Is it good to be vegetarian? Can it meet the necessary nutrition of the human body? Are vegetarians healthier? What should we think of vegetarianism? Chen Junshi, academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering and expert on nutrition and food safety, answered these questions in an exclusive interview with our reporter a few days ago. ■ if properly matched, vegetarianism can meet the nutritional needs of human body. But to do this, we need enough nutrition knowledge and corresponding food supply conditions. ■ there is no special physiological stage in which people cannot eat whole vegetables. For different groups, the key is to carry out targeted, scientific and reasonable collocation. ■ there is no difference between good and bad food. The key lies in whether the food mix and diet structure are reasonable. Eating only vegetarian food is not necessarily healthier than an appropriate meat and vegetable mix. Studies have shown that compared with China's traditional plant based diet, Western food structure mainly based on animal food is more likely to cause cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases. ■ nutritionists advocate "balanced diet", and advocate a diet mode dominated by plant foods and appropriately matched with animal foods. ■ vegetarianism is a personal choice. We do not advocate or oppose people to eat vegetarianism, but it is not our direction to make all mankind vegetarian. ■ vegetarianism may not be able to lose weight, but the key is energy balance; Exercise is a health factor that can never be ignored. Eating and moving are equally important, and the balance between eating and moving is advocated. Q: what is vegetarian? "Meat and vegetables are not the division of scientists, but the classification gradually formed by people in practice." Chen Junshi said that the so-called "vegetarian" refers to a diet composed of plant foods, mainly including grain, vegetables, fruits, nuts, etc. Correspondingly, "meat food" refers to animal food, such as chicken, duck and fish. Everyone has different eating habits. "Vegetarian" has gradually derived a variety of classification terms in practice, such as "whole vegetarian", "semi vegetarian", "fish vegetarian", "egg milk vegetarian" and so on. "I don't think it's too complicated to divide it into 'all vegetarian' and 'half vegetarian'." Chen Junshi explained that "all vegetarian" means chicken, duck, egg, milk and fish do not touch any animal food, while "semi vegetarian" is not monolithic. People who eat "semi vegetarian" can selectively eat one or two kinds of animal food. For example, some people eat eggs and dairy products, but do not eat animal food other than these; Some people eat fish, but do not eat animal food other than fish. "One thing is clear. Whether you eat 'all vegetarian' or 'half vegetarian', it does not include red meat such as pigs, cattle and sheep." Chen Junshi said. Second question: can vegetarianism meet nutritional needs? Can vegetarianism meet the necessary nutrition of the human body? "Yes, but there is an important premise - scientific and reasonable collocation." Chen Junshi said that this requires people who eat vegetarians to have enough nutrition knowledge. What nutrients can vegetarianism provide for the human body? Chen Junshi pointed out that vegetarianism can provide all necessary nutrients for human beings, including energy, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Energy. People should get the energy they need from food all their life to meet the needs of various physiological activities, and vegetarian foods such as food, vegetables, fruits and nuts can provide enough energy for the human body. protein. There is protein in grains, vegetables, fruits and nuts, but there is less protein in vegetables and fruits, and there is relatively more protein in grains and nuts. Protein also has advantages and disadvantages. Protein is composed of amino acids. The more reasonable the composition and collocation of amino acids, the higher the quality of protein. "So why not just focus on one food? In terms of nutrition, food should be matched reasonably to make amino acids complement each other, which can effectively improve the nutritional value of protein." Chen Junshi stressed that people do not have to obtain protein from animal foods. If they are properly matched, they can get reasonably composed amino acids from grains, vegetables, fruits and nuts to meet human needs. Among them, soybean is a very important source of high-quality plant protein. If you want to obtain sufficient high-quality protein through vegetarian diet, beans and bean products are indispensable. Fat and carbohydrates. Vegetarianism can meet the fat needs of the human body, such as vegetable oil, which can provide sufficient essential fatty acids for the human body; Plant foods are rich in carbohydrates, while animal foods have less carbohydrates. Vitamins and minerals. "The vast majority of vitamins and minerals can be obtained through the appropriate combination of plant foods to meet human needs. There is only one need to be careful - vitamin B12." Chen Junshi said that vitamin B12 mainly exists in animal foods. General plant foods do not or only contain very little vitamin B12, which can not meet the needs of the human body. However, some plant foods will produce vitamin B12 after fermentation. For example, fermented bean products - Douchi, soy bean curd and stinky bean curd all contain vitamin B12, which can meet the needs of the human body. Chen Junshi said that if you have the corresponding scientific knowledge, you can scientifically and carefully match the plant food, eat a variety of and sufficient plant food, and achieve the balance between various nutrients. Such a vegetarian diet can meet the various nutrients required by the human body. Third question: is it good for pregnant women and children to be vegetarian? For children, pregnant women and other special groups, can eating only vegetarian food meet their necessary nutrition? "There is no special physiological stage where people can't eat whole vegetables. The key lies in targeted, scientific and reasonable collocation." Chen Junshi said, for example, pregnant women need to eat more iron containing food. Plant food has a lot of iron, but