|
Carb Cravings? Feeling like you need to eat white flour/white sugar foods? Click here!
welcome to night eating!
Please read the following as it contains important information for optimal site
navigation!
  If you haven't visited the homepage, you're missing out on some important info, so I'll just give you a "heads up" here!
You've reached "night eating," part of the emotional feelings network of sites. If you scroll
down to the footer on this page, you'll see the complete listing of all the sites in the network!
All of the sites
in the emotional feelings network of sites are linked together thru a very complete network of underlined link words. Anytime you see an underlined link word, if you should be
interested in more information concerning that word, simply click on it & a new browser window will appear. The page that
opens up will give you an entire page filled with information concerning the word of
your interest.
the emotional feelings network
of sites was designed like this because as an ex-night eater, I was also faced with many other life dysfunctions,
mental illness I was unaware of, domestic violence, a lack of any positive self esteem & so much more....
As I began my recovery,
I began to slowly discover how all of the subjects contained within the emotional feelings network
of sites are connected to each other. Soon I also discovered that there's power in educating yourself about it
all.
As you gain power thru your newly acquired knowledge, you begin to regain a
sense of control. As you begin to feel better, you become stronger & you're more able to begin your own journey
thru recovery & personal growth. Once you begin, you will see how the subjects contained within this network of sites
really is... all pertinent information for you - as a night eater!
visit the homepage for a better understanding of what's contained within the emotional feelings network of
sites!
thanks for stopping by.... i hope that something
within the network will be of use to you today....
kathleen
Why raiding the fridge at night is a bad idea
You can eat after dark without blowing your diet, but be careful
By Lisa C. Cohn, R.D.
MSNBC contributor / April 6, 2007
Judy, a 39-year-old suburban mother of 2 & a veteran dieter, was convinced that fasting after 7 p.m. would
help give her back the body she had in college. But clocking calories left her feeling unsatisfied by bedtime.
Like many dieters, Judy fell for some magic rule such as "no eating after dark."
But it's not so much when you eat as what & how much that really counts.
Sure, it's better to get most of your calories earlier in the day when you're most active. In general, you'll lose weight easier if you finish dinner earlier because you’ll
have more time to burn off the calories.
Also,
sleeping with a full stomach can promote weight gain because the food energy you just consumed
will not be used (you burn fewer calories during sleep), so the fat will be stored.
On top of that, going to sleep with a full stomach can promote:
indigestion
labored
breathing
extra work for the heart....
You're
also likely to not sleep as well & may feel physically uncomfortable.
But unless you hit the sack within 2 1/2 hours of sundown, you'll likely become hungry between dinnertime &
bedtime. Most people start craving a snack about 3 hours after a meal.
It's OK to allow yourself a 100-150 calorie after-dinner snack — preferably something fresh or less processed,
such as a dozen nuts & a small fruit, or a piece of low-fat cheese & a small bunch of grapes.
Some fresh herbs
with dinner, or a handful of berries or 3 cups of popcorn can help you sleep thru the night better without ruining your diet.
Starving
yourself after dusk can backfire by sending you desperately scrounging for snacks at midnight
Late-night snacking should be avoided entirely - it's perhaps the worst culprit when
it comes to weight gain. Most of nighttime snacking is simply overeating - eating not out of hunger, but more out of
boredom, comfort & habit.
And this type
of eating can put you at risk for bingeing. A recent report found that binge eating - eating a pint of ice
cream & cookies after a full dinner, i.e., - is the most
common eating disorder in the U.S.
Beyond that, eating high fat or sugary foods
can also lead to a night-eating hangover, which is similar to a hangover caused by alcohol,
but leaves you feeling foggy-brained & moody.
Sometimes, though, you have no choice - you simply aren't able to eat dinner until late. For those of you who
exercise after work & generally start dinner after 8 p.m., choose a lighter meal, such as grilled fish or seafood with olive oil & fresh
herbs, or a fresh salad with fruit for dessert.
If your workouts are cardiovascular, add some beans to your salad for extra energy. Not replenishing your energy
after exercising could leave you feeling as if you're starving & may contribute to difficulties sleeping.
Also,
limiting your late-day carbohydrates to selections that contain more protein - &
thus, longer-lasting energy - such as wild rice, beans & whole grains, is preferred over filling up on bread & pasta,
which are more processed & will leave you less satisfied & hungrier in the long run.
In the end, Judy chucked her self-imposed dieting rule, started eating dinner in the early evening & allowed
herself a 100-calorie snack later. The result? Judy had an easier time losing weight.
Binge eating a common problem in U.S.
More prevalent disorder than anorexia & bulimia, Harvard survey finds
Associated Press/March 29, 2007
BOSTON - Frequent binge eating is the country’s most common eating disorder, far outpacing the better-known diet problems of anorexia & bulimia, according to a national survey.
Psychiatric researchers at Harvard University Medical School & its affiliate, McLean Psychiatric Hospital,
have billed the study as the 1st national census of eating disorders. The results were published Thursday in the medical journal Biological Psychiatry.
The survey found that 3.5% of women & 2%
of men suffer from binge eating, defined as bouts of uncontrolled eating, well past the point of being full, that occur at least twice a week.
The doctors diagnosed fewer than 1% of women &
0.3% of men with anorexia, a disorder where an exaggerated fear of weight gain causes undereating & malnourishment.
The study
determined that 1.5% of women & 0.5% of men had bulimia, characterized by the “binge-purge” syndrome of overeating followed by vomiting.
McLean Hospital’s Dr. Harrison Pope, an author of the study, said binge eaters face severe risk of obesity & related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, stroke & certain cancers.
A binge eater, i.e., might eat a full dinner, then a quart of ice cream for dessert, followed by a bag of chips, without being able
to stop, Pope said.
“It’s a little bit analogous to something you hear from an alcoholic, when they might say, ‘Well, I wanted to have one drink,’ & they’ve had 12 drinks & they’re
passed out on the floor,” he said in a conference call with reporters. “Even though they feel full, even though
they feel disgusting & guilty, they can’t stop.”
Dr. James I. Hudson, the study’s lead author & a Harvard Medical School psychiatry professor, said
binge eating deserves more recognition from health professionals.
“These results argue that binge eating is common. It’s more common than both the other eating disorders combined & it’s strongly associated with obesity,” he said. “Taken together, these findings suggest that this is an eating disorder & should be treated as such.”
'Cause or symptom?'
Funding for the study came from several sources, including the National
Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly & Co. & the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Hudson said the research team interviewed
more than 9,000 people nationwide from 2001 to 2003 about their eating habits & psychological backgrounds.
The
study probably underestimates the actual number of those with eating disorders, he said, because people are often ashamed to acknowledge their abnormal eating habits.
The survey also found that people struggle longer with binge eating - symptoms persist for an average of about 8 years compared to less than 2 years for anorexic patients, who are often young & may recover as they mature.
Bulimics suffer without cure for an average of roughly 8 years, according to the study.
Men & women between the ages of 18 & 29 were most likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder, while people older than 60 had the lowest rates of eating problems.
The doctors
said all 3 illnesses usually coincided with mood disorders like depression & anxiety.
A combination of the “cultural barrage” of images of rail-thin movie stars, ubiquitous fast-food
advertising & genetic predisposition is usually the root of eating disorders, the study said.
Dr. B. Timothy Walsh, director of the eating disorders research unit at the New York State Psychiatric Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center, said the study confirms a
widespread belief that the population of binge eaters is growing.
He said
if binge eating is a cause of obesity, psychiatrists could give more effective treatment to many overweight people.
“Everyone has a sense, whether from a casual inspection of people on Broadway or an empirical study, that there
are a lot of problems with binge eating & overeating,” he said. “The question is, is it a cause or a symptom?”
Nutritionist: Beware of the risk
of "emotional eating"
By Lori Silverstein
For many
people, food is an enemy they must face every day. Instead being governed by a simple biological need, such as the physical sensation of hunger, food intake can be ruled by a person's emotional
state of being, said a University Health Center nutritionist.
Jane Jakubczak, a nutritionist at the health center who presented
a lecture on "Emotional Eating" Wednesday, said 75% of overeating is caused by emotions. She also said many people restrict their eating
in response to emotions.
"Often people use food to comfort themselves, relieve stress & to have something to do when they're bored," she said.
A personal note about what's written above....
Being a night eater or having one of
the other eating disorders or even those eating emotionally are intensely feeling something extreme - it's haunting - it's an overwhelming need to be soothed & most of us don't know what to do with that.
I'm wondering why those night eaters who are married or living with a significant
other find themselves alone.... in the kitchen - eating uncontrollably instead of asking for help. I'm wondering why it's
so difficult for night eaters to reach out & ask for soothing - encouragement from a spouse or significant other.
where is your spouse? where is your child? where is your
partner? where is your friend? where are your family members?
Why do we expect so much of ourselves? Why do we think we must
keep it a secret & turn to comforting ourselves?
What caused us to become so distanced from those who love us? Are we in
such extreme inner turmoil & fearful for our future?
I believe, sincerely, that we can only handle so much alone, where is God? in
our lives? Where are our loved ones?
be brave, state your need to your God or Higher Power, it'll be better for you
in the long run...
kathleen
Jakubczak said many people
mistakenly use food to accommodate certain basic needs such as:
- being intellectually stimulated
However, she said, "food isn't going to supply any of that."
While
many people use food in response to emotions like anger, frustration, loneliness & sadness, Jakubczak referred to stress, prevalent on college campuses, as the main cause of emotional eating.
"The biggest
problem w/emotional eating is that people do it when they're stressed. And college campuses are overflowing w/ stress," she said.
Junior
government & politics major Christine Davies said she often turned to food as a way of dealing w/stress.
"If I get stressed out, I need to focus my mind on something else," she said. "Eating is the easiest thing to do."
However, she said eating never truly eliminated her
stress.
"A lot of times I didn't end up feeling better. Whatever stressed me out was usually still there," Davies said.
Senior Carrie Stewart, a health major, said when confronted
w/stress, she used to respond by limiting her food intake.
"I had stress in my life & I couldn't get the grades I wanted, but I had my eating under control," she said.
Stewart said that while she knew restricting food intake
wasn't right, she did it because it was one thing she could control.
"My parents had financial & other controls. But food was one thing my parents couldn't control, especially in college," Stewart said.
To avoid using food as an emotional remedy, Stewart began keeping a journal. She said writing has helped her become aware of her stress & control her emotional eating.
Kelly Burke, a junior psychology major, said she used
to resort to food to end boredom, but has recently found a more positive & healthier response to this emotion.
"I've trained myself to use exercise to avoid emotional eating," she said. "When I would overeat, I would feel gross, but
now when I exercise I feel healthier."
Jakubczak recommended several strategies to cope w/emotional eating. She said the best tool is to keep a food record.
"You should write down everything you ate & how you felt. Were you hungry
or just bored? Were you happy or sad? Then, you'll start to see a pattern," she said.
She also suggested delaying eating until 30 minutes
after a highly emotional situation. During this period, she said it's helpful to find distractions & other ways to deal
w/emotions. Then, if after the 30 minutes, hunger hasn't subsided, she said eating is absolutely necessary.
You must give yourself time to think & decide if it is truly hunger," Jakubczak said.
if you're asking yourself, "what can i do to quit night
eating?"
give yourself the gift of time - all through your day - to think & decide...
think about what's best for you, think about
how important you are in your life, think about the fact that - you're
worth the effort - to quit night eating....
Breaking the Sugar Addiction
By Jamie Jefferson
Added sugar is in everything these days, from ketchup to salsa to soup. It’s
everywhere, I suppose, because we have come to expect it to be.
And it’s not just the white stuff
we need to worry about. “Refined carbohydrates,” such as white bread & white flour products, produce the same reaction in our bodies.
Researchers have linked sugar consumption to everything from cavities to wrinkly skin, as well as wide range
of much more serious health problems.
Some research has been cited that says sugar
hasn't been proven to be a direct cause to these health problems & may not even be directly linked to them, but when you
consider that added sugar is basically non-nutritional calories, the lack of nutrition & obesity can cause health problems in themselves.
