Does any of this ring a bell? You just realized it’s been 7 hours since you’ve eaten anything so you hit up the vending machine for a snack. Or you just got home and you need to make dinner but you are so hungry that you can’t wait so you reach into the pantry and pull out the saltiest, fattiest snacks because it’s the only thing that sounds good. Or you are on a road trip and realize you didn’t plan accordingly and your kids are starving. So you swing by McDonald’s because it’s cheap and easy. If any of this sounds even somewhat familiar to you, then it’s time to makeover your snacking!
Snacking is essential to your eating pattern because it helps regulate your appetite and prevent overeating of unhealthy foods. If we didn’t snack, we’d be left with only 3 times to eat a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t know about you but I love food and I love to eat. Eating only 3 times a day doesn’t cut it for me! Strategically placing snacks in between meals helps control hunger and regulate your metabolism. Snacking also provides your body energy to keep up with your busy schedule and it keeps your mind sharp and focused. From a weight management perspective, snacking is essential to regulate calorie intake throughout the day. If you are left with only 3 times to eat, those meals will be very large. Your dinner meal would typically be the largest of the three because it would come at the end of the day. By snacking, your portions at meals will go down because you won’t be as hungry. You also have a tendency to eat better. If you let yourself get too hungry, then you’ll crave high fat, high sugar, high salt, and overall high calorie foods. Your body needs food NOW! Don’t let yourself get to that point! Snacking gives you some extra time at meals to determine what to eat which means smarter choices.
There is a positive psychological effect that results from snacking. If you know you will be able to eat every 3 hours or so, don’t you think you’ll typically eat less in general at any given time? Otherwise, if you don’t eat regularly, then you’ll overeat because you won’t know when you’ll get to eat again. Snacking allows you to not feel restricted even if you are trying to watch your calories.
So when should snacking occur? Ideally, you should try to eat every 3 to 4 hours. For some people, that means eating a snack between breakfast and lunch and then again between lunch and dinner. Sometimes breakfast and lunch are close enough that no snack is needed. So you need to look at your own schedule and figure out if it would be beneficial to throw a snack in there. Snacks aren’t designed to be large from a portion or calorie perspective. They should be less than 150 calories (maybe more depending on your exercise level and your weight goals). Usually fruit and vegetables with a few nuts or a scoop of peanut butter meet those requirements.
There are lots of options for healthy snacks! If you aren’t sure if you need a snack or if you think you need to come up with some new and healthier snack options, talk with your dietitian. Happy snacking!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
The importance of making sure the information you read or hear is valid
If you listened to everything you heard or read about related to nutrition and diet, then you'd probably be doing some pretty wacky things! This past Sunday, Good Morning America aired a segment featuring a "nutritionist" named Kimberly Snyder from NY. She presented a lot of misinformation yet she is a practicing nutritionist. NY doesn't have licensure laws so anyone can claim themselves as a nutritionist and therefore disspell nutrition information. The problem with that is that you don't always know where the practitioner got their training and the extent of that training.
Anyway, below is a summary of what Kimberly said.
1. Don't eat protein bars!! She said that protein bars contain soy protein isolate which is a processed and genetically modified ingredient and it can suppress thyroid function (she gave no research to support that statement and did not specify if it was specific to certain populations). Instead she wants people to eat a whole avocado a day. Yikes! Avocados, per Kimberly, have non-clogging fat. Even if avocados have heart-healthy fat, it's still fat. If you ate an entire avocado, you would be consuming over 300 calories and almost 30 grams of fat which is about half your day's requirement.
2. Fruit snacks make kids moody and hungry. Ummm, ok. I have to admit that I give my 1 year old fruit snacks and they in no way make him moody or hungry. Instead of fruit snacks she wants kids to have almond butter sandwiches. She claims almond butter has less sugar than peanut butter. Well, not if both are all natural. The sugar content is the same!
3. Don't drink diet soda. It has a high glycemic index which means it'll spike your blood sugar. The last time I checked, diet soda contained artificial sweetener which means there is no sugar in it which means it can't spike your blood sugar. Now there is some talk about diet soda and the insulin response but that's a whole different issue which she didn't address....thank goodness!
4. Don't eat fruit after dinner because it sits on top of heavier food and will "back you up". What???? That's news to me. Never learned about that one in any of my physiology or nutrition classes.
Take home message from all of this?? Make sure you know where your information is coming from. There is a huge difference between a nutritionist and dietitian. If you hear something that you find interesting, research it yourself. Understand who said it first and what that person's training involved. Otherwise, like I said earlier, you could be doing some wacky things!
Anyway, below is a summary of what Kimberly said.
1. Don't eat protein bars!! She said that protein bars contain soy protein isolate which is a processed and genetically modified ingredient and it can suppress thyroid function (she gave no research to support that statement and did not specify if it was specific to certain populations). Instead she wants people to eat a whole avocado a day. Yikes! Avocados, per Kimberly, have non-clogging fat. Even if avocados have heart-healthy fat, it's still fat. If you ate an entire avocado, you would be consuming over 300 calories and almost 30 grams of fat which is about half your day's requirement.
2. Fruit snacks make kids moody and hungry. Ummm, ok. I have to admit that I give my 1 year old fruit snacks and they in no way make him moody or hungry. Instead of fruit snacks she wants kids to have almond butter sandwiches. She claims almond butter has less sugar than peanut butter. Well, not if both are all natural. The sugar content is the same!
3. Don't drink diet soda. It has a high glycemic index which means it'll spike your blood sugar. The last time I checked, diet soda contained artificial sweetener which means there is no sugar in it which means it can't spike your blood sugar. Now there is some talk about diet soda and the insulin response but that's a whole different issue which she didn't address....thank goodness!
4. Don't eat fruit after dinner because it sits on top of heavier food and will "back you up". What???? That's news to me. Never learned about that one in any of my physiology or nutrition classes.
Take home message from all of this?? Make sure you know where your information is coming from. There is a huge difference between a nutritionist and dietitian. If you hear something that you find interesting, research it yourself. Understand who said it first and what that person's training involved. Otherwise, like I said earlier, you could be doing some wacky things!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
I'm terrible at this!
So it's evident that I'm not so good with blogging. I kept thinking in the back of my mind "you need to do a new blog" but it never happened and now it's been almost 2 months! Lesson learned....if you really want to do something, you need to write it down, commit to it, and make it happen! This carries over into any goal you have whether it's nutrition, exercise, or behavior related. If it's important to you and you feel strongly about following through, then make it happen! If you keep forgetting or the goal isn't at the forefront of your mind, how can you change that? Write it on post-it notes, set it as a reminder in your cellphone, or put it as a daily appointment in your email calendar. Surround yourself with reminders of this goal. That's my plan :)
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