The college entrance examination is approaching day by day, so many parents are wondering what their children should eat to help them in the best condition for the exam? Nutrition expert Dr. Li Li said that during the final stage of the exam preparation, candidates should maintain a good diet to ensure they have enough nutrition for the test. The exam period falls in summer when sweating occurs, which means a large amount of fluid loss, so the diet should follow the principles of replenishing with light food, strengthening the spleen, and reducing the effects of summer heat.
Dr. Li Zhixing reminds candidates: During the college entrance examination period, special attention should be paid to dietary health; health is the first priority.
Dietary considerations during the college entrance examination period:
Go with the flow and don't excessively pursue high-protein or high-calorie foods. Continue eating as usual without significant changes overall. However, this time it's better to consume lighter, less juicy foods, and increase juice intake because frequent trips to the restroom may affect the exam.
Try to eat softer and more easily digestible foods. Parents can use cooking methods like stewing, boiling, or steaming to make foods less gaseous while maintaining nutrients and making them easier to digest. When seasoning, if alcohol is used, avoid using white wine, beer, or wine; it’s better not to use strong spirits if white wine flavor is necessary. Tofu, bean curd, and soup are good choices at this time. Thick porridge cooked with ingredients like eel porridge, fish slice porridge, chicken porridge, and porridge with ginkgo nuts or腐竹皮 (a type of dried tofu skin) can also be added.
Remember not to eat spicy, hot, or greasy foods such as meats, fish, fried fast foods like McDonald's or KFC. It's best not to eat stir-fried, roasted, or grilled foods during the exam period.
If the child wants to eat any particular food, we can ensure their appetite by following these three points carefully. Drinking some tea, hawthorn tea (made from hawthorn leaves), rosehip juice, or apple cider vinegar drinks during the exam days can help control the candidate's appetite.
Breakfast is very important. A cup of milk, an egg, and a small snack are usually sufficient. Drinking milk or having tofu for breakfast is essential as they are very nutritious.
For lunch and dinner, follow the few sentences I mentioned earlier. Additionally, if studying continues into the evening, soups should be added to either lunch or dinner. This helps reduce the likelihood of frequent urination during the exam day, so it's best to drink less or no alcohol.
After lunch, avoid eating raw or cold items like vegetable salads or ice cream.
In the evening, after brain-intensive activities, have some stewed dishes, egg custard, or silver ear fungus with red dates and stewed quail eggs (boiled quail eggs with shells removed). You can also stew white fruits, lily bulbs, red dates, and almost make a pan-fried egg that will perform well when eaten raw. There are also options like ginseng, astragalus, solomonseal, red dates, and lily bulbs stewed with duck, black-bone chicken, or turtle. These stews can be consumed either for dinner or supper to supplement nutrition.
If carrots are included in the stew, they can replenish vitamins A and D, as well as beta-carotene, enhancing the activity of brain cells and improving memory.
There is nothing particularly unusual about the diet during the three days of the college entrance examination; maintaining a normal diet according to how things go will reduce pressure on the candidates.
This article is sourced from ks5u College Entrance Examination Resource Network. For more guidance related to the college entrance examination, check out other articles on our site.
(Note: Some terms might not have direct translations and were interpreted based on context.)