Sugar, some researchers say, can lead
to the damage of healthy cells & can lessen the effectiveness of white blood cells, leading to a weakening of the immune system. Too much sugar
means lots of empty calories, too, which can lead to obesity.
As any parent knows, when you fill up on sugar, you simply aren’t hungry for
nutritious meals. And sugar can make you hyperactive & irritable, too, as it knocks your body out of whack.
When you eat sugar, your blood sugar spikes. So your body secretes insulin, which sends your blood
sugar crashing. The result?
Irritability & fatigue. Plus, you’re hungry again & probably craving
another hit of sugar & so the cycle repeats itself anew.
One of the nicest things
you can do for your body (& your mood) is to reduce your intake of
added sugars & refined carbohydrates.
What is the Daily Recommended Sugar Intake?
The
World Health Organization recommends reducing your intake of added sugars to less than 10% of your
total caloric intake. That means, if you eat 2,000 calories, you should eat less than 12 teaspoons of sugar each day.
The US Dept. of Agriculture also recommends limiting your consumption of added sugar to between 6 & 12 teaspoons of sugar each day, depending on your daily average caloric
intake. (6 tsps. a day for people who eat 1,600 calories; 12 tsps if you eat 2,200 calories
each day.)
Keep in mind that a single 12 oz. soft drink contains 10 tsps of sugar.
To find out how much sugar is in some of the items in your cupboards, look for Sugars (measured in grams) on the Nutrition Label. Then divide the number of grams by 4 to get the
number of teaspoons.
So, 12 grams of sugar is 3 tsps of sugar. 16 grams of sugar is 4 tsps.
How to Break Your Sugar Addiction
So
how do you start to reduce your sugar intake? Here are some tips.
Try decreasing
your intake of added sugar gradually. It can be difficult to suddenly cut all added sugar & refined carbohydrates. Try taking a week-by-week approach.
One week, add less sugar to your morning coffee. Next week, replace your afternoon
soda with bottled water. The following week, replace white bread with a whole grain alternative.
Before long, you'll find that the foods (&
drinks) you used to love now taste sickeningly sweet. And you'll likely find it easier to keep your moods
on an even keel, too.
Keep notes on your sugar intake in your journal or Daytimer.
How does decreasing your sugar levels impact your energy levels?
Your mood during the day?
Your ability to fall asleep at night?
When do sugar cravings hit?
It might be helpful to start with a Sugar Fast for a day or two. See how one day
without added sugars affects you.
Make easy substitutions. Buy brown rice instead
of white rice, i.e., Brown rice has a nice, nutty flavor & takes just a bit longer to cook.
The next time you go to the store, experiment with all kinds of whole grain alternatives.
You might find some new family favorites.
Keep healthy snacks readily available & rely on a bit of protein in your snacks to keep your energy levels high. Keep a small bowl
of nuts on the table, along with fresh fruits.
When you're hungry for a mid afternoon snack, opt
for lean protein & complex carbs.
Indulge in moderation. If you're
a chocoholic, treat yourself to a square of fine chocolate at the end of a long day. When the chocolate is quality, you won’t
feel the need to have more & you’ll be more apt to take your time & savor it.
When you do indulge in a sugary snack, keep it small, eat it slowly & eat a bit
of protein, too, to help moderate those blood sugar spikes & dips.
Dilute the
fruit juice. If you or kids love fruit juice, try diluting it gradually to the point where you're just adding a splash to
the top of water.
Become a sugar detective. You can start by knowing the alternate
names for added sugars, often found in ingredients lists. These include any ingredient that ends in the suffix “-ose,”
including:
- sucrose
- dextrose
- fructose
- lactose
- polydextrose
- maltose
- galactose
Also, look for the following:
- corn syrup
- high fructose corn syrup
- honey
- maple syrup
- molasses
- carob syrup
- turbinado sugar
- fruit juice concentrate
- brown sugar
- cane juice
- cane sugar
- evaporated cane juice
- beet sugar
- sorbitol
Avoid replacing added sugar with artificial sweeteners.
Your best bet is to gradually reduce your taste for sweet foods, not to replace them with
chemical alternatives.
On ingredients lists, look for:
- sucralose
- saccharin
- aspartame
- acesulfame K
- neotame
Avoid the center of the supermarket as much as possible.
That’s where most of the processed foods are shelved. Instead, shop the perimeter for healthy, raw foods.
If you have young kids, go to the grocery store by yourself. You may
be less apt to come home with sugary treats. Plus, you can take more time to examine the labels for hidden sugar.
If your kids are grade school age or older, take them along & enlist their help
as Sugar Detectives. Give them each a list of hidden sugars & artificial sweeteners & turn it into a game.
Carefully measure how much honey you put in your tea & how much sugar you put in your coffee.
Aim to put in a bit less each day or each week until you're drinking it either unsweetened or with just a bit of sugar.
Buy items that aren't sweetened & add sugar only if you find that you need to. This will help you wean off the sugar gradually.
Steer
clear of sugars for breakfast. When you start your day with a sugar blast & crash, you may find yourself in a vicious
cycle for the remainder of the day.
Start your day with healthy lean protein & complex carbs. Try natural whole-grain breads & cereals for breakfast, along with a lowfat protein,
such as skim milk, cottage cheese, or yogurt.
If you need to lose weight, consider a diet plan that focuses on reducing sugar intake. The Sugar Busters Diet Plan is probably the most well known. The idea of this diet
is to reduce your intake of sugar & high starch carbohydrates, focusing instead on lean protein, low starch veggies & whole grain carbs, in order to lose weight.
Many of the low GI diets out there use this method, as well.
Be careful not to make sugar taboo in your household. With children,
especially, when you swear off something completely, you run the risk of creating a mystique around the forbidden food.
Instead of running a completely sugar free household, make sure your children understand the effects that sugar can have on their bodies & their moods & then help them understand the beauty of moderation.
Encourage them to eat low fat protein & help them develop a taste for healthy whole grain carbs.
Focus on well balanced, nutritious diet, instead of simply swearing off all sugar. Your cravings will slowly & naturally fade once you gain
a better understanding of why they're cropping up in the first place.
(This
article is for informational purposes only. Please discuss any dietary changes with your doctor.)
Change Your Eating Habits
Sensible
eating doesn’t have to mean making a change in what you eat or how much – sometimes just how it’s prepared can make a big difference. From whole to skim,
buttered to plain, deep-fried to baked, there are plenty of simple, healthy choices we can make. But the taste!
That awful
chalky/cardboard-y/watered down just-plain-discouraging healthy version of the real thing… shouldn’t stop you from trying! You can retrain your taste buds &
learn to love foods that are good for you.
Here are some tips to help you get from where you
are to where you want to be:
Mix & match.
The
least painful way to get used to something is to slowly sneak it into your diet. For instance, if you want to go from whole
milk to skim, don’t just buy a gallon of skim - you’ll hate the taste & go back to whole, disgusted at the experience.
Instead,
try buying a half gallon of whole & a half gallon of 2% & pour yourself some of each. At first it’ll be mostly
whole, but little by little you’ll add more 2% until that’s ALL you’re drinking. Then start the process
again, with 2% & skim. Before you know it, you’ll be drinking skim milk all the time, wondering how you ever drank
anything else.
The same thing
works with sweeteners, butter, etc – just eat less & less of the food you’re trying to cut out until
it’s gone.
Dress it up.
When you cut
out the fat, butter, sugar, etc. what you're left with often tastes… well, plain.
That’s where spices & low calorie condiments (think mustard or sour cream, NOT mayonnaise
or cream cheese) come in.
Spices
& other smart add-ins can really increase the flavor of a food w/little or no effect on their nutrition. If you already
use spices, think about expanding your repertoire or using several spices with each dish.
If up
to now, the fanciest you get is salt & pepper, here’s your chance. Using spices can make a big difference &
experimenting w/them when cooking is lots of fun. Here are just a few suggestions to get you started:
-
For sweet foods
& drinks: vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, peppermint
-
For everything
else: basil, oregano, pepper, garlic powder, lemon juice, curry
Give yourself time.
Sometimes people can manage to cut something out permanently overnight, but most of the time when
we mere mortals attempt to do that, it only makes the forbidden food that much more desirable.
Tastes &
habits don’t change overnight, but to make something stick – that’s exactly what you have to change:
your taste or habit. Experts say it takes 3 weeks for a person to make a behavior a habit.
So try, try, and try again… after a while, your new healthy habit will become second nature.
After reading what's here, consider clicking on some of the links
to go to this website, it's awesome!
Introduction
Food is the key to life. It's
the source of good health & energy. Eating healthy foods can benefit all of us. One thing that can prevent us from eating
the right foods is a mistaken idea that a “healthy diet” takes the enjoyment out of eating & deprives us of
good taste.
That’s why George Mateljan wants to share his discoveries with you about a healthy way of
eating that ensures you'll experience the pure joy of eating.
George’s study of food
began over 30 years ago. He wanted to know how to feel his best while maintaining the pure joy of eating. His search for answers
has taken him to over 80 countries around the world. He studied foods wherever healthy people live long lives. He tasted Russian
borscht, Bulgarian yogurt, Hunza apricots and Mediterranean fish, vegetables, fruits & pasta.
By traveling around the world,
George discovered which foods are the world’s healthiest & he learned how to prepare them so that they're full of
flavor.
As he made his discoveries,
George would share the information with others by writing & publishing books. Over the years, he has published 5 books
that have been read & used by millions of people.
After over 30 years of studying
& then listening to feedback from people who've read & used the information in his books, George discovered that there
are 3 basic things health-conscious people need in order to make eating healthy foods their regular way of eating.
- You have to know how to choose the most nutritious foods.
- You have to know how to prepare them the healthy way using
the right recipes to enjoy the full flavors.
- You have to select foods & recipes to meet your individual
needs.
George is sharing his information
& answers to these 3 key things with you, so you will get everything you need to make eating healthy foods enjoyable,
convenient, easy & suited to your individual needs. Since the information is so new, it's called the
George Mateljan Healthy Way of Eating.
With the George Mateljan Healthy Way of Eating, you’ll discover which of the thousands of foods are the World’s
Healthiest. Then you’ll find out how to prepare them, so they maintain their full nutritional value & so they also
maintain their delicious flavor. You’ll also be able to have your individual lifestyle & health requirements addressed
with personalized food analysis & menu plans.
Here's a brief look at the important
things you’ll find:
Discover which Foods are the World’s Healthiest
There are thousands of foods
in the world & all of them have some nutrients. The World’s Healthiest Foods, however, are those which are the most
nutrient dense.
Nutrient density is a measure
of the amount of nutrients a food contains in comparison with the number of calories it has. The higher the level of nutrients
compared to the number of calories, the more nutrient dense a food is.
By eating the World’s
Healthiest Foods, you’ll get all the essential nutrients that you need for excellent health including vitamins, minerals,
phytonutrients, essential fatty acids, fiber & more.
Visit the world's healthiest foods A-Z list for a complete list of the World’s Healthiest Foods &
detailed information about each food.
To determine which foods are
the healthiest & most nutrient dense, two standards were used. First, George discovered the World’s Healthiest Foods
through his travels & studies. Then these foods had to meet stringent scientific criteria for nutritional excellence.
Studies demonstrating the
health benefits of nutrient dense foods have been conducted for many years & recently, more advanced methods of scientific
analysis have revealed the biochemical mechanisms behind these beneficial actions, so the selection of the World’s Healthiest
Foods is based on scientific data not guesswork or personal opinion. Our Food and Recipe Rating System provides and explanation of the methods used to rate foods &
recipes.
Get the Health Benefits of the World’s Healthiest
Foods
Because the World’s
Healthiest Foods are nutrient dense, they provide more of the essential nutrients that promote good health. That means they
have the power to help you look & feel your best, and they can provide long-term health benefits including reducing the
risk of health problems.
If you have a specific health
or eating concern, get the information you need by visiting Foods that Fight Disease.
