I. Concept of balanced diet
A balanced diet is a meal made by selecting a variety of foods and making appropriate combinations, which can meet people’s needs for energy and various nutrients, thus it is called a balanced diet. The caloric requirement of balanced diet is neither increase nor decrease in body weight.
How to calculate a balanced diet? There are three steps
Step 1: Determine whether you should choose a balanced diet or a negative balanced diet?
For people in general, we choose balanced diet, but for obese and diabetic people, we should choose negative balanced diet in order to reduce obesity and control blood sugar to the standard. Therefore, we need to calculate the proportion relative to the balanced diet according to the ideal weight and choose the relative amount of diet.
Step 2: First select high, medium and low calories.
As shown in the figure below, the selection of calories for a balanced diet is based on the daily activity of our body.
1. High-calorie diet: If you are a heavy physical activity, or an athlete, or if you are recovering from a disease and need to regain your strength, choose the high-calorie group, with a total of 2800 Kcal per day;
2.Medium-calorie diet: If you are an office worker or do housework at home, then choose the medium-calorie diet with a total of 2400 Kcal per day;
3, low-calorie diet: If you are resting at home, do not need to consume more calories, choose a low-calorie diet, the total daily calories of 1800Kcal.
It should be especially pointed out that: obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, to choose a low-calorie diet is to choose a total daily calorie of 1800Kcal, the specific food allocation is shown in the balanced diet table. Among them, diabetes and obesity also have to give a negative balance on the basis of choosing a low-calorie diet, calculating the daily calorie requirement with ideal body weight, and then dividing it by the number of calories in a low-calorie diet to get the food conversion ratio, as well as the final food intake.
Step 3: Choose how much of each food to eat?
According to the chart of balanced diet, calculate how much of the corresponding food to eat.
III. Here are three examples to give you how to calculate.
(I) Case of choosing a balanced diet.
An office employee, who has little daily activity, no obesity, normal blood sugar, normal blood lipids and normal blood pressure. According to the concept of balanced diet mentioned above, and the heavy, medium and light physical activity cases corresponding to high, medium and low calorie group diets, the selection is as follows.
Step 1: Choose a balanced diet or a negative balanced diet: According to the staff member’s situation, he/she can choose a balanced diet, see the chart;
Step 2: Choose the calorie group: In the chart 1, choose the medium calorie, i.e. 2400 Kcal per day;
Step 3. Recipes corresponding to the calorie group: In Chart 1, select the recipes below the medium calorie group, 8 taels of staple food, 9 taels of vegetables, 3 taels of fruits, 1.5 taels of meat and poultry, 0.8 taels of eggs, 1 tael of fish and shrimp, 1 tael of soybean products, 2 taels of milk, and 0.5 taels of fats and oils;
(II) Cases requiring the selection of low-calorie balanced meals.
An office worker with little daily activity, but with high blood pressure and high blood fat, normal blood sugar and weight.
Step 1: Choose a balanced diet or a negative balanced diet: According to the case of this employee, she is not obese and does not have high blood sugar, so she can choose a balanced diet;
Step 2: Choose a low-calorie group: According to this employee’s condition, he needs to choose low-calorie and low-fat food, therefore, he should choose a low-calorie diet, that is, a total of 1800 Kcal per day.
Step 3: Recipes corresponding to the calorie group (see table above).
(iii) Case of choosing a negative balance diet.
An office worker with hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, and 1.7 meters tall. How to calculate the diet?
Step 1: Because this employee has diabetes, she should choose a negative balance diet.
Step 2: The ratio of calories required for a negative balance diet to the equivalent of medium calories in a balanced diet.
1. Determine the ideal weight first: 22×height(m)2=22×1.7×1.7kg=63.58Kg;
2. Then calculate the daily calorie requirement for ideal body weight.
The daily calorie needs under different physical activities per kilogram of body weight are: 25, 30, 35 and 40kcal/kg for rest, light physical strength, medium physical strength and heavy physical strength respectively.
For this staff, we should choose 30kcal/kg for medium physical strength, according to the daily calorie requirement of ideal weight = 30kcal/kg×63.58Kg=2225kcal;
3. The negative balanced diet calorie is 2225, the balanced diet medium calorie is 2400, the food folding ratio=2225/2400=0.9.
Step 3: Calculate recipes according to the food folding ratio of ideal weight: medium calorie recipes include 8 taels of staple food, 7.2 taels of staple food after folding.
(IV) Case of choosing negative balance meal for obesity
How to calculate the diet for an employee, who is 1.7 meters tall and weighs 180 pounds?
Step 1: Since this employee is obese and has a body mass index of R30, if she wants to reduce her weight, she should choose a negative balanced diet. If she does not want to reduce her weight, she can choose a low-calorie balanced diet with 6 taels of staple food.
Step 2: The ratio of the required calories for a negative balanced diet to the discounted low calories in a balanced diet.
The method is, if one is overweight, multiply 90% as the daily calorie requirement after choosing the corresponding balanced meal; if one is obese, multiply 80% as the daily calorie requirement after choosing the corresponding balanced meal.
This employee is obese, therefore, after choosing low calories and multiplying by 80%, it means that his or her daily calorie requirement = low calories x 80% = 1800 x 80% = 1440kcal;
Step 3: Calculate the recipe according to the food folding ratio of 80%: the low-calorie recipe includes 6 taels of staple food, 8 taels of vegetables, 2 taels of fruits, 1 tael of meat and poultry, 0.5 taels of eggs, 1 tael of fish and shrimp, 1 tael of soybean products, 2 taels of milk, 0.5 taels of fats and oils, 4.8 taels of staple food after folding, and the rest of the food can be calculated proportionally, the more vegetables the better, and 2-4 taels of fruits daily are fine.
(V) How to choose the food varieties for balanced diet?
The calculation of balanced diet and negative balanced diet is described above. Regarding the selection of food varieties, especially for the factors of hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and obesity, low calorie and low fat is an issue to be noted.
To limit the intake of the following foods high in cholesterol.
To limit the intake of foods with trans fatty acids.
To consume more vegetables and fruits.