What are food substitutes?
In the modern context of the global problem of obesity, low-calorie food substitute enriched with useful substances is one of the most important achievements.
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What is a meal replacement?
Imagine that you take your usual breakfast – eggs, meat, fruits, toast, juice, milk – and mix all these ingredients in a blender. Now we’ll remove all the harmful fat and most of the sugar from there, leaving only protein, vitamins, minerals, fibers, healthy fat and healthy antioxidants. This, in essence, is a substitute for food. This is an “artificial food,” which is usually filled with nutrients but contains fewer calories. To be called a true substitute for food, it must meet its characteristics. And this means that it should contain certain amounts of essential nutrients per serving.
Meal replacements are produced in various forms – shakes , bars , soups , even cookies ! All of them satisfy the requirements for food. For most people, a meal replacement helps maintain optimal weight. Moreover, even for athletes and thin people, a meal replacement will ensure the availability of healthy nutrients in the diet. Food substitutes are one of the easiest ways to guarantee the usefulness of food, while at the same time eliminating all guesses and assumptions from the nutrition process.
> Take control into our own hands
A very important advantage of a food substitute is that it does not lie when it comes to calories. If the label says: mix with water and you get 200 kilocalories, then you really will consume 200 kilocalories. Food substitutes are useful for doctors and nutritionists working in clinics where calories must be measured accurately. In addition, they are very useful for developing a diet plan with a clear meal schedule. Different people have different eating patterns, so food substitutes can help you personalize your diet program.
Заменители пищи крайне полезны для тех из Вас, кто в течение многих лет пробовал разнообразные диеты, потерпел неудачу и свыкся с этим. Часто такие люди говорят: мы испробовали все, и это – наша последняя попытка. Для этих людей заменитель пищи – просто находка. Он снимает завесу тайны с подсчета калорий в диете и упрощает программу.
One of the most powerful things that food substitutes can do for you is letting you take control of your own eating habits. Moreover, you will not feel as if you are starving yourself or limiting the amount of food. If you feel hungry, just choose another meal replacement or nutritious snack – and you will know exactly how many calories you have consumed. This will greatly help you in observing your diet, ”in two ways. Firstly , it allows you to count calories consumed without having to guess the total amount. Secondly , it gives you more power over the process of planning your own nutrition program.
A good example is a wedding . If you know in advance that you will go to the wedding and eat quite a lot, then you can prepare for the week by limiting, within reasonable limits, the number of calories and leaving a certain gap in order to deviate from the regime.
Wouldn’t it be nice if food was always given information on its nutritional value, even in restaurants and at various events with refreshments? Undoubtedly, thanks to this, the element of fortune telling would practically disappear from the process of following the diet. Not that most people try to find foods that have more calories. When choosing products, consumers are often driven by the best of intentions, but their food destiny is in the hands of someone else. A serious problem is that a person starts with the best of intentions, but cannot control the number of calories in food. After a visitor orders food at a restaurant, the rest is determined by the chef.
Do people lie about what they ate? Hardly. The problem is not lies, but ignorance.
Take a typical scenario. A person comes to a nutritionist and asks for instructions on nutrition, and he recommends him to eat specific fresh food. As an example, eat chicken breast for lunch. A typical large piece of white chicken with a side dish of fresh vegetables should not contain more than 300 calories. However, in a typical restaurant, most visitors get a salad with grilled chicken, in which there are more than 800 kilocalories, and they are mostly hidden in sauces and dressing.
If you came to a restaurant and ordered a salad with chicken, then most often you will be served a dish with a high content of fat, sugar and calories. Remember, a cook is not a doctor . Even though you asked for chicken breast, the cook doesn’t care what your cholesterol level is or how much you weigh. As a rule, cooks are interested in your taste buds and wallet. He wants you to eat with pleasure and tell your friends about this restaurant. He will add special sauces to the dish to revive the taste of chicken, which for you means the consumption of additional calories, without your knowledge.
For example, you focus on 2000 kilocalories per day. For breakfast, you already drank a very large cup of coffee latte with a blueberry muffin or a sandwich (in the amount of 700 to 1200 calories, mainly sugar). For lunch, you order a salad with grilled chicken breast (with special dressing, croutons and cheese – 800 calories). It’s about one in the afternoon. You still have to work out a few hours, which means a midday snack, probably another cup of coffee, an energy drink or soda. After all this, you head home and cook a hearty dinner or order a quick meal. You see how easy it is to go abroad 3000 kilocalories per day. After several weeks of nutrition on this model, you either gain weight or do not lose weight as you wanted. You can go to your nutritionist again and complain that the diet you are following does not work. Often you get angry because you have radically changed your eating habits in according to the program set by this specialist. Perhaps you believe that both the diet and the specialist have let you down, and this often creates a feeling of hopelessness. This is why so many people have difficulty implementing their nutrition plans: they simply don’t know what exactly they consume. The blame for this lies with many, including the consumer and the nutrition specialist, but the main culprit must be sought in the field of cooking and food production.
Why does a doctor recommend food substitutes?
Many dietary practitioners have been recommending food substitutes to their patients for many years. Studies of the Institute of Nutrition RAMS show that now it is impossible for a person to get the necessary amount of vitamins and minerals with ordinary foods, not to mention people involved in sports (for them, the daily need for vitamins and minerals is 1.5-2 times higher than usual). Complete nutrition for the body with all macro- and microelements, antioxidants can be achieved through a combined diet, which includes both regular food and specialized foods (food substitutes, vitamin and mineral complexes , etc.).
And still, I’m sure that after reading this article many will say: “Food substitutes are not natural, but synthetic (although this is not so) … so why recommend them to people? Why not recommend natural whole foods? ” And I will answer: “You are absolutely right!” It is already obvious that the food that mother nature created is better than anything made in the food industry. The problem is that very few eat what mother nature has prepared for us.