The World’s Healthiest Foods Are Delicious
& Quick to Prepare
The World’s Healthiest
Foods aren't only nutrient dense, they’re also some of the world’s best tasting foods. As George discovered when
he traveled the world studying them, nothing matches the incredible taste of a fresh-picked fruit or vegetable that has been
organically grown & allowed to ripen on the vine or tree until it’s perfectly ready to enjoy.
So, he has created recipes
for the World’s Healthiest Foods that do not overpower their wonderful flavors. Instead, each recipe is a flavor adventure
that lets you discover new ways to experience the great natural tastes of these foods.
In creating healthy recipes,
George recognized that they not only had to bring out all the nutrition & good taste in the ingredients, they also had
to be fast, easy to prepare & fun to make. That’s why you’ll find that most recipes in the Healthy Way
of Eating take 30 minutes or less to make. George understands that eating the healthy way has to be convenient & fit
the time schedules of today’s busy lifestyles. Over 100 Healthy Recipes provides dozens of healthy recipes each with detailed directions
for preparation & tips to make sure your meals are a success.
The World’s Healthiest Foods are Affordable,
Convenient & Familiar
You don’t have to feel
concerned that the foods you’ll enjoy in the Healthy Way of Eating will be unfamiliar & expensive. They're
foods you already know & are affordable. You can find most of them at your local market, natural foods store or farmers
market. It's recommended that you look for organically grown varieties. That way you can avoid the hybrid varieties where
the emphasis is on appearance & shelf life, rather than on flavor & nutrition.
The varieties that go to large
markets are often sprayed with pesticides that contain nitrogen, which causes the fruit or vegetable to absorb water, so it
looks nice & plump, but lacks flavor. These foods are also often picked before they’re ripe & shipped a long
way, rather than vine-ripened & freshly picked just before they’re sold.
To make the produce that you
buy more affordable & better tasting, your best choice is to buy is what is in season.
as luck would have it, i love to cook & bake. i was always making cookies, brownies, cakes, banana breads, other fruit breads
& always used white sugar & white flour in my cooking.
i began to see that all the things that i would eat at night
were white flour / white sugar items or food that contained "fructose."
i began to evaluate everything i was eating at night. sometimes,
when i couldn't remember what i ate at night, i would have to start taking an inventory of the food in the house to see what
was missing. i would always search for the hidden goodies my husband packed away because i knew they were there.
this was just the beginning of piecing the puzzle
of my behaviors together to figure out how to solve the night eating dilemma....
but it's a very important piece of the
puzzle to understand. learning about food, why people eat, what good nutrition is, how food works as fuel for the body &
being able to sit back & gather information about your eating habits - by food journaling
- is part of what you can do to end your night eating syndrome.
you do need to seek some professional
mental health advice & treatment, but you can be an active part in your recovery
from this frustrating & infuriating syndrome.
Diet ties in with Exercise
what if?
what if you exercised more instead of starving
yourself all day...??? what if you just took a walk instead of feeling guilty about all that food you ate all night? what
if you began to think - "i ate too much last night, i have to walk some of that off!" read more about exercise on the lifestyle exercise page!
when eating habits transcend the purpose of food as fuel for
the body.... could it be a possibility that your emotions are connected to your eating habits? when & what you eat can sometimes interrupting our sleep cycles... did you realize that?
An emotional eater consumes food in response to their feelings
instead of hunger.
Why you eat is
as important as what you eat.
If we can be alert to the why of our problem w/emotional eating,
then we'll be better equipped to deal w/ the how of fixing it.
Emotional eating is the practice
of consuming large quantities of food, usually "comfort" or junk foods, in response to feelings instead of hunger. Some of the common emotional eating
cues are:
- 1.
Anger
Whether you're angry at yourself, another person or a situation, you stifle your feelings using food rather than confronting them & releasing them. It's easier to smother a problem
than to deal w/ it.
- 2. Hopelessness
You think: "Nothing really matters anyway. Nothing's ever going to change or get better for me. So, why
should I care about my health or weight?" Besides, eating makes me feel better. (Please note: extreme
feelings of hopelessness are typical of chronic depression. Please talk to a mental health professional if you find yourself feeling perpetually hopeless.)
- 3. Lack of Control
You think: "My life is out of control". There's nothing in it that I am in charge of. Everyone & everything around
me rules my life. Except for eating... I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want it. So I will.
- 4. Feeling Unappreciated
Perhaps you've accomplished something exceptional at work & no one has noticed. Or maybe you've made a personal achievement you'd dreamed of for
years. But no one at home shares your pride. You find yourself tempted to congratulate yourself by "treating" yourself to a binge.
- 5. Boredom
There's nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Perhaps you feel lonely, too. There's nothing at home to occupy your mind or your hours. But there is a pantry full of comfort food that will kill some of that empty time.
If you fit into any one of these 5 profiles,
try sitting down w/ a piece of paper & brainstorming to find alternative behaviors to eating.
You may be surprised at
the solutions you come up w/.. & at just how well they work once you try them. Then, write your ideas on notecards &
post them where you'll see them in your moment of need, how about on the refrigerator door or next to the pantry?
what happens to your body, "physically"
when you binge eat at night? Food is a major culprit in
altering your blood sugar level. Your blood sugar is at its highest an hour or two after you eat & then it starts to fall.
What you eat, how much you eat & when you eat all affect blood sugar.
Some issues to consider:
- Consistency. Strive for consistency from day to
day in the time & amount of food you eat. By controlling these factors, you can better control when your blood sugar rises
& even how high it rises.
- Type of food. Food is made up of carbohydrates,
protein & fat. Although all 3 can increase blood sugar, carbohydrates have the biggest impact.
Too much food & your blood sugar may be too high,
especially eating a large amount of sweets in a few hours time. You may experience a reaction due to a rapid fall in blood sugar anywhere from 2 - 4 hours after consuming an excessive amount of sweets that
consists of sweating, hunger, dizziness, tiredness, or sleepiness.
When we eat or drink to excess we may feel good
temporarily, but then we descend into a "hangover" or depression. It's based on a fundamental law: what goes up must come
down. And the body always fights for balance.
When
we get "high" it will inevitably be followed by a "low." If someone takes a depressant drug like alcohol, she gets agitated
or fidgety in withdrawal. When someone takes take a stimulant like cocaine, he gets depressed during withdrawal.
Food has similar effects, and many people use food as their drug of choice. It's a common form of self-medication.
Many with a tendency toward depression find that food brings temporary relief. That leads to habit. And habit leads to addiction
- and if you are a night eater - you feel like you are "addicted to food."
Listen To Your Body
Searching for the perfect
diet? Always worrying about counting calories &fat grams in order to control your weight can become difficult &tiresome.
And, is there really a "perfect diet" out there anyway?
After all, 95%
of diets fail because diets don’t work. Why else would people have to keep searching
for new ones all of the time?
When was the last time you
truly had fun dieting? Most likely you won’t remember it as a pleasurable experience. After all, it doesn’t feel
so great to be getting hungry for lunch but forcing yourself to wait an extra hour.
Do you remember feeling irritable?
Did you get a headache or
was your stomach growling?
And, didn’t those "forbidden"
or "off limits" foods seem to be calling your name even more than ever? Gosh, that doesn’t seem like very much fun,
does it?
The reason diets don’t
work & aren’t much fun is because your body needs food for energy, just like a
car needs gas to drive.
Food is fuel for your body!
Your body knows what it needs in order to keep running efficiently - it needs the fuel of vitamin & nutrient rich foods from a variety of food groups.
That’s why it’s
important to listen to your body & respond to its natural hunger. It'll tell you what
it needs. And if you don’t listen, it'll find ways to keep reminding you - like headaches, a growling stomach & obsessing
about food.
- The first key to listening
to your body is being able to detect when you're getting hungry. If you're indeed truly
hungry, & not just looking for food to cure your boredom, stress, or loneliness, then it's time to refuel.
- The second key is being able
to know when you've had enough. Listen to your body. When you begin to feel full, you will
know that you've had enough to eat. The goal is to feel content - not uncomfortably stuffed but not starving either. Sometimes this means eating 5 or 6 smaller meals a day instead of 3
large meals.
And, remember it takes about
20 minutes for your body to realize it’s full. Also, be aware of what you're eating - sit, chew slowly, enjoy the tastes, smells & textures of your
food.
- The third key is moderation,
nothing to extremes. Often people hear this advice & think it means they can eat whatever they crave, all the time.
Obviously we can't survive
on potato chips or peanut butter cookies alone. And if you tried, chances are you'd probably start to crave some pasta or
fresh fruit after awhile. These cravings are your body's way of helping you get the nutrients it knows you need.
Eat what you want, When you're truly hungry. Stop when
you're full. And eat exactly what appeals to you. Do this instead of any diet & you're unlikely to ever have a weight
problem, let alone an eating disorder.
LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.
Stress can affect your blood sugar in two ways. For one, when
you're under heavy stress, it's easy to abandon your usual routine. You might cut back your exercise & eat fewer healthy foods. In that sense, stress indirectly causes your blood sugar to rise.
Stress can also have a direct effect on your blood sugar level. As w/the stress of a physical illness, prolonged or excessive emotional stress can cause your body to produce hormones that prevent insulin from working properly. That, in turn, increases your blood sugar
levels.
If you're diabetic already
having difficulties w/your blood sugar levels, this can be an escalation of your problem.
To prevent stress from getting the best of your blood sugar:
Using food to feel better is an attempt to cope w/life, but overeating leads to depression, lack of control, guilt, feeling worthless, embarrassed by one's body, eating alone to conceal how much one is eating, loss of interest in activities that once gave pleasure, difficulty falling asleep, oversleeping,
eating until feeling uncomfortably full, repeated attempts to lose weight by dieting, eating when not hungry & avoiding social situations.
How to Curb Emotional Eating
The Problem
"I've read about trying
to curb emotional eating, about how we're supposed to reflect on why we're eating. But if I'm getting ready to dig into chocolate ice cream, thinking to myself, 'Hey I'm eating this because I feel bad, not because I'm hungry,' isn't quite enough to do the trick.
The little devil on my shoulder
says, 'Yep, you're right- it's been a crappy day, so eat.' Any suggestions for battling this monster?"
The Solutions
1. Realize it's a major change: "Ever since mom gave
us a cookie for being good, we've associated food w/ rewarding ourselves.
It's hard to change that mindset, but if you weigh that against a lifetime of being overweight, unhealthy & tired, the decision to change becomes easier.
You may want to see a therapist who can help you to learn to nourish your soul rather
than fill your stomach."
2.
Find healthy rewards: "I have the same problem & calling a friend, taking a walk, eating a piece of fruit
or something healthy has helped me some days."
"Try talking back to the little voice
& suggest alternatives, such as a hot bubble bath w/candlelight, music & a small glass of wine ... reading ... shopping
(this could be dangerous) or doing something creative."
3. Drink water: "Struggling
w/this same problem, I make myself drink a large glass of water before I eat anything. Many times, after I drink the full
glass, I end up not wanting to eat anything because the water has filled my stomach."
4. Work out your worries:"I
would like to suggest exercise, like a kickboxing class or some type of a high-intensity aerobic class. This kind of class
can clear your mind & help you forget about craving something."
5. Keep it in perspective:"As
long as you're eating the good stuff daily, it really isn't terrible if you eat the crappy stuff once in a while. If you're
eating it regularly because you're regularly having crappy days, you need to change your life, not your diet."
6. Try this book:"Read The Solution: 6 Winning Ways to Permanent Weight Loss by Laurel Mellin. It helps determine what
to do with your feelings, a thing many women haven't learned."
7. Write about it:"In your journal, talk
w/your urge. It'll say a host of crazy things. But let it speak. Let it go on & on. Ask it questions. Most of the time
it just runs out of steam. But the point is to hear it out. The food shuts it up, but allow
your urges to be heard & understood."
9. Play a role:"Just a silly little thing I do, but added to the
other suggestions it helps me. I pretend I'm someone I admire,either fictional or real. How would they handle it? Scarlett O'Hara wouldn't let herself pig out on ice cream."
