Essential Reading for Weight Loss: How to Eat Staple Foods Without Gaining Weight – A Scientific Guide to Choosing Grains

So, overall, avoiding staple foods does yield quite effective weight loss results.

You're bound to wonder then: if this method is so effective, why don't others simply adopt it? Why are there still so many overweight people in the world?

There are three main reasons:
Firstly, people struggle to stick with it. Sugar remains the primary energy source for our bodies and brains – it's the fastest method, hardwired by evolution. Cutting out starchy foods lowers blood sugar levels. Those with weaker constitutions may experience fatigue, poor complexion, memory decline, or even fainting if they consistently avoid carbohydrates. If weight loss also impacts work and earning potential, who could endure that?

Second, lack of persistence. After avoiding staple foods for a period, the body lacks sources of glucose and B vitamins. Moreover, breaking down fats and proteins for energy consumes significant amounts of vitamins, making the body prone to deficiencies in trace elements and proteins. It's therefore common for women to experience irregular periods, hair loss, and sagging skin. Before achieving their desired figure, their appearance deteriorates – who can tolerate that?

Thirdly, it's still unsustainable. While advocates of grain-free diets emphasise eating more vegetables, in reality, without grains or tubers, relying solely on vegetables to provide dietary fibre and increase satiety is difficult. Especially for us Chinese, eating staple foods has been a long-standing dietary tradition. Many people insist on ordering dishes that go well with rice because mixing them with rice is satisfying; otherwise, eating feels lacking.

In short, the biggest problem with cutting out staples is that it's unsustainable, unsustainable, unsustainable—important enough to repeat three times!

Additionally, a common misconception about staple foods is that rice and steamed buns lack nutritional value. While conventional white rice and steamed buns are indeed nutritionally limited, primarily consisting of starch, they remain an effective energy source for impoverished populations requiring rapid energy replenishment, growing children, and frail elderly individuals with poor digestion.

Rice itself contains abundant nutrients like protein, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibre. It's our pursuit of refined texture that leads to repeated polishing of the grain, removing the bran layer rich in minerals and fibre, and stripping away the germ containing vitamins and protein. What remains is the most refined portion, heavy in starch and light on protein. Therefore, the notion that rice or steamed buns lack nutritional value is a misconception that should not be attributed to staple foods.

Since ancient times, a defining feature of the Chinese diet has been its reliance on cereals. In our dietary habits, energy derived from grains and tubers accounts for over half of our total intake. Historically, our staple foods were predominantly coarse grains like cornmeal, buckwheat flour, whole wheat, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. People back then were generally not overweight; indeed, they could be described as rather slight.

However, over the past three decades, dietary patterns among Chinese residents have gradually shifted. Consumption of grains has declined year on year, while intake of animal-based foods and fats has steadily increased, leading to widespread energy excess. Furthermore, grains have undergone excessive refinement, with most staple foods now being white rice, white flour, steamed buns, noodles, and the like.