it is not easy to be used by the human body. The iron content in food is not low, but it is easy to be used by the human body without the iron in meat. "If you understand these knowledge points, you will know how to take targeted measures". Therefore, for these special groups, if they only eat vegetarian food, their families need to have richer and targeted nutrition knowledge. "It can be found in the literature that a few world-class athletes are vegetarian and have achieved excellent results. Of course, there are still few such people." Chen Junshi pointed out that some vegetarians know that they lack some nutrients, so they do not reject taking nutrient supplements, such as vitamin and mineral tablets, which is also a supplement. Fourth question: is vegetarianism healthier? Are vegans healthier than vegans? "Not necessarily. The key is' proper matching and nutritional balance '." Chen Junshi said that if you eat whole vegetables for a long time without a balanced diet, it is easy to cause nutritional deficiency and lead to health problems such as decreased immunity. "The traditional Chinese dietary pattern is based on plant food and appropriately matched with animal food." Chen Junshi pointed out that a large number of scientific research has proved that animal food China's Western diet structure is more likely to cause chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes compared with traditional Chinese diet. "One of the important reasons for the rise of chronic diseases in China is that the diet has become westernized, that is, a large increase in animal food and a decrease in plant food." Chen Junshi stressed that nutrition advocates giving priority to plant foods and appropriately matching animal foods. "The priorities here are very clear." Chen Junshi explained that focusing on plant food is to eat more grain, vegetables and fruits. Don't listen to rumors and don't eat staple food. It should be properly matched with animal food such as chicken, duck, fish, egg and milk. What you like to eat can be matched in an appropriate amount. Pay attention to the diversification of animal food, that is, it's best to eat a little, but don't eat more, so as to match appropriately. The dietary guidelines for Chinese residents issued by the Chinese Nutrition Society in 2016 has six core recommendations: diversified foods, mainly cereals; Eating balance, healthy weight; Eat more fruits and vegetables, milk and soybeans; Eat fish, poultry, eggs and lean meat in moderation; Less salt and oil, control sugar and limit wine; Eliminate waste and promote new food fashion. Chen Junshi stressed that these six items do not mean that only one of them can be done, but all of them must be done in order to eat healthily. Therefore, in addition to following the "pagoda of balanced diet" in food matching, exercise is a health element that can never be ignored. Eating and moving are equally important. Five questions: can vegetarianism lose weight? Many people are concerned that eating vegetarian food can lose weight? "Yes or no, it mainly depends on how you eat and match." Chen Junshi pointed out that why do people gain weight? Because its energy intake from food is greater than the energy consumed by its physical activities, that is, its income is greater than its expenditure, which has nothing to do with eating vegetarian or meat. On the contrary, if the energy consumed by the human body is greater than the energy consumed, its weight will be reduced. "Although obesity has a certain relationship with genetics, as long as we can achieve energy balance, we can maintain normal weight." Chen Junshi stressed that any weight loss method should consider energy intake and consumption, combine "eating" with "moving", and "balance between eating and moving" is the key to maintaining normal weight. On the premise of the same amount of exercise, if the same amount of food is provided, animal food is more likely to make people fat - compared with plant food, animal food has more fat, even if it looks very thin beef, its fat content is still very high. "People often say that this is healthy food and that is unhealthy food. In fact, there is no difference between good and bad food. The key lies in whether the food mix and diet structure are reasonable." Chen Junshi explained for example that few people think braised meat is healthy, but why not eat one or even two pieces of braised meat occasionally and strengthen exercise after dinner to consume it? Moving and eating balance is the real science. Question 6: do you want to promote vegetarianism? "From the perspective of nutritionists, we do not advocate or oppose people to eat whole vegetables." Chen Junshi pointed out that both vegetarianism and meat eating can achieve nutritional balance, but they all need some nutritional knowledge; Compared with the two, vegetarianism is more difficult to achieve nutritional balance, and total vegetarianism has higher requirements for food matching. For example, only beans and nuts are high-quality and rich in protein in plant foods. If you eat total vegetarianism, you have to think of ways to make an article on beans, while eggs, milk, fish, shrimp, chicken and other animal foods are rich in high-quality protein, which is relatively easy to match. Chen Junshi pointed out that man is an omnivore. No matter what reason he eats whole or half vegetarian, it is a personal choice. "No country in the world enforces people to eat vegetarian or meat, but it is not our direction to let all mankind eat vegetarian." "From the current situation in China, we need to reduce the intake of animal food to reduce the incidence rate of chronic diseases." Chen Junshi pointed out that in this sense, introducing some new plant foods to replace traditional meat is good for human health and environmental protection, and should be encouraged. "But there are always pros and cons." Chen Junshi pointed out that some enterprises have launched "artificial meat" with plant protein as raw materials, such as replacing beef and pork with bean protein, "they will certainly pursue taste. If the taste is bad, people will not buy it. However, pursuing taste may increase a lot of fat, because food with more oil is more delicious, which may lead to the so-called" artificial meat "