10. Don't panic:"No food is illegal, what's wrong is when you eat
but your body isn't hungry & calling for food. Remember that grocery stores are open 24 hours a day. Food is all around.
There will never be a time when you can't get to it. So don't feed your soul w/things that won't satisfy & leave you hungrier than before."
10. Have fun:"If it's nice weather & still daylight, go to a
park & swing on the swings, or just watch the kids doing it. Just go have fun. And just because you had a bad day at work
doesn't mean the rest of the day is shot. Tell yourself, 'I may have had a bad day up to this point, but I'm not going to
let it ruin the rest of my day.' "
How To Overcome Emotional Eating
Ellen Shuman, Executive Director, A Weigh Out
June 20, 2003
Ellen Shuman is the founder
& Executive Director of the Well Centered Eating Disorder Treatment Programs & A Weigh Out, from which this article
was taken. A Weigh Out conducts phone coaching & teleconferences about Emotional Eating, for people worldwide. Robert
Griffith, Editor.
I was stuck in a self-defeating cycle!
I felt out-of-control w/food! I was either overeating or dieting. In either mode, I felt I was never good enough.
I had willpower & stick-to-itiveness in many other areas in my life. So why couldn't I apply that same resolve to my eating
habits?
I wasted so much time, energy & money
I was obsessed w/my weight. Living like that was miserable. Today, I understand that weight wasn't the problem. It was actually a symptom. My real problem was that I was an "emotional
eater".
Emotional eaters use food to manage feelings. We use food to self-soothe. People who have struggled w/it & the professionals who treat it, call it by many different
names; compulsive overeating, emotional eating
& food addiction.
No matter what it's called, people use food because food works!
Emotional eating happens on a continuum
-
Emotional eating is normal. We all celebrate w/ food. When something sad occurs, friends & neighbors arrive w/cakes & casseroles.
It's only when emotional eating begins
to have impact on one's emotional &/or physical well-being & it's used as a person's primary strategy for mood regulation,
that it becomes a problem.
-
When eating becomes a primary coping strategy, it greatly impacts a person's quality of life. At the most extreme point on the emotional
eating continuum, there may be a diagnosable eating disorder present - such
as bulimia or binge eating disorder (night eating?)- & often, clinical depression as well.
- Food, as a mood regulator, always betrays us
First, an emotional eater experiences an uncomfortable feeling. i.e....You just had a fight w/ a family member & you're feeling really angry!
Next, you have a FOOD THOUGHT & you find yourself reaching for a bag of chips. (Note...you may or may not be conscious of
when or why you're having a food thought.) Once you're focused on the chips, you're no longer focused on how angry you feel. The use of food as a distraction works...
You eat the chips, warding
off the anger, for a little while. Then, the anger comes back. Now, in addition to the anger, an emotional overeater has to deal w/ the guilt & shame he/she feels every time he or she eats chips (or any other food that he or she has labeled
as "forbidden").
- This frustrating cycle is a trap for emotional eaters
Until you develop healthier coping strategies, the only way
to avoid the guilt & the shame that results from emotional overeating - is more emotional
overeating!
Every time we swear we'll be "good" on our diet today &
then turn back to food for comfort, we feel like we have "failed". Then, to "stuff down" our frustration, or shame, or desperation, we turn back to food.
So, what can you do if emotional eating is a problem?
Make a conscious effort to
become more aware of how & why you may be using food.
Develop new skills for mood
regulation. If you need support to do so, find appropriate professional help (find a class, hire a coach or go to a licensed psychotherapist).
The focus should be on self-care & improved emotional & physical well-being - eating well & being fit - not on dieting & weight loss.
Remember, dieting is a trap for an emotional eater. Dieting just leads to more emotional
eating.
Source:A Weight Out, WellCentered Eating Disorder
Treatment Programs at: http://www.aweighout.com/emotional/emotional.shtml
Emotional Eating
It's a vicious cycle when you rely on food to heal what ails you, especially since
chances are the food you're eating isn't of the healthy kind.
Junk food makes great comfort food, but it won't help you in your quest to lose weight. What you need to do is break yourself out of the pattern of emotional eating.
It's not always easy to do on your own, but The WebMD Weight Loss Clinic provides
a support network that can help. Plus, the Clinic's daily journaling feature will help you identify the emotional triggers that cause
you to eat & will help you stay on track w/your diet. Emotional eating is something that CAN be curbed! The following
medical information from The Cleveland Clinic illustrates this point ...
Emotional Eating
Emotional eating is
the practice of consuming large quantities of food - usually "comfort" or junk foods - in response to feelings instead of hunger. Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions.
Many of
us learn that food can bring comfort, at least in the short-term. As a result, we often turn to food to heal emotional problems. Eating becomes a habit preventing us from learning skills that can effectively resolve our emotional distress.
Depression, boredom, loneliness, chronic anger, anxiety, frustration, stress, problems w/interpersonal relationships & poor self-esteem can result in overeating & unwanted weight gain.
By identifying what triggers
our eating, we can substitute more appropriate techniques to manage our emotional problems & take food & weight gain
out of the equation.
How Can I Identify Eating Triggers?
Situations
& emotions that trigger us to eat fall into 5 main categories:
- Social: Eating
when around other people. i.e., excessive eating can result from being encouraged by others to eat; eating to fit in; arguing; or feelings of inadequacy around other people.
- Emotional: Eating in response to boredom, stress, fatigue, tension, depression, anger, anxiety or loneliness as a way to "fill the void."
- Situational: Eating because the opportunity is there. i.e., at a restaurant, seeing an advertisement for a particular food,
passing by a bakery. Eating may also be associated w/certain activities such as watching TV, going to the movies or a sporting
event, etc.
- Thoughts: Eating as a result of negative self-worth or making excuses for eating. i.e., scolding oneself for looks or a lack of will power.
- Physiological: Eating in response to physical cues. i.e., increased hunger due to skipping meals or eating to cure headaches
or other pain.
To identify what triggers
excessive eating in you, keep a food diary that records what & when you eat as well as what stressors, thoughts, or emotions you identify as you eat. You should begin to identify patterns to your excessive eating fairly quickly.
How Do I Break Myself of the Habit?
Identifying eating
triggers is the first step; however, this alone isn't sufficient to alter eating behavior. Usually, by the time you have identified
a pattern, eating in response to emotions or certain situations has become a pattern. Now you have to break the habit.
Developing
alternatives to eating is the second step. When you start to reach for food in response to a trigger, try one of the following
activities instead:
- Watch television
- Read a good book or magazine or listen to music
- Go for a walk or jog
- Take a bubble bath
- Do deep breathing exercises
- Play cards or a board game
- Talk to a friend
- Do housework, laundry or yard work
- Wash the car
- Write a letter
- Or do any other pleasurable or necessary activity until the
urge to eat passes
What If Distracting Myself
Isn't Enough to Keep Me From Eating?
Sometimes simply distracting yourself from eating & developing alternative habits isn't enough to manage the emotional distress that leads to excessive eating. To more effectively cope w/emotional stress, try:
These techniques address the
underlying emotional problems & help resolve the original problem as well as teach you to cope in more effective &
healthier ways. For more information on these techniques, contact your doctor.
As you learn to incorporate
more appropriate coping strategies & to curb excessive eating, remember to reward yourself for a job well done. We tend
to repeat behaviors that have been reinforced, so reward yourself when you meet your nutrition management goals. Buy that
blouse, take that vacation, or get that massage to reward yourself to increase the likelihood that you will maintain your
new healthy habits.
Reviewed by The Cleveland Clinic Department of
Nutritional Therapy. Edited by Charlotte E. Grayson, MD, March 2002.
Unhealthy Use Of Fasting
by: Ron Lagerquist
Clearly,
fasting is an effective way to lose unnecessary body fat but once the fat has melted away
restoring a youthful physique, how do we keep it off?
Should
a fasting regime be practised to maintain weightloss?
The
answer is a simple one. Never incorporate fasting as your primary source of weight management.
First you must understand when I say weight management I don't mean the endless seesaw action of gaining & losing weight.
We're all sick of that ride where eating is ether a mathematical equation of calorie counting or a mindless overindulgence.
No, I'm speaking about managing body weight as a consistent dietary lifestyle.
I have a friend who is an
avid faster. In fact he finds it easy to fast & has done it often throughout the years.
On the surface it would seem he has steel discipline, effortlessly doing what others find to be a great challenge. His self-imposed
purpose is to become a fruitarian & for 20 years has read & studied the health benefits of eating an all-fruit diet.
Yet never has he been able
to put together more than 14 days of fruit eating, experiencing countless failed attempts. My friend eats better than most
people I know, but in his words, always “blows it”, gorging with franticness & absurd extreme. I found it
difficult to witness these compulsive exhibitions because I knew the aftermath would be guilt & depression, leading to
yet another joyless fast.
This abusive cycle has continued
for years & probably is still continuing. He is thin & in good shape but there's no joy & little freedom in eating.
Not long after opening our
Internet Bulletin Board, I became increasingly alarmed about some of the posts popping up here & there. Over time we learned
that a website which promoted anorexia had linked to our website.
I immediately went & looked
in no way prepared for what I was about to see. A mixture of shock & profound grief griped my heart as I read the melancholy
testimonies of young women emasculated with self-hate, repulsed by their own bodies, never thin enough.
Most of the testimonies came
with photos of themselves, a macabre gallery of gradual suicide, skin stretched over skeletons, large, hopeless eyes set in
bony faces, wearing their gauntness like a cry for help.
Weeping, I was appalled that
a ministry created to bring freedom was being used to enable obsession. It was a mockery directly from Satan, soiling the
purity of our work into desecration. We responded quickly by offering a forum on our Board for those suffering with sever
eating disorders, enlisting the help of an Anorexia & Bulimia Counsellor & providing links to other Eating Disorder
Recovery sites.
Satan is a god of extremes.
He will gladly offer the two extremes of obesity & anorexia as long as it is he who is in control & not you.
Here is a telling quote from
Anred; a website devoted to helping Anorexia / Nervosa & other related eating disorders:
Because everyone today seems
concerned about weight & because most people diet at least once in a while,
it's hard to tell what is normal behavior
& what's a problem that may escalate to threaten life & happiness.
Anred
Tragically it isn't until
we see an unbalance taken to the extreme that we can begin to recognize its peril within ourselves. The images of those young
woman has forever changed how I look at my own body- focus.
No matter what type of personality
God has planted in you, practising fasting or diet programs as a means of balancing the scales is unhealthy. Bingeing &
purging is harmful & emotionally dangerous. You've replaced one damaging cycle for another. There's no freedom & joy
in such a cycle, only slavery & guilt.
Fasting is an exhilarating
way to begin a healthy diet, excess body fat quickly drops, bathroom mirror nodding approval, maybe for the first time in
years. Fasting can produce a temporary altered state - hunger & craving shut down.
Often, while fasting, feelings of euphoria & emotional balance can be enjoyed. Those with an obsessive personality are
attracted to fasting almost like the escape of drugs. Problem is, sooner or later you must face the world of eating with all
its trappings. The junk-food shrines on every street corner have waited patiently.
What was pushed into the peripheral
through fasting, is now back into the fore. Voracious hunger awakens from sleep; the fragrance
of KFC is all the more intoxicating. In fact, some find themselves worse off & within day’s rush to their old food-lovers,
fulfilling the axiom, “distance makes the heart grow fonder.”
I've
fasted to gain lost ground on a slipping diet or to break a tenacious addiction or even detoxify after Christmas feasting
- this has been very effective for me. The fast re-establishes focus on Christ. This can
be healthy & balanced. Once the fast is completed, my diet reflects the spiritual freedom
found during the fast. In other words, the fast is more about warfare than weight.
Where do we cross the line
from healthy concern to obsession? The simplest way for me to answer this important question is by creating what I believe
is a balanced & healthy lifelong weight management program, avoiding the endless seesaw action of gaining & losing
weight through fad dieting or quick-fix fasting.
