China's food culture is profound, and "Time waits for no one to eat" is the essence.

The sage Confucius' attitude towards food is very strict: "Don't eat bad food, don't eat bad food", that is, don't eat rotten food, don't eat food with wrong color, don't eat food with wrong taste-just eat fresh food with good color, smell and taste!

Confucius also said: "Although there is a lot of meat, it does not make it better than eating." No amount of meat can compare with the staple food. The ancients paid attention to grains for nourishing and five dishes for supplementing. Whole grains are the healthiest food, and meat dishes are just collocation. This view is increasingly recognized by modern nutritionists. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, meat is easy to phlegm, block qi and blood, and cause indigestion, so we must pay attention to the adjustment of main and non-staple foods. Many people's diet is low in carbohydrate, high in protein and high in fat, which is very unhealthy.

Confucius thought: "Don't eat too much" and "eat without saying anything". Overeating harms not only the stomach, but also the heart and lung function. Chatting while eating is hard to avoid in life, especially the so-called "dinner" means talking about work while eating. Eating in this way is not only easy to choke, but also focuses on other things instead of food, so it is difficult for the digestive system to enter the working state, which will inevitably lead to indigestion.

It is not too difficult to obey these rules, but it is difficult to "skip meals from time to time". Out-of-season fruits and vegetables have long spoiled people's appetite, and it is difficult to adapt to the monotonous dining table of cabbage, potatoes and radishes that have been kept for a winter. It doesn't hurt to adjust the vegetables that are out of season once in a while, but you still have to score one point for the primary and secondary. For example, Chinese cabbage, potatoes and radishes on the table in winter should play the leading role, and the cooking methods can be diversified; Summer is rich in fruits and vegetables, so it is necessary to select a large number of listed varieties. It is harmful to "try early" first.

In fact, the principle of health preservation is nothing more than this: sleep when you should, and eat when you should. Conversely, nature has nothing to do with health. For example, eating while sleeping, the more you eat, the fatter you get; Hungry when it's time to eat will upset your stomach. In a word, everything should follow the laws of nature and not follow one's inclinations.

Author: Liu Yuanxing

The original text was published in the Beijing Times.

List of seasonal fruits and vegetables:

Spring (January to March in the lunar calendar)

Vegetables: pepper, green pepper, colored pepper, onion, cauliflower, sweet beans, peas, celery, lettuce, shepherd's purse, rape, spinach, Toona sinensis, bamboo shoots, Malantou, gourd and leek.

Fruits: guava, jujube, loquat, mulberry, cherry, lotus mist (late spring).

Summer (April to June in the lunar calendar)

Vegetables: pepper, loofah, bitter gourd, wax gourd, kidney bean, asparagus, water bamboo, onion, cucumber, bergamot, pumpkin, amaranth, hawthorn, water spinach, asparagus, sweet potato leaves, bamboo shoots, lettuce, tomato, cabbage and eggplant.

Fruits: strawberry, lotus spray, peach, plum, watermelon, pineapple, mango, lemon, passion fruit, pitaya, apricot, litchi, kiwi, banana, coconut and cherry.

Autumn (July to September in the lunar calendar)

Vegetables: okra, water chestnut, lotus root, pepper, chestnut, wax gourd, green beans (kidney beans), sweet potato leaves, beans, yam, Chinese cabbage and lentils.

Fruits: grapefruit, pear, persimmon, papaya, apple, lotus seed, sugarcane, grape, pitaya, carambola, guava, apricot, orange, jujube, hawthorn and walnut.

Winter (October to December of the lunar calendar)

Vegetables: green pepper, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, onion, cauliflower, carrot, radish, sweet bean, celery, spinach, mustard, sunflower and lettuce.

Fruit: orange, orange, grapefruit, jujube, sugarcane, Sakyamuni.