or potatoes, seemingly suitable for weight loss . But do not forget that fruit is a natural fruit, is the food can be eaten directly, equivalent to nature in advance to reconcile the ratio of carbohydrates and water, so simply with food staples directly than the unit weight of the calorie level is not fair, than also with “porridge” “noodle soup “Noodle soup” and so on is more or less the same. In reality, eating fruit seems to be satiating, but in fact is to eat a “water full”, bulging stomach after a few bubbles of urine deflated again, think about the summer we can sometimes eat half a watermelon at once, eat then very bracing, but soon hungry again. And then the glycemic index. Even without considering the proportion of water, from the “ability to raise blood sugar” of carbohydrates, it seems that fruits are better than common staple foods, ah? But don’t forget, some fruits are lower GI because they contain a lot of fructose, fructose is good? In fact, it just looks beautiful. Why do you say so? Our hunger feeling is not only related to the filling of the gastrointestinal tract, but also related to the level of blood sugar. Glucose and insulin are actually a good “couple”, under their regulation, the body can perfectly balance the hunger, muscle and nervous system function, fat gain and loss. However, fructose is a strange existence, its metabolism does not depend on insulin, hardly causes blood sugar, nor does it cause an increase in insulin secretion, but can “unlimited speed” in the liver directly synthesize fat, the terrible thing is that this process, our brain monitoring blood sugar levels is not feeling “satisfied “, so compared with the general staple food, fruit is not full! To give a real-life example, excluding pectin, vitamins, trace elements and other ingredients, a certain beverage is very similar to the fruit nutrition model, that is, cola, cola contains about 10% sugar, but the glycemic index is only 40, lower than the mango, right? It is because one of its ingredients “fructose syrup” in the credit of fructose. Let’s assume that two small mangoes are replaced with the same calorie Coke and then replace the main food, would you still want to do that? Finally, look at the dietary pagoda again. Fruit in the penultimate layer, and the second layer of vegetables also account for the main part, fruit is only a secondary part. If you want to make a comeback, you have to first PK the same layer of vegetables, and then challenge “grains”, “beans” and “potatoes” to compete for the status of staple foods! The correct posture: the time to eat fruit when dieting, is between two meals (recommended afternoon) as an additional meal, the purpose of reducing the next meal before the hunger.