Dieting & Fasting To Lose Weight Fast
Bob woke up one morning, hopped
on the scales for the first time in months, then nearly fainted when the high numbers blared into view. Next, he entered Diet
Panic Mode, deciding that he was going to lose weight & was going to do it toot sweet! Why, if he didn't eat in a week,
he'd probably drop 10 pounds fast. He could do that, then he'd take the other 25 pounds a bit more slowly, he promised himself.
Four days into your fasting diet, Bob got the shakes & the trots. And let me tell you, it's not fun when you have
the shakes & the trots together.
On the fifth day of his fasting diet, he fainted at work & fell into the large paint bin on the assembly line. He
was fished out quickly by his concerned co-workers, then rushed to the nearest hospital were he lapsed into a diabetic coma.
Bob had no idea
that he was diabetic & the fasting created serious low levels of blood sugar, thus the
fainting episode. The doctor told Bob that he was lucky that all turned out well. When Bob explained that he was only trying
to lose weight fast, his doctor replied, "If you had died, you would have certainly done that."
Bottom line, fasting is unhealthy & can be fatal. In addition, Bob's extra weight turned out to be connected with diabetes. Once he had that under
control, he was able to drop the unwanted weight using a healthy weight loss plan - which is the only plan that anyone should
ever trust when dieting.
I'm
very tired this morning; the worst Santa Ana winds in several years kept me awake much of the night. This morning,
I had to move dozens of palm fronds just to get the driveway gate open. And there's talk that the mountain trails will
be closed due to fire danger until we get some more rain. What a difference from last year's torrential downpours!
Our "Fast Relief" project
at All Saints Church was successful on a number of levels. We raised a few thousand dollars for Episcopal Relief &
Development. Of equal importance, the 27 high schoolers & the 3 adult leaders who did the fast had a terrific experience:
physically & spiritually
challenging, yes, but immensely rewarding.
I've always liked the power
of a shared painful experience to bond people together.
And I suppose I've also liked
doing these 30-hour fasts (this was my 6th year in a row participating
thru All Saints Pasadena) because it represents how radically different my own attitude towards food & hunger has become in recent years, especially since my conversion experience began.
I posted last week about eating disorders & I've written about food & body issues several times.
(BTW, see this fine response from Jen to that post & those who commented upon it.) So...
Growing up with
a very unhealthy set of attitudes towards eating & my own flesh, I tended to experience food privately. As an adolescent, I became a private
binger, starting with (I kid you not) my regular breakfasts in junior high school of 8-12
Hydrox cookies & two big glasses of fruit punch. They say adolescent boys daydream
about sex a lot & I'm sure I did - but even in the throes of puberty, my waking & sleeping fantasies were as often
about sugar as they were about girls!
When I first began to diet
& exercise compulsively in my early twenties, my "food" experiences were again private. Like many folks with eating disorders, I became good
at "pretending to eat" while actually consuming very little. (I rarely threw up my food.
It wasn't for lack of trying; I never have been able to make myself vomit on command, despite countless sad attempt in my
youth.)
I binged alone, starved alone,
exercised alone. I didn't talk to many folks about food because (& here's where being
a male hurts), frankly, we don't live in a culture where young men are given sanction to complain about their bodies
the way that women do.
When I first began to take
steps to get over my eating issues, I had a "food sponsor". I called this person, a woman I'd met through mutual friends,
every day. I practiced what she called "declaring your food". I told her exactly what I'd eaten & I also told
her how much I'd exercised.
My food & workout behavior
ceased to be my own private concern. I found a group of folks with whom I was able to share my own anxieties & my
progress & I discovered (as is the way of such things) that my fears & obsessions
weren't all that unusual. That was humbling, in that I had a rather grandiose perception of my own "terminal uniqueness"!
I began to experience food
as a shared experience with others, realizing that how I ate did affect everyone around me. If I binged or if I was
starving myself, my close-knit community of folks with "food issues" would know - & I would be setting a poor example
for those newer to recovery than myself. (Most folks who know the language of Twelve Step
will know the program I'm talking about, but I have an odd compunction about not naming the actual program. The tradition
of anonymity in Twelve Step programs is very powerful still.)
Bottom line: over the years,
especially since coming to the church & to Christ, I've seen some huge changes in my relationship to food. From
a global perspective, my food choices (& those of other affluent First Worlders) have
consequences for folks everywhere else. From a social perspective, my food choices affect those around me -- if I'm
eating to soothe myself or starving to punish myself, my friends & family are going to be impacted in ways of which I
am not even aware.
And from a Christian perspective,
I've come to see that we are called to eat & fast in community. Jesus may have fasted for forty days alone, but the Bible is filled with stories that illustrate the importance
of eating in fellowship with others. Food isn't, it seems, intended to be one's private pleasure alone.
The difference between
starving myself in isolation & fasting in community is
enormous. The former was an entirely self-centered activity, as I sought to make my body fit a particular
& elusive standard that, if ever achieved, I believed would bring me an enduring sense of peace & joy.
When I fast as I did this weekend, with "my kids" & fellow volunteers, I fast to raise money. I fast to express solidarity with those hundreds of millions around the world for whom genuine hunger is not a
choice but a daily reality.
I fast to draw closer to God, as my hunger gives me a heightened sense of dependence & vulnerability. If
I'm feeling hungry & a bit weak, but am still needed to entertain & inspire teenagers, then I'm going to have to rely
more than usual upon Him!
And I fast to have a shared experience with people whom I love, knowing that communal discomfort has the power to
bind us together.
I'm grateful that my experiences
with food have changed so radically since my adolescence. I no longer have Hydrox & fruit punch for breakfast.
I no longer get "high" on solitary self-deprivation. I do still choose to go without food for a day or two from time to time.
But now, that choice is exercised
publicly, in community & it's done in solidarity with those who suffer far more than I. It has damn all to do with
staying thin & fit & everything to do with building the Kingdom. That's an amazing blessing.
|
 |
|
It's in the news....
Lifestyle Diet & Nutrition...
Great Foods To Start Enjoying!
The Whole-Grain Goodness of Oatmeal
By Janet Brill, Ph.D.
A patient once said to me, “My grandfather ate oatmeal
every morning of his life and he lived to be a hundred.” My response was “Do
what your grandfather did.”
Whole-grain oats are tasty & inexpensive
& have a long history of health benefits. This simple grain has been shown to lower cholesterol & blood pressure,
normalize blood sugar, appease the appetite & ameliorate intestinal problems.
Remember the oat bran craze of the 1980's? That phenomenon grew out of an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence
that began to build during the 1960's, linking oat consumption with dramatic declines in blood cholesterol.
What Makes a Grain Whole?
Whole grains are kernels of grain that are
consumed with all 3 naturally occurring components still intact:
- the outer fiber-rich bran layer
- the middle energy-packed endosperm
- the inner nutrient-rich germ layer
 The outer bran
holds the mineral cache, with up to 80% of all the minerals found in the kernel
concentrated in this coating.
The bran also contains:
- fiber
- protein
- some B vitamins
The endosperm is a pocket of:
- energy-yielding starch (complex carbohydrate)
- some protein
- iron
- a minuscule amount of B vitamins
all used to nourish the growing seedling.
The germ is packed with a gold mine of vitamins including:
Why whole grains are best
When grains
are milled or refined, they're stripped of the outer bran & germ layers & thus lose many of the naturally occurring
vitamins & minerals, healthful fats & phytonutrients.
Processing leaves behind only the starchy endosperm.
In 1942 the U.S. government passed a law requiring iron & B vitamin enrichment
of processed grains to combat vitamin deficiency as a result of eating refined products, devoid of their natural lode of vitamins
& minerals.
This is why when you purchase a refined grain product such as white bread or white
rice (made solely from the endosperm of grains), it'll by law be “enriched,”
meaning a few nutrients have been added back - often niacin, iron, thiamin, riboflavin & folate.
Unfortunately, what are lost in the processing & not required to be replaced
are wholesome nutrients such as:
- fiber
- vitamin E
- several B vitamins
- potassium
- minerals such as manganese, magnesium, copper & zinc
- various healthful phytochemicals such as lignans, flavonoids & saponins
Clearly, whole grains are the far superior choice over refined grains
for fiber, vitamins, minerals & other important nutrients.
Whole Grains for Good Health
A diet
rich in whole grains - rather than highly processed, refined grains - has been linked with reduced risk of:
- heart disease
- stroke
- type 2 diabetes
- obesity
- certain types of cancers
- lower blood pressure
- improved bowel function
The connection between whole grains & heart health is where the science is particularly strong, with a huge body of research
backing the notion that diets high in whole grains reduce your risk for heart disease.
Data from the Iowa Women’s Health Study have provided sound evidence that whole
grains keep a woman’s cardiovascular system in good health, even after menopause.
Researchers took detailed dietary & health histories from 34,492 postmenopausal
women between the ages of 55 & 69 & followed them over a 9 year period.
The women who consumed the most servings of whole grains had more than
a 30% decrease in risk of death from heart disease than the women who ate less than 1 serving per day.
Whole grains also stop inflammation of the arteries, according to a
study published in the Journal of Nutrition. Inflammation is related to plaque buildup, or atherosclerosis.
C-reactive protein is a protein circulating in the bloodstream that is used by doctors
as a marker for inflammation & a predictor of future cardiovascular disease (a value
above 3 mg/L is considered indicative of high risk for heart disease).
Analyses of almost 4,000 American men & women showed that the higher the fiber
intake (whole grains are one of the best sources of dietary fiber), the
lower the blood concentration of C-reactive protein.
What’s good for the heart is
also good for the brain, according to a study by researchers at Harvard Medical School. As part of the famed Nurses’
Health Study, 75,521 women nurses between the ages of 38 & 63 were followed for 10 years, providing dietary & health
data at 4 separate intervals.
The study found that nurses who ate 2 to 3 servings of whole grains daily were 43%
less likely to have an ischemic stroke (blockage of the artery feeding the brain)
than those women eating less than 1 serving per day.
The benefits of whole grains
aren't just for women - eating whole grains helps men live longer & healthier lives, too. Boston researchers examined
associations between whole-grain cereal intake & risk of death from all causes in data drawn from 86,190 U.S. male physicians
participating in the Physicians’ Health Study.
Researchers followed the physicians over a period averaging 5 1/2 years.
Higher whole-grain cereal consumption compared to refined grains was found to significantly reduce the risk of dying not only
from heart disease but in fact from all causes.
How much whole-grain food should you eat?
The most recent U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) food guide pyramid
(http://www.mypyramid.gov) recommends consuming
3 whole-grain servings daily.
If you’re like most Americans, though, your whole-grain intake is woefully
short of this goal. According to the USDA, on average we barely even get in one wholegrain serving per day, with only roughly 7 % of Americans eating 3 a day.
The reason, say some nutrition scientists, is that Americans have become lazy about cooking & eating whole grains because they take longer to cook, chew & digest than refined
grains. Perhaps it's also true that outside of your grocery or health food store, whole grains are nearly impossible to find.
When is the last time you ordered quinoa
at McDonald’s?
My advice is that you don’t follow
the path of the 46% of all adults who eat no whole grains at all. Instead, try to get in at least 3 servings each day
to increase your fiber & nutrient intake & begin reaping the plethora of health benefits.
Eating a morning bowl of oatmeal
is a great first step to get you 1/3 of the way there.
The Cholesterol-Lowering Power of Oats
Scientists have long recognized that oats lower cholesterol, especially “bad” LDL
cholesterol & have proven it in at least 50 studies in humans over 40 years of research.
Furthermore, oats reduce LDL cholesterol without a concurrent reduction
in the level of “good” HDL cholesterol - & may even raise HDL. Some time ago, researchers at the Univ.of California,
Davis, performed a study in which 84 grams (roughly 3 ozs.) of oat bran
(the most soluble fiber-rich portion of oats) were added to the subjects’
usual low-fat diet. LDL cholesterol fell an amazing 17% in just 6 weeks.
