This article is from WeChat public account: I am a scientist iScientist (IamaScientist) , author: Ruanguang Feng, title figure from: Ruanguang Feng speech” as a nutritionist, I was at the dinner table and how the family of wits “
What’s the hardest thing about science? It may be to popularize science for the family and accidentally get kicked out of the family group. The public’s expectations for food are too high, and they are often too worried about possible food safety risks-nutritionists are often subversive. Ruan Guangfeng, director of the Science and Technology Department of Kexin Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center, and member of the China Internet Joint Rumors Platform Expert Committee, brought together “How to fight with my family at the dinner table as a nutritionist”
The following is a record of Ruan Guangfeng’s speech:
Hello everyone, this is Ruan Guangfeng.
If you have a relative who reposted a rumor in the family group, and this rumor, you just saw that the rumor smasher sent a rumor message. At this time, would you send rumor messages to family groups?
Although I have done many years of rumor and popularization work on food safety and nutrition, I actually feel similar to everyone-it is the most difficult to give family members a science popularization. Now even some people say that there are three types of filial piety in the new century. Someone on the Internet posted Dr. Lilac’s “101 most powerful rumors on the Internet” to his family group, but it was not long before he was kicked out of the group chat.
Friends often talk to me and tell me: it is too difficult to give science to family members and rumors. Family members often send a variety of health regimens, and spend a lot of money every day to buy a variety of health products.
It’s almost the same in my house.
Can bitter melon lower blood sugar?
Do you like bitter gourd? Actually, I don’t particularly like hardship. My mother is a diabetic. I did n’t think she liked bitter gourd before, but for a while, I found that my family ate bitter gourd almost four times a week. Then I asked my mom-
“Why do you keep making bitter gourd these days? Is it because the supermarket sells cheaper, so you buy more?”
“No, I watched a TV show that eating bitter gourd can lower blood sugar. People with diabetes should eat bitter gourd once a day. This way, if you eat it for half a year, you don’t need to take medicine.”
I hurriedly told my mother, don’t stop the medicine.
Actually, the reason why bitter gourd is bitter is mainly because it contains bitter melon and some bitter peptide substances. Although some animal studies have found that these substances can lower blood sugar, there are no large-scale clinical studies to prove it, so don’t expect to eat bitter melon to lower blood sugar. If you stop taking the medicine because you believe that eating bitter melon can lower blood sugar, the consequences are very serious.
Aspartame is “carcinogenic”?
Zero Coke is known to everyone, it is a sugar-free but sweet drink. I prefer to drink. I often buy a lot at home because it has no energy. Don’t worry about getting fat when you drink it. My mother has diabetes, and she did not dare to drink sweet drinks for many years. She was worried that her blood sugar could not be controlled.
“This drink has no sugar, and it will not raise blood sugar if you drink it. You can drink it with confidence.”
“Doesn’t it really raise blood sugar?”
“It uses a sweetener called aspartame. Its energy is basically negligible and it does not raise blood sugar after drinking.”
“I heard that these things are artificially synthesized, will they cause cancer? I think others say that artificially synthesized things will cause cancer and are harmful to health.”
In fact, from being discovered to being put on a “carcinogenic” hat, aspartame itself is a very dramatic process.
In 1965, when the chemist Schlater was conducting a synthetic drug experiment in the laboratory, he might have a little substance on his hand because there was no standard operation. He licked it and found it was sweet, but he found this sweet by accident Flavor. Aspartame is very widely used in the food industry due to its particularly good taste.
But four yearsLater, a psychiatrist (John Olney) found some mice and fed them desperately aspartame. Many mice died of cancer. He was surprised and published the study in Science . Since then, Aspartame has been put on a “carcinogenic” hat.
The doctor is particularly persistent. He tracks the sales of aspartame for the next 30 years. He fitted a curve between the sales of aspartame and the incidence of brain tumors during this period, and found that the trend of the two was highly close to (left) . So he published another study saying that aspartame is highly related to brain tumors and can cause brain tumors.
But in fact, this is a correlation and causality relationship, and correlation does not represent causality. Later, a doctor made a more interesting study to prove that Dr. Olney was wrong: He collected data on the US fiscal deficit for the past 30 years and found that the incidence of brain tumors is also highly correlated with the fiscal deficit. (right) . So is the economic downturn leading to a high incidence of brain tumors, or aspartame?
Now US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) , EU Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Many authoritative organizations have done many assessments, and the results are also aspartame Does not cause cancer, normal drinking is no problem.
Can people with diabetes eat fruit?
My mother is very afraid to eat fruit because she has diabetes. She feels that the fruit is too sweet and is afraid of raising blood sugar. But from a nutritional point of view, eating fruit every day is better for health.
