Healthy Eating: Fruits, Beverages, Freshness | Original
Table of Contents
- Fruits
- Replace snacks with fruits for health
- Avoided snacks by eating homemade food
- Basketball and walking as key exercises
- Gained significant weight from fast food
- Beverages
- Choose beverages with under 100 calories
- NFC options are a good alternative
- Sugar-free drinks can be limiting
- Pay Attention to Food Freshness
- Prioritize high-turnover, fresh ingredients
- Refrigeration only slows spoilage process
- Be mindful of food storage everywhere
- Freshness prevents food-related illness
- Avoiding Damage When Ordering Fruits
- Consider fruit’s vulnerability and peel strength
- Smaller fruits often better protected
- Delivery handling impacts fruit condition
- Hard-surfaced fruits are safer choices
- Large fruits may be handled poorly
Fruits
I remember between 2016 and 2018, my weight quickly increased from 70kg to 90kg. At that time, I ordered fast food from delivery apps almost every day. And sometimes, while working late into the night, I ate a lot of snacks in the office.
After returning to Guangzhou from Beijing in early 2020, I ate foods that were made by my parents. But sometimes, I still ate snacks. And I didn’t maintain the practice of playing basketball. I played basketball a lot from late 2020 to early 2021. But later, I changed that habit to walking while listening to English podcasts. And starting from September 2023, I started to play basketball again.
I should start eating more fruits. If I am hungry sometimes, I should eat fruits instead of snacks.
Beverages
The calorie content in beverages is important. For every 100 ml, if the calorie count is below 100, it’s acceptable for me. However, drinking beverages without sugar can be limiting.
NFC (Not From Concentrate) beverages are a good option as well.
Pay Attention to Food Freshness
2024.11.23
A recent experience with street food taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of food freshness. While enjoying Xinjiang barbecue from a vendor, I ordered two lamb shashlik skewers and a portion of ham. The next day, I found myself dealing with an unfortunate case of diarrhea.
Upon reflection, I realized the culprit was likely the ham. Though it had been refrigerated at the vendor’s stall, there was no way to know how long it had been sitting there or how many times it had been taken in and out of refrigeration. In contrast, the lamb shashlik was clearly fresh, as it was the vendor’s signature dish with high turnover.
During my later visits to various barbecue stands, I stuck to ordering only lamb shashlik, but then I realized this was too limiting. The real lesson wasn’t about avoiding certain foods entirely, but rather about making smart choices based on freshness. Whether it’s lamb, chicken, or beef, any dish can be a good choice as long as the ingredients are fresh and properly handled. The good news is that I never again encountered diarrhea after becoming more mindful about food freshness.
This experience taught me that food safety isn’t just about being cautious when eating out—it’s about being mindful of food freshness everywhere, including at home. Even in our own kitchens, we sometimes keep food in the refrigerator for too long, which can lead to similar problems. A refrigerator isn’t a magical device that preserves food indefinitely—it merely slows down the spoilage process.
Remember: The best way to prevent food-related illness is to be mindful of what you’re eating and how long it’s been stored, regardless of where you’re dining.
Avoiding Damage When Ordering Fruits
2025.01.09
Transporting fruits over long distances can be challenging. Here are some takeaways on how to avoid receiving broken fruit.
Purple grapes or green grapes are easily damaged during the journey. Once a grape becomes broken, it starts to decay, affecting other nearby grapes.
Fragrant Pears are great. They are a sweet and aromatic pear variety from Xinjiang, China, and are also called Xinjiang Pears. I just learned this. When they arrived at home, each one was intact.
Muskmelons are good too. However, during my last delivery, one of my two muskmelons was broken. Probably because it was too large, the delivery drivers assumed it wouldn’t break easily and handled it poorly. This might explain why smaller pears or grapes are often better protected.
Autumn Moon Pears are okay as well. They can be categorized with pears, so they are quite similar to Fragrant Pears.
Longan, kiwifruit, and pineapples are also safe. Their surfaces are hard, so they are not easy to break or decay.
As the examples above show, we need to consider both the nature of the fruit itself, its vulnerability to decay, and how easily its peel can break. We should also think about how the delivery drivers handle it. Sometimes, larger fruits are treated poorly, which is counterintuitive. I might be wrong about this, and I should probably try ordering more times to confirm.
Durians are a type of fresh produce. They need to be cooked in a microwave oven or electric oven for 5 to 10 minutes.