Why should
you choose oatmeal over a refined wheat cereal such as Special K for breakfast? Researchers at Colorado State Univ. showed
that eating oats can change the characteristics of LDL particles to a more desirable fatter & fluffier shape.
36 subjects were given either an oat cereal or a wheat cereal for 12
weeks. Not only did the amount of dangerous small, dense LDL particles drop considerably in the oat-eating group, but members
also showed beneficially altered LDL particle size.
This change protects you against heart disease because the smaller or denser LDL particles are more susceptible to oxidation, have less
of an affinity for the liver LDL receptors (recall that the receptors are the only way
out of the bloodstream for LDL), remain in the bloodstream longer than larger LDL particles & can slip
into the arterial wall easier.
Copyright © 2006
Janet Brill, PH.D.
Excerpt from:
"SUGAR SHOCK! How
Sweets & Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life & How You Can Get Back on Track"
By Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C., with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D.,
Foreword by Nicholas Perricone, M.D.
(Berkley Books, Jan. 2007)
Excerpt
from Chapter 13: It Might Not Be “All in Your Head”: What Your Doctor Doesn’t
Know or Believe About Hypoglycemia
"Bipolar II with psychotic episodes." That's
the diagnosis a psychiatrist handed Stephanie B. of Chico, California, when she was 23 years old.
By the time a psychiatric hospital rendered the "bipolar" verdict, Stephanie had spent a decade trying to pinpoint
the cause of her:
-
depression
-
mania
-
panic attacks
-
anxiety
-
fatigue
-
temper outbursts
-
excitability
-
psychotic-like episodes
-
confusion
-
concentration problems
-
headaches
These symptoms disabled her so thoroughly
that at times she couldn't get out of bed & she had to drop out of school 4 times.
Physicians,
psychologists & psychiatrists were particularly mystified by Stephanie's strange, scary panic attacks - like the time
when, after skipping a meal & rushing to a physics class, her legs wouldn't budge & she felt stuck in the deep end
of a swimming hole.
Or the incident when she started to hyperventilate while driving down
a 6-lane highway, developed "extreme tunnel vision," & had to pull over to avoid collision with an oncoming car.
Doctors
prescribed medications to help her cope - a litany of drugs that reads like a pharmacology manual:
-
Zoloft
-
Depakote
-
Risperidol
-
Imipramine
-
Klonopin
-
BuSpar
-
Paxil
-
Trazodone
-
Ativan
-
Ambien
But the meds helped to bring about
another problem. In a year and a half, the 5-foot, 10-inch Stephanie ballooned from "anorexic looking" to 215 pounds.
Curiously, not one in the succession of doctors she saw ever asked Stephanie about her diet, which
included many:
such as:
-
pasta
-
corn tortillas
-
corn chips
-
blueberry muffins
-
sweet rolls
-
cookies
-
smoothies
-
croissants
-
pizza
-
bagels
On several occasions, she even asked
her doctors if she had a blood sugar problem.
"I'd explain that if I didn't eat at crucial moments in my day, I'd turn irritable & get a devastating
headache. But the doctors paid no attention," she recalls.
"Once in a while, they'd give me a blood sugar test
right then - when I wasn't having any symptoms - &, of course, my results would come back normal."
Meanwhile, as her 20's slipped by,
Stephanie's distress continued, especially near that time of the month.
"I was putting everything down to PMS," she says.
"I'd have horrible mood swings, cramps, bloating
& migraines for a week out of every cycle. One day, I got so upset with my husband that I slapped him across the face
for no reason."
Finally, in 2002, just before her 31st
birthday, after some 20 years of anguish & agony, Stephanie learned the cause of her problems, but not from a medical
doctor.
Instead, a nutritionally savvy acupuncturist
who'd been treating her for a dog bite suspected that Stephanie might have reactive hypoglycemia or low blood sugar caused
by her diet high in sugars & refined carbs.
Almost immediately, Stephanie stopped
eating processed carbs & deserts. Instead she had meals & snacks with protein, healthy fats, vegetables, some low-sugar
fruits & whole grains. Within days, her health dramatically improved.
"Eating right banished all my symptoms including depression & mood swings," she marvels. "It
even helped me get rid of my constant hunger & excess weight. And I've discovered a whole new world of tasty, healthy
foods."
THE GREAT IMMITATOR
Stephanie's story isn't so unusual. Quite the opposite.
In fact, I believe, as do a number
of medical experts, that reactive hypoglycemia is one of the most common & misunderstood disorders in America today.
For starters, many physicians assume that ailments such as mood swings,
fatigue & anxiety are manifestations of psychological problems.
Moreover, hypoglycemia has been called the "Great
Imitator" because its strange, startling symptoms - some experts list as many as 125 of them - can mimic a frightening array
of diseases & conditions, including:
Given the vast array of symptoms and the confusion they can generate,
doctors often shrug away patients' complaints as the imaginings of a hypochondriac in dire need of psychiatric help.
…Obviously, not all patients with anxiety, depression, heart palpitations, migraines &
other symptoms have hypoglycemia - they could have other very real conditions - but if they do have low blood sugar, it can
be a revelation & relief to learn about it.
Diet & Weight Loss Tutorial
(FAQ)
Why is eating healthy foods important for weight loss?
People that eat mostly
unprocessed foods including fruits, vegetables & whole grains often find that they can eat as much as they want without
gaining weight. If they're switching from a diet containing a lot of meat & junk food, they find that they can eat more
yet consume fewer calories. And they lose weight.
Because fruits, vegetables
& whole grains are high in fiber & fluid content, they're absorbed more slowly & satisfy our feelings of hunger
more completely.
Processed foods,
on the other hand, are not only low in nutritional value but are so slow to make us feel satisfied that we eat more of them.
They're made from refined ingredients that are so tasteless they require large amounts of salt, sugar, fat & high-priced
advertising to make them attractive.
Perhaps our biggest
nutritional mistake has been turning away from foods in their natural state. We have replaced them with processed foods that
have been modified to last longer; be easier to manufacturer & distribute & be more convenient to use & store.
- Natural foods are nutritious & contain
much of what's good for us including vitamins & minerals, fiber, the cancer-fighting antioxidants found in fruits &
vegetables & the sustained energy provided by whole grains. They reduce our risk of heart disease, diabetes & cancer.
- Processed foods are substantially less nutritious & contain
much of what isn't good for us including sodium, preservatives, sugars, saturated fats & trans fatty acids. The most nutritious
part of whole grains is the outer cover, the part that's removed to make white flour & white rice.
Eat healthy, natural
foods with a high ratio of nutrients to calories & you'll not be fat & you'll not go hungry. You'll be healthier,
too.
To see how eating
healthy, highly nutritious foods can bring quick, safe weight loss, see How can I lose weight quickly, safely & keep it
off?
Learning to eat well
is the only solution to long term weight loss.
Why is eating fiber important for weight loss?
While fiber has no nutritional value, it is very healthy
for us. It helps to keep our bowel movements regular and ward off certain diseases. Carcinogens in our intestines bind to
it and move through our colon more quickly than they otherwise would, reducing our risk for colon cancer. Fiber also helps
transport cholesterol out of our body, reducing our risk for heart disease.
Populations that eat greater amounts of fiber-rich
foods are generally healthier. While all of the reasons for this are not known, it may be because the fiber-rich foods themselves
are healthier. Perhaps fiber's greatest value, however, is in helping to keep us slim.
Fiber makes us feel full sooner and stays in our stomach
longer, slowing down our rate of digestion and keeping us feeling full longer. Due to its greater fiber content, a single
serving of whole grain bread can be more filling than two servings of white bread. Fiber also moves fat through our digestive
system faster so that less of it is absorbed.
Fiber is the part of plant-based foods that your body
can't digest. Meat and dairy products contain no fiber, and refined grains have had most of their fiber removed. To increase
your intake of fiber, eat more whole and natural foods and less processed foods. Some good examples of fiber-rich foods include:
- Legumes (beans, lentils, peas)
- Other Vegetables
- Fruits
- Brown rice
- Whole grains (wheat, oats, barley)
Products labeled "whole grain" are made with the complete
grain kernel whether the grain remains intact as in oatmeal or it is ground to make bread, pasta or cereal. "Cracked wheat"
is also made from the complete kernel, but don't be mislead by wording like "100% wheat" or "multi-grain." Don't be misled
by color, either. Most "wheat bread" is almost identical to "white bread" except that caramel coloring has been added to make
it look more natural.
Refined grains like white rice and those used to make
white bread and sugary breakfast cereals have had most of their fiber and nutrients striped away. They turn into blood sugar (glucose) so fast that, like sugar itself, they can cause a spike
in our insulin level. This tells our body that plenty of energy is readily available and that it should stop burning fat and
start storing it.
However, the greater concern with the insulin spike
is not that it tells our body to start storing fat. This is because whatever we eat that we don't burn up eventually
gets turned into fat anyway.
The greater concern is that the insulin spike is followed
by a drop in insulin level that leaves us feeling tired and hungry and wanting to eat more. The unfortunate result of this
scenario is that it makes us want to eat something else with a high sugar content. When we do, we start the cycle all over
again. Eating foods with plenty of fiber will help keep our blood sugar level more consistent.
Adding more fiber to your diet will likely help you
lose weight and improve your health. But do it gradually. Rapid fiber increases may result in gas or diarrhea. And be sure
to drink plenty of fluids when adding fiber to your diet. While fiber is usually helpful to your digestive system, without
adequate fluids it can cause constipation instead of helping to eliminate it.
How does my blood sugar level affect my weight?
When we eat, our bodies convert digestible carbohydrates
into blood sugar (glucose), our main source of energy. Our blood sugar level can affect both how hungry and how energetic
we feel, important factors when we are watching how we eat and exercise. It also determines whether we burn fat or store it.
Our pancreas creates a hormone called insulin that
transports blood sugar into our body's cells where it is used for energy. When we eat refined grains that have had most of
their fiber striped away, sugar, and other carbohydrate-rich foods that are quickly processed into blood sugar,
the pancreas goes into overtime to produce the insulin necessary for all this blood sugar to be used for energy. This insulin
surge tells our body that plenty of energy is readily available and that it should stop burning fat and start storing it.
However, the greater concern with this insulin surge
is not that it tells our body to start storing fat. This is because whatever we eat that we don't burn up eventually
gets turned into fat anyway. The greater concern is that the insulin surge is followed by a drop in insulin level that leaves
us feeling tired and hungry and wanting to eat more. The unfortunate result of this scenario is that it makes us want to eat
something else with a high sugar content. When we do, we start the cycle all over again.
What You Can Do
- Be aware of the amount of sugar you are consuming in beverages,
especially coffee and soda pop. It can add up quickly, and most drinks aren't filling.
- Be cautious with "fat-free" products. Sugar is often used to replace the flavor that is lost
when the fat is removed.
- Be cautious with products labeled "no sugar added." It doesn't
mean that the product doesn't naturally contain a lot of sugar.
- Sugar comes in many forms, including fructose (from fruit and
honey) and high fructose corn syrup. 100% fruit products often contain concentrated fruit juice, still another form of fructose
or sugar.
Table sugar (sucrose) is often said to provide "empty calories"
because it has no nutritional value other than providing fuel for energy. Honey and other more natural sugars are sometimes
considered to be healthier because of the trace vitamins and minerals they provide.
For diet planning purposes, however, all of these forms of sugar
can simply be treated as sugar.
It is also important to understand what happens when
we skip a meal or go on a crash diet. Our bodies were designed with the survival mechanism of hoarding fat to protect us from
famine. When we skip a meal or go on a crash diet, our bodies think they are starving and slow down our metabolism to conserve
energy. What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes mostly from water and muscle.
Regulating your blood sugar level is the most effective
way to maintain your fat-burning capacity. Never skip a meal, especially breakfast, and eat healthy snacks between meals.
Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs, provides consistent energy, and maintains metabolism efficiency.