In fact, although the fruit does have some sugar, most of the blood sugar load after eating it is very low. And fruits contain a lot of vitamin C, minerals, dietary fiber, and some polyphenol antioxidants, which are good for our health. Many studies have now found that if you can eat fruit regularly, the incidence of diabetes will be lower in healthy people, and the health of patients with diabetes will be better. Therefore, there are some authoritative guidelines in the world and in the country that recommend that people with diabetes eat fruit.
Children have no energy without salt?
I have two babies. The family now pays much attention to the babies. When returning home, the elderly will also be particularly concerned about what the child has eaten, whether it is safe to eat, or whether to eat well. I sometimes make complementary foods for my children. When my father-in-law sees it, he will say, do you eat these for your children? I have not added any seasonings, and my children will have no energy after eating. Most of them started to eat salt. I said, do n’t give him food, it may not be good for him.
Our country now has a guide on supplementary food for children, which clearly states that children under one year of age should not add salt to supplementary food, and one year old can eat a little salt, but not more than 1.5 grams. Some people may worry about affecting the salt balance and nerve conduction in the body, that is, whether the elderly say they have no energy, but this does not mean adding salt alone.
Why?
Because many natural foods contain sodium ions, this is “salt”. The seafood we eat, mushrooms, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, wolfberry, etc. all have salt. Children’s demand for salt is very low, and it is enough to supplement it from food.
Everyone may find that sometimes when they want to add a small spoonful of salt for cooking, they often shake their hands. If you add more salt to your child’s complementary food, on the one hand, it is not conducive to the formation of his taste, and may become heavy taste when he grows up, which is not conducive to developing a healthy diet. Many organs of one or two-year-old children do not develop well. If they eat a heavy taste from an early age, the development of organs is not very good.
After one year of age, breast milk is no longer nutritional?
When I brought my child home, the child was over one year old and was still feeding. When my father-in-law saw it, I said that the children in other people’s houses on the street would be weaned after one year old, because after one year old, their breast milk would be nourished.
This is also a big misunderstanding. In fact, breast milk is a very smart food that adjusts nutrition based on the child’s diet. The World Health Organization also explicitly recommends exclusive breastfeeding for less than six months, and if conditions permit, you can continue breastfeeding after two years of age and eat naturally weaned.
Many people may not be able to continue exclusive breastfeeding now because they have to go to work after maternity leave. These conditions exist objectively and cannot be overcome. In fact, it is not necessary to eat, but it is not necessary to say that breast milk must be weaned without nutrition.
Children cannot eat hairy crabs?
Fall is the season when hairy crabs are on the market. We will buy some hairy crabs and various aquatic products for children. When my father-in-law saw it, he said, what is it for a child to eat these things? It is too small to digest and absorb, and I heard others say that this thing is particularly unclean. He may be worried about heavy metals, pesticide residues, and parasites.
Then I told him that most of the aquatic products we eat now are artificial farming, and the breeding environment is very good. If you think about it, farmers are expected to sell their products. If the environment is poor and poorly maintained, it will directly affect sales and business will not be able to do so, so you don’t have to worry too much about environmental issues.
Aquatic products like hairy crabs contain very high-quality protein, as well as polyunsaturated fatty acids that are especially sought after by people today. (such as DHA) , For children’s growth and development, especially the development of the brain, there are many benefits, so you can eat these aquatic products for children.
Actually, as long as the child is one year old, his diet is not much different from that of our adults. You can eat as much as you can, but you may have to pay a little attention, such as putting less salt and making it smaller. As for the parasite problem that some people worry about, you can eat it with ease as long as it is cooked.
How many strawberry pesticide residues?
So does fruit. When I go out and buy fruit for my child, my mom will worry about whether there will be pesticide residues.
There are even people posting “the dirtiest fruit rankings” online, with strawberries ranked first. So every time I buy strawberries, my mom will say, buy strawberries again! Are pesticide residues.
I will tell her that you do n’t need to take this ranking seriously, because the presence of pesticide residues does not mean that pesticide residues exceed the standard, nor does it mean that eating them will be harmful to children. In fact, pesticide residues are unavoidable, but now our country, including the world, has some standards. As long as there is no excess, we consider the risk to be controllable, acceptable, and you can eat normally. So after I slowly said more, my mother didn’t say anymore, so I ate.
Before I came to speak, I put some publicity articles in my WeChat public account, and then there was a message from a netizen, which made me very resonant-
This “other” is particularly familiar. When we were young, he was called “the child of someone else’s house”.
Why do we feel that it is easier for them to trust others when we rumor them?
