From milk tea fried chicken to green plates

Xiaotian, a student studying at a university in Beijing, eats light meals at least five times a week. Since several light food restaurants opened in the school in 2025, I often come to eat them. Compared to those heavy oil and salt foods, eating light food will give me less burden. "She said that this year she enrolled in a fitness private class for herself, and under the guidance of her coach, she changed her previous love for cakes, milk tea, and fried chicken and turned to light food.

She took out her phone and calculated the calories of each meal. "I can use an app to record how many calories I eat every day and what nutrients I need to supplement. If I have less protein, I will eat more protein, which gives me a sense of achievement every day. ?In her eyes, every piece of food placed on the plate must undergo strict screening, and there are rules about what to eat or not. "I don't know how to add salad dressing or tomato sauce, I feel that those sauces have a lot of calories and can affect the effectiveness of exercise," she said.

Since her freshman year, Oda has been planning to lose weight. At that time, she mainly relied on dieting and ate very little throughout the day. Light food was not as popular as it is now, and there were no light food shops in school. She had to rely on buying vegetables and fruits such as cucumbers and tomatoes to reduce hunger. Now she has a more reasonable plan and understanding for weight loss. "Light eating has made my weight loss process less painful. Although sometimes I still have cravings, it's still good not to deliberately diet like before. Even if I don't go to the gym in the future, I will still eat regularly.

There are many college students like Oda who often visit light food restaurants both on and off campus. At mealtime, there will also be a large number of takeout with the words "light food" and "healthy food" printed on them being picked up from the delivery cabinets by college students. Some of them want to exercise and lose weight, some want a light diet, and some just want to change their taste.

According to data from the China Catering Industry Association, the size of China's light food market will reach 84.8 billion yuan in 2026, a year-on-year increase of 23.7%, far exceeding the overall growth rate of the catering industry.

Daily sales of 400 orders, campus light food business

In a 40 square meter small shop downstairs next to a university town in Beijing, several employees are busy preparing meals. They need to prepare sufficient ingredients for the upcoming dinner peak to meet the huge demand for takeout orders.

This store has been open for less than a year, but its daily business is still decent. It's normal to sell 400 orders a day, "Aunt Zhang said while handling her work." When the weather gets hot and there are more people buying, these few people in the store won't be able to keep up, so they have to find temporary workers. "During the conversation, the prompt sound of the delivery platform came one after another, and the monthly sales of this light food restaurant on Meituan, the only delivery platform, were close to 5000 orders. Aunt Zhang also introduced, "I chose to open a store here because there are many college students nearby and the order volume is relatively stable

Aunt Zhang doesn't know much about why light food is so popular. "Our food is low in oil and salt, without pork or lard, and the ingredients are all newly added on the same day. There's nothing special about the preparation, it's just healthy." She admitted that people like them who work so hard every day may not have enough to eat, but it's suitable for nearby college students and office workers.

Unlike off campus light food delivery shops, light food windows located in university cafeterias offer affordable, high-frequency, and dine in options. In the cafeteria of Beijing Technology and Business University, there are already three light food restaurants opening one after another.

The person in charge of one of the light food shops, Aunt Liu, told us that she used to sell self selected dumplings, but the dumpling business was unstable, with more in winter and less in summer. So she followed the suggestion of the cafeteria manager and started eating light food on the basis of selling dumplings. Aunt Liu said, "This business follows the weather. After the weather warms up, the customer flow increases a lot, and there are more boys than girls who come to buy. Most of them may want to lose weight. Sometimes I feel like I want to add more coarse grains, but they don't." This is Aunt Liu's third year working in a university cafeteria, and her income was not high in the first two years. After adding light food, she clearly feels that her income is slowly increasing.

These meals are specially trained in how to pair them, and they have not been fried. The vegetables used are also fresh and not overnight. Compared to other stalls, the biggest advantage is that they are healthier and there is no burden after eating. "Aunt Liu confidently said that the popularity of light meals has given her great encouragement. In the future, she wants to make the categories more diverse and label each meal with clear calories, so that students can eat with more confidence.

Can eating grass lead to weight loss? It's not that simple

With the rise of campus light food fever, nutritionist Wang Ru's recent consulting clients include an increasing proportion of college students. The most common questions she receives are how to eat to lose weight and how to eat to become healthier.

Will I lose weight faster if I only eat light vegetarian salads? "This is a question that college students often consult her about, and there are many misconceptions about it.

Firstly, when protein intake is insufficient, the body breaks down its own muscle tissue to obtain amino acids in order to maintain energy needs. The decrease in muscle mass can slow down the basal metabolic rate, making it easier to gain weight, weaken the immune system, and be more prone to colds and fatigue. Secondly, in order to pursue low calorie diets, strict restrictions on the intake of staple foods can lead to long-term lack of carbohydrates in the body, which may cause symptoms such as dizziness, palpitations, and hand tremors. In severe cases, it may induce excessive accumulation of ketones, leading to bad breath, fatigue, nausea, and even the risk of acidosis. Finally, insufficient fat intake can also cause endocrine disorders and nutrient absorption disorders, "said Wang Ru.

When tracking the daily diet of customers, Wang Ru found that there are many fake light foods on the market. For example, only lettuce, cucumber slices, and a few grains of corn paired with a few pieces of dry chicken breast, or using fried chicken chunks, bacon shreds, and luncheon meat instead of fresh meat, these pseudo light foods cannot meet the daily nutritional needs of the body.

Therefore, in addition to providing meal preparation plans, teaching customers to identify and avoid fake light meals in daily ordering has become a necessary task for Wang Ru. When it comes to sauces, you should first choose oil and vinegar sauce and lemon juice, and try not to add high sugar and high-fat sauces such as Thousand Island Sauce and Caesar Sauce. You also need to learn to look at the combination of ingredients. A proper light meal should have sufficient protein, coarse grains, and a variety of vegetables. In terms of preparation, choose crispy and tender vegetables with bright colors, as well as low-temperature cooked meat that is grilled, boiled, or marinated with a small amount of spices. Finally, it also depends on your own body to feel it. Authentic and light food, with long-lasting satiety after eating, can last for three or four hours, and people are also refreshing and energetic

In addition to the need for weight loss, many college students also seek advice out of their pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. Wang Ru stated that customers who have a need to lose weight should follow the principle of choosing light meals with one palm of high-quality protein, a small amount of coarse grains as the main food, half a plate of various vegetables, and less oil and vinegar sauce. The effect is better when eating meat first and then the main food; For customers who do not need to control their weight for daily health, their diet does not require strict control of staple fat. They should pay attention to the diversity of ingredients, rich colors, and the combination of fermented foods and moderate fruits. Simply put, weight loss is about controlling the amount and choosing the type, while health is about eating snacks and being happy.

Associate Professor Li Jinwang from the School of Food and Health at Beijing Technology and Business University said that it is difficult to achieve weight loss solely through light eating on campus, as it is closely related to the individual's metabolic system. He emphasized, "Losing weight cannot ignore exercise, and whether you can lose weight also depends on whether you exercise or not

Li Jinwang emphasized that long-term consumption of light food alone poses significant health risks. Due to the significant reduction in fat and protein intake caused by light eating, if protein supplementation is lacking, the muscles of the heart may have some problems, leading to impaired heart function. Although light eating has many benefits, it is not the ultimate weapon to save irregular sleep patterns. We need to fundamentally become self disciplined, maintain regular sleep patterns, and exercise appropriately in order to have a healthier body

(The author of this article is a graduate student from the School of Language and Communication, Beijing Technology and Business University, graduating in 2025)