When you will be away from home or work, plan your
snacks and take them along so that you will be able to eat regularly and won't be tempted by junk food. This may be good advice
for people that stay at home, too. But remember that it was probably snacking between meals that caused you to become overweight
in the first place. It will be very important that the snacks are healthy; pre-portioned so that you won't be tempted to overeat;
and that the meal sizes are reduced to compensate for the additional calories the snacks provide.
High fiber snacks and meals also help to regulate your blood sugar level.
The fiber slows down glucose absorption and your rate of digestion, keeping your blood sugar level more consistent and warding
off feelings of hunger. This makes eating apples and oranges a better choice than drinking (pulp free) apple and orange juice.
A Note about Diabetes
Some people either produce too little insulin or their
body doesn't respond to it properly. This creates too high a level of blood sugar in their blood which leads to diabetes.
For further information please visit the American Diabetes Association website.
What should I know about eating fat?
Study after study has shown that people in countries
that eat mostly low fat, plant-based diets have lower rates of obesity, heart problems, cancer and many other maladies. But
when these populations are introduced to the fat-laden Western diet -- either because it is brought into their countries or
because they move to countries influenced by it -- their rates of these maladies sharply increase.
One of the reasons we love fat so much is that it carries
flavor. But if you are trying to lose weight, it is important to remember that a gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram of
protein or carbohydrate.
Foods like cheese stand out as among the most fat-laden,
with a great number of their calories coming from fat. But as important as it is to select the healthiest foods, it is also
important to consider how they are prepared.
Fried foods, especially deep-fried, contain a great
amount of fat. While chicken and fish are usually leaner than beef, they can contain more fat than beef when they are fried.
Look at how the number of grams of fat in a chicken breast changes depending on how it is cooked:
| Cooking Method |
Fat |
| Meat Only, Roasted |
3.1 |
| Meat Only, Fried |
4.1 |
| Meat and Skin, Batter Fried |
18.5 |
Be careful with salad dressings, mayonnaise, and other
condiments that are high in fat content. They greatly increase the calorie count and can easily negate the healthy aspects
of a meal. Replace mayonnaise-based condiments with fat-free alternatives like fat-free yogurt, mustard, ketchup and barbecue
sauce.
But don't try to eliminate fat altogether. While you
should limit foods high in saturated fat, fat is necessary to maintain a healthy body. Many people eat too much of the bad
fats, but also eat too little of the good fats required for optimal health.
Types of Fat
The following paragraphs introduce some of the different
types of fat we eat. As you better understand the different types, you will learn which types are best avoided, as well as
which types you should include in your diet plan.
A high-fat diet increases the risk of heart disease
and cancer. But a low-fat diet could be even worse if it contained the wrong kind of fats.
- Saturated Fats: In saturated fats, the carbon atoms contain
all the hydrogen atoms they can hold, thus the term "saturated." They come mostly from animal products, but also include tropical
oils such as coconut and palm. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Examples include butter, cheese, and the fat
found on meat.
Saturated fats play the single greatest role in raising blood
cholesterol and putting us at greater risk for heart disease.
- Unsaturated Fats:
- Monosaturated Fats: Monounsaturated fats come from vegetables.
They remain liquid at room temperature, but become less fluid when refrigerated. Examples include canola, olive and peanut
oils. Monosaturated fats are also found in avocados, olives and most nuts and seeds.
- Polysaturated Fats: Polyunsaturated fats also come from
vegetables, but they remain liquid both at room temperature and when refrigerated. Examples include corn, sunflower, safflower
and soybean oils.
Unsaturated fats are better for you than saturated fats.
- Hydrogenated or Trans Fats: Hydrogenated fats are created
from unsaturated vegetable fats through a process that adds hydrogen. The process creates trans fatty acids, which are more
like saturated fats; they last longer and remain solid at room temperature. Trans fatty acids are found in margarine, doughnuts
and pastries, deep-fried foods and chips, and microwave popcorn. All the bad stuff we love to eat.
Trans fatty acids raise blood cholesterol, though not as much
as saturated fats. They do, however, raise LDL or "bad" cholesterol while lowering HDL or "good" cholesterol. Watch for trans
fatty acids on package labels, and where they are not listed watch for ingredients containing partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated
oils.
A food containing no animal products and labeled "cholesterol
free" would look like a healthy food to anyone. But look closely. If it contains trans fatty acids, it could be unhealthy
for everyone.
- Cholesterol: Cholesterol is a waxy substance that our
bodies require for good health. However, excess cholesterol accumulates on the walls of our arteries and can lead to heart
disease.
Our bodies produce sufficient cholesterol on their own; most
of the dangerous, excess cholesterol in our blood comes from eating other animals. Cholesterol is found in high-fat dairy
products; egg yolks; liver and other organ meats; and high-fat meats and poultry skin. Plants contain so little cholesterol
that they are generally considered to be cholesterol-free.
- Essential Fatty Acids: Our bodies require these fats
for good health, but can't produce them so they must be eaten. The primary essential fatty acids are linoleic acid, an omega-6
fat, and alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fat.
Most people eat more omega-6 fats than needed and fewer omega-3
fats than are required for optimal health. Omega-6 fats are found in polyunsaturated fats like corn and safflower oils. Omega-3
fats are found in flaxseed, walnuts, green soybeans, tofu and certain fish including albacore tuna, salmon, lake trout, sardines,
herring and mackerel.
The actual content of a particular fat is not as clearly
defined as these descriptions would lead you to believe. For example, beef fat is listed as saturated, but its actual content
is just over half saturated. Olive oil is listed as monounsaturated, but its actual content is just over three-quarters monounsaturated.
Olive oil is so often referred to as being a healthier
fat that you might think of it as being healthy. But it is still pure fat, and 14% of it is saturated. Remember that fat is
the nutrient which contains the greatest number of calories per gram. It is also the nutrient which your body most easily
turns into body fat.
Butter or Margarine
The American Heart Association recommends margarine over butter due to the cholesterol content
of butter. If you do use margarine, note that softer margarines have been hydrogenated less and therefore contain fewer trans
fatty acids. Tub margarine is usually better for you than stick margarine because it is less hydrogenated.
There are also butter and margarine substitutes available
that contain neither cholesterol nor trans fatty acids.
i told my family that i "quit" baking & that they couldn't bring any sweets into the house...
the kids were looking at me like i was a crazy woman. i felt
very guilty about depriving them of their sweets, after all, it was thru those baked goodies that i had, as a child, felt
loved by my mother and no other way. i was concerned that my children would ever think anything remotely like this, so this
nailed the final board over the "goodie jar."
How does salt affect my weight?
Salt does not cause your body to gain or lose fat.
In fact, salt has no calories. High consumption of salt only results in temporary weight gain as it causes your body to retain
water. Conversely, low consumption of salt can result in temporary weight loss as it causes your body to expel water.
It is interesting to note that many crash diets which
boast quick weight loss rely on foods with little or no salt content. The weight loss is mostly water, and as soon as you
eat foods containing salt again you regain the weight.
Salt is, therefore, of little concern in regards to
long-term weight loss. It may, however, affect your blood pressure.
Salt versus Sodium
We add table salt (sodium chloride) during cooking
and at the dinner table to enhance the flavor of our food. Manufactures add it, often in great quantities, to return flavor
to processed foods and help preserve them. But when we look at nutrition content, we look at sodium.
Though the terms are often used interchangeably, salt
and sodium are not the same. Sodium, which is found naturally in most foods, accounts for approximately 40% of table salt.
Therefore when salt is added to food, the sodium content increases by approximately 40% of the amount of salt added.
Why Salt Causes Water Retention
Our bodies rely on electrolytes, most significantly
sodium and potassium, to carry the electrical impulses that control our bodily functions. In order for our bodies to function
properly, it is important that the electrolyte concentrations in our bodies remain constant. It is therefore important that
we do not completely eliminate salt from our diet.
High concentrations of electrolytes in our bloodstream
trigger our thirst mechanism to ensure that we consume adequate amounts of water to maintain proper concentrations of electrolytes.
This is one of the reasons bars provide free salty snacks like pretzels and peanuts. The salt causes us to become thirsty
and purchase more drinks.
Our kidneys keep the concentrations of electrolytes
in our blood constant by increasing or decreasing the amount of water we retain. As a result of our kidneys retaining more
water in our blood, our blood pressure may increase.
The water also moves beyond our bloodstream. Through
the process of osmosis, water flows from a lower salinity environment to a higher one in an attempt to make the levels of
salinity equal. After we consume large amounts of salt, it is the water moving from our bloodstream into our skin that gives
us that "puffy" look and makes it hard to get our rings off. Then, when we consume lesser amounts of salt, the same process
works in reverse to remove excess water from our bodies.
Salt and High Blood Pressure
Some people are "salt sensitive" which means that consumption
of salt can increase their blood pressure. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is an important risk factor for both heart
attack and stroke.
For information on high blood pressure, including methods
of lowering it and recommended levels of sodium consumption, please visit the American Stroke Association and American Heart Association websites.
How much fat is there in 2% milk?
To put it another way, "What percent of calories come
from fat in milk that is labeled 2% milk fat?" The obvious answer, 2%, is very wrong.
| Milk |
Calories
from Fat |
| Whole or 4% |
46% |
| 2% |
35% |
| 1% |
20% |
| Nonfat |
0% |
It is true that only 2% of the total volume of 2% milk
is fat. After all, milk is mostly water. But such statements are also very clever marketing ploys as they suggest that there
are very few fat calories in the product. You will find other items described similarly, such as 97% fat-free ham or 99% fat-free
turkey.
Our point is simply that if you are watching fat consumption,
you need to examine the actual number of fat calories or grams of fat in a product. And remember, a gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram
of protein or carbohydrate.
it
has taken me a few years into the journey of recovery to see some very "mixed messages"
that were given to me, beginning in my childhood, about food &
love.
i had a concept in my mind somewhere that i wasn't conciously
aware of - something about eating all those sweets & feeling comfort or love i received in result of my mother's constant
attention to the fact that we "needed" homemade cookies
& goodies in our house at all times.
it was the only link i could find between my mother &
myself concerning her concern or love for me. she had been so serious & stern as a mother, showing no emotion or feeling
& most importantly - she never told me she loved me or
embraced me physically in any way that would convey love or concern.
what messages are you giving
your children about food? are you teaching them the nutritious values of food? are you teaching them good eating habits?
not if you're a night eater & you're starving yourself all day to lose some of the weight
you may have gained the night before from all the food you consumed.
think about it... it's true...
the diet link to sleep....
Turkey does have the makings of a natural sedative in it, an amino acid called tryptophan. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, meaning that the body can't manufacture
it.
The body has to get tryptophan & other essential amino acids from food. Tryptophan
helps the body produce the B-vitamin niacin, which, in turn, helps the body produce serotonin, a remarkable chemical that acts as a calming agent
in the brain & plays a role in sleep.
So you might think that if you eat a lot of turkey, your body would produce more
serotonin & you would feel calm & want a nap.
That was the conclusion that led many people to begin taking a dietary supplement of tryptophan in the 1980's as a way
to treat insomnia, but the U.S. Food & Drug Administration banned tryptophan supplements in 1990 because of an outbreak of eosinophilia-myalgia, a syndrome that causes muscle pain & even death. The FDA said contaminated tryptophan supplements caused the outbreak.
But nutritionists & other experts say that the tryptophan in turkey probably won't trigger the body to produce more
serotonin because tryptophan works best on an empty stomach.
The tryptophan in a Thanksgiving turkey has to vie w/ all the other amino acids that the body is trying to use. So only
part of the tryptophan makes it to the brain to help produce serotonin.
It is the whole traditional Thanksgiving meal that can produce that after-dinner lethargy. The meal is quite often heavy
& high in carbohydrates -- from mashed potatoes, bread, stuffing & pie & your body is working hard to digest that food.
Also, if you drink alcohol w/ your dinner, you will likely feel its sedative effect, too.
There is a way to take advantage of the tryptophan in turkey. If you have trouble getting to sleep one night while there
is still leftover turkey in the refrigerator, you could have a late snack of turkey & that, nutritionists say, might be the right amount of tryptophan on an empty
stomach to help produce some serotonin.