First, rumors are always more appealing than the truth. OthersRumours are said to be more frightening. There is an old saying in China that “good things don’t go out, bad things spread thousands of miles”, and if there is any rumor, everyone will know immediately. Because people instinctively develop fear, they rush to share to remind family and friends, for fear they don’t know.
Second, people are more likely to have fantasies about unknown people and things. We and our family live under the same roof every day, knowing everything; but for outsiders who are unfamiliar and unfamiliar, everyone may have some illusions: Maybe they have special skills? Maybe it works? In fact, it is out of gossip psychology.
Third, family dignity is more important than truth. We get along with family members at home. Many times it is not a rational environment, but there are many feelings in it, and even some family dignity. You and the elders have popular science, even if he knows that you are right, but he feels that he is an elder, and why he should believe what your little boy is saying, so he will not accept it.
Fourth, people are more willing to believe what they believe. If you suddenly tell him a message that completely subverts cognition or even slaps his face, such as rumors, he will instinctively develop a resistance mentality, unwilling to believe. This is the root cause.
However, it doesn’t mean that no family can make science popular, it’s easy for children. This is my big treasure, Tangtang. I now read her various picture books every day, covering a lot of science and science stories, as well as some dietary habits.
Science for children has another benefit: she will affect the elderly. When I tell my mother, my mother often disdains; but if Tangtang tells her, she will feel it.
For example, when I was young, I told Tangtang to wash my hands before meals. Otherwise, it would be easy to have a stomachache and diarrhea, and she gradually developed a habit. But my mother is different. Sometimes she is too busy cooking and comes up to eat without washing her hands. Tangtang will say, Grandma, you ca n’t come to eat before you wash your hands, my mother goes obedientlyWash your hands.
So it is good to give children science popularization, and the effect is very significant.
But what should be popular science?
Many people think that they should go to popularize some advanced scientific knowledge and scientific reasons. It’s not necessary, and never.
Science common sense. I read a picture book called “Rainbow Food Table” for Tangtang. The truth is very simple. It tells us that we should eat colorful food every day. Later, she developed a habit of eating food of various colors every meal, and she would say which color was missing. I did n’t eat this color, and you had to make it for me.
In this photo, there are different colors of food on the plate.
It’s actually the same as the variety of food recommended in the diet guide, because the easiest way to achieve food diversity is to eat different colors of food. The truth is simple and in the form of a picture book, it is very easy for children to accept.
Some people like to talk about the latest advances in scientific research, and they seem to be particularly knowledgeable. However, in fact, many of the latest researches are still at the stage of demonstrating, and may even be wrong, so we must not tell the family about the so-called latest research.
You should tell them the opinions of a number of well-proven authorities. In the field of diet and health, I think the most suitable for family science is the diet pagoda.
The picture above shows the diet pagoda in the “Chinese Residents’ Diet Guide”. You can see how it is divided into several layers, what food is in each layer, and how much is recommended to eat every day. I think you usually tell this to your family, and you must emphasize that as long as you can arrange the diet according to the pagoda every day, you don’t need to buy health food.
How should science be given to family members?
The most important thing is to be more caring and to be more company. I just chatted with the makeup artist-
“My mother sends me some health messages every day, what should I do? I don’t want to ignore her.”
“Wrong, you must ignore her, you must send her more messages.”
“So, what do you send?
“You can send rumor-breaking rumors, and Dr. Lilac’s science popularization. You don’t send her, but you get more, because she thinks you ignore her.”
Families actually need to communicate more than to see what you post. When science is at home, you have to find allies. Many old people, you tell him what Ruan Guangfeng said, he may not know; but if you tell him what CCTV says, he is willing to believe, so CCTV can be a good ally of our popular science at home.
At my house,My best ally for science is my daughter-in-law, because my daughter-in-law is the same professional as me. Every time I talk about science, my daughter-in-law sings a song beside her, and she especially supports me.
Science should be accepted in a way that family members are willing to accept. For example, you have to use the emoticon pack that the elderly like. When science is popular, try to say something good to make them willing to see it. If they do n’t want to see it, no matter how popular science is, it is useless.
Although it is said that “there is no filial piety, there are three rumors”, many people dare not popularize science in the family group. But you must insist, because if your family sees you often send some popular information, they will slowly accept your position.
I believe that as long as you follow these points slowly, family members’ scientific literacy and health literacy will become higher and higher, and there is no need to worry that they will spend money on the marketing of some health foods.
Finally, I wish everyone a happy family and a healthy family, thank you all.
This article is from WeChat public account: I am a scientist iScientist (IamaScientist) , author: Ruanguang Feng