Eat Fat, Be Happy
By Annette Kornblum
A friend & I are dining at a neighborhood restaurant on
a hearty meal of fettuccini Alfredo, mozzarella & tomato salad & bread dipped in olive oil. High in carbohydrates
& fat, so-called comfort foods are an effective stress remedy.
"I eat fattening foods when I'm bored or depressed because it's something to divert me from my bad moods & it tastes good," my friend says. But "afterwards,
it makes me feel worse because I know I shouldn't have eaten it."
When the going gets tough, people gravitate to the feel-good foods that we remember fondly from
our youth everything from macaroni & cheese to baked beans, ice-cream & candy bars.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an AC Nielson survey of grocery store sales reported
a brief 12% surge in snack foods sales.
Guilty: To Be or Not to Be?
Do indulging in these simple pleasures come at the price of your waistline, health & a guilty after-taste?
The verdict is decidedly mixed. The upside for my friend, who stays physically fit & keeps her cravings under control,
is that she need not have eaters' remorse. "Even if you eat the most decadent dessert, if you control the portions, you can
feel good about it & about yourself & move on," says Connie Diekman, a registered dietician & spokesperson for
the American Dietetic Association (ADA).
Easier said than done. "The mind set in this country is that bigger is better," pronounces Margo Wootan, director of nutrition
policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Case in point: super-sized servings of fries, sodas, muffins &
pasta are standard fare at many fast food & sit-down restaurants. "No one food is to blame but almost all foods are getting
bigger in serving sizes," Wootan says.
According to David Katz, M.D. at the Yale University School of Medicine, overindulging in fatty, salty, & sweet foods contributes to weight gain, & obesity itself can be a death
sentence from diabetes, heart disease & cancer.
"People say they occasionally have a hot dog, hamburger, & french fries, but when asked 'what else do you eat,' they
say 'nothing,' meaning they're excluding whole grains, fresh fruits & vegetables," says Katz. "A poor diet & low levels
of physical activity either have, or soon will, overtake tobacco as the leading underlying cause of premature, preventable
death in the US, resulting in almost 400,000 deaths per year."
Choosing Healthy Fats
In
moderation, fats in foods boost energy when you're sluggish & help the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins. There is growing
evidence that one of the healthiest edibles is the vice you're supposed to avoid: fat.
Not just any variety will do. You want the healthy, omega-3 fats found in nuts, olive oil, avocados & cold-water fish
like salmon & mackerel, rather than the saturated, trans-fatty acids found in beef, butter, chips, cookies & many
other foods. When it comes to fat, it pays to read the labels.
Two recent studies, one from Penn State, the other from Harvard University, found that comfort foods alone won't tip the
scale. To the contrary, researchers at Penn State reported that a diet rich in peanut butter, of all things, can both help
shed pounds & prevent heart disease.
Why can't we resist comfort foods? Their lure has both chemical & emotional
triggers. "Some foods work on serotonin levels in the brain to produce a calming effect," Diekman says. "Adjusting your blood
sugar levels by not being hungry can relax you."
Bernadette Latson, a dietitian & assistant professor at
the University of Texas, Southwest Medical Center, says women may be more susceptible to
stress eating because of the peaks & valleys in estrogen during the menstrual cycle & brain chemicals that regulate
hormone & insulin levels.
Premenstrual changes can push women to eat more chocolates,
chips & other foods associated w/serotonin & insulin because their blood sugar is falling.
"Stress...triggers a drop in serotonin & leads to a craving for sweets & starches, which help you cope," says Latson.
"Because they help improve your mood & trigger happy memories, it's a learned response to eat chocolate, cookies &
cake when under stress simply because we associate them w/a sense of security."
Top Picks: Salt, Sugar, Fat
Comfort
food preferences seem to vary by gender but salt, sugar & fat are consistently top picks.
In a survey of 1,005 consumers, Brian Wansink, a professor of marketing at the University of Illinois/Champaign, found
that men & women both chose ice ream as their favorite. Women listed chocolate & cookies as their 2nd & 3rd choices,
while men picked soup & pizza or pasta. "With the exception of ice cream, males generally claim they received more comfort
from hot meals & from main meals than females," Wansink reported.
There are other gender differences. Diners who suppress their appetites & engage in emotional eating to relieve stress
may each be especially vulnerable to poor eating habits: Researchers at the University College, London, found these behaviors
are more common in women than men when they measured the eating attitudes & food preferences of 68 male & female study
subjects.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: stressed or unstressed. The stressed group were given 10 minutes
to prepare a 4 minute speech they were told must be delivered after lunch. The unstressed group listened to a neutral presentation
before the meal. At lunch, researchers found that emotional eaters in the stressed group ate more sweet, high-fat, energy-dense
foods, such as cake & cookies, than unstressed & non-emotional eaters.
The bottom line, says Diekman, is that it's okay to splurge on sweets & fats, sort of. "Don't get hung up on eating
a candy bar if most of the time it's not part of your daily routine. If you say you're going to treat yourself once or twice
a week & make healthy choices the rest of the time, the little treats may make you eat more healthy."
Tips for Healthful Eating
Below are some healthful tips from the ADA on enjoying your favorite comfort foods:
- Top low-fat ice cream w/granola, or try sherbet
topped w/fruit.
- Opt for oatmeal-raisin, vanilla wafers or ginger snaps cookies.
- If you prefer salty foods, try popcorn, pretzels dipped in spicy mustard or baked tortilla chips & salsa.
- Instead of having seconds of hot chocolate, milk shakes, & eggnog, drink a glass of water.
- Add naturally sweet sliced or dried fruit to cereal, yogurt or pancakes.
- Add grated, shredded or chopped vegetables zucchini, spinach, carrots to lasagna, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, poultry,
pasta & grain dishes.
- Puree berries, apples, peaches, or pears for a thick, sweet sauce on grilled or broiled seafood or poultry.
- Add peanut butter to a sandwich at night or put it on toast w/breakfast.
- Eat more whole grains & vegetables to be less tempted by sugars & fats.
|
|
|
|
|
When we journey into the "Void",
the truth we discover may be that:
- we really want to quit the awful job
- the dead relationship
- yell & scream
- dance
do anything other than shovel food
& feelings into our body & soul.
I am a binge eater & overeater.
I suffered through years of calorie counting and 'yo-yo' dieting,
with little success. I frantically ate chocolate truffles when I wasn't hungry. I was overweight & ashamed.
One day I luckily stumbled upon Sacredhunger.com. Created by
a recovered bulimic, author ("Living Binge-Free", "Beyond the Food Game") & psychotherapist, Jane Latimer, this innovative
model approaches overeating from a new perspective.
They talk about 'aliveness' & feelings & tuning into
our bodies, not about calorie counting.
This incredible online curriculum (teleclasses & emailed
lessons) gave me my first freedom from binging.
Through the gateway of the wound
When we go beyond calorie-counting we take a journey into the
place where some of the 'yucky' feelings are. But it is exactly in this place, 'through
the gateway of the wound' that we can enter to travel beyond the overeating & binging symptoms, to re-emerge into the
incredible aliveness & joy trapped in the eating patterns.
The following are the steps that led me out of the nightmare
of binge-eating:
10 steps to freedom from emotional eating
1. Love yourself
I learned to love myself even
when I binge; to love the overweight me. This was hard!
When we embrace our negativity (shame,
guilt, fear, anger & grief & fat), we are in essence creating for ourselves a new reality. It doesn't matter
how much shame, guilt, or fear we experience. It doesn't matter what we've done. We know that we are lovable deep down underneath
all the 'garbage'.
2. Give up perfectionism
Welcome to an 'imperfect world'. What is an ideal body or weight? Who is to say? I learned to
see life more as a spiral or zig-zag, not a straight line. Life is more fluid now. Sometimes I still binge, although rarely
& I accept this part of me that binges. I focus more on becoming aware of my hopes & dreams.
3. Break out of the "Being-Nice" trap
Oooh.
This was a 'big' one. How many 'jolly' fat people are crying inside? I used to be the 'nicest' person you would ever encounter.
You could be violating my boundaries, stepping on my shoes & insulting me, but I'd always be sweetly smiling. Afterwards
I might binge. I'm learning the difference between being nice & genuine caring. It's a fine line. If any of the following
feelings are familiar you may be caught in the snares of "the being-nice trap":
"Feeling
extraordinarily dry, fatigued, frail, depressed, confused, gagged, muzzled, unaroused... Feeling frightened, halt or weak,
without inspiration, without animation, without soulfulness, without meaning, shame-bearing, chronically fuming, volatile,
stuck, uncreative, compressed, crazed... not insistent on one's own tempo, to be self-conscious...
A healthy woman is much like
a wolf: robust, chock-full, strong life force, life-giving, territorially aware, inventive, loyal, roving..." Women Who Run
With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
4. Find alternative means of coping
Sharing problems, dialoguing,
journal writing, communicating with Self, dreamwork, reflecting & meditating. I drive near a forest nearby and tune into
nature, let my mind rest from dwelling on problems, try to feel some joy...
5. Nurture yourself in new ways
I give myself what I need.
I sleep when I am tired, eat when I am hungry, love when I feel empty. I enjoy my solitude when I need to be alone & I
share with others when I need to express myself.
6. Be open to Intimacy
I allowed others into my life.
I trusted. This is what I really 'craved'. It's much more fulfilling that the extra cupcake. Yes, it's scary sometimes. But
I meditate more, keep a journal, dialogue with the scared part of me, experiment. I did grief work. I became more sensitive
to people. I became more aware of who was capable of being 'there' for me.
7. Find your Boundaries
Flamenco dancers... True Boundaries
exist as we learn to "focus" our awareness on our core. We learn to protect our core from outside influence & distraction,
we grow our boundaries. Don't think of a boundary as a "line" around you defining your space. Think of it as a field of power.
To help you understand this concept,
think of the image of the flamenco dancer. Think of the kind of intense, deep passion that flamenco dancers express &
how "contained" the flamenco dancer is. That containment allows for the direct focusing of her passion. It isn't loosely falling
all over the place. It isn't scattered & directionless. It isn't being nice & pretty. It isn't, what Clarissa Pinkola
Estes calls, sanitized. The dancer doesn't stop in the middle to answer an irrelevant question, or become distracted by the
details of who is in the audience and who isn't. She is utterly self-contained & focused.
8. Connect
We learn to disconnect in a number
of ways. The most popular & acceptable way is we live from our heads, not our hearts. We learn to put our feelings
aside & relate through our mental functioning. We numb out. We become "nice." We focus on others for the purpose of losing
touch with ourselves. We sabotage our truth in order to be accepted & fit in.
Today I notice when I'm disconnecting.
I also know how I connect: Meditation, going into the woods & nature, being kind to myself & others.
9. "Fall into Heart"
Instead of bingwing, find
your safety resources, (a safe place, people you can trust & call when you feed bad)
& begin to FEEL the feelings instead of stuffing them with food. Fragmentation is the experience of our disconnected,
disjointed & splintered selves. It's an out-of-control feeling, the feelings underneath the binging. It's difficult but
a blessing. This is where the raw stuff is, where the work is. Journal, dialogue, begin to work with the feelings. I was taught
techniques to navigate fragmentation.
10. Stop thinking about Food &
LIVE!
As we heal, we're less obsessed
with food & calorie counting. We take small steps to begin to feel our passions, what excites us & we begin to follow
our inner callings. Food compulsions fall away as an issue, naturally & we move into our fierce aliveness.
Are All Diets Unhealthy?
from Cynthia
M. Bulik, Ph.D. & Nadine Taylor, M.S., R.D. @ about.com
Want the short answer?
Yes. Now, you may be thinking,
"If I don't stay on some kind of diet, I'll just blow up like a balloon. I need to be on a program just to keep control of
myself." But consider that any kind of dieting involves a diet mentality, which ensures failure, encourages you to ignore
hunger & satiety signals & promotes a negative relationship with food, because you have to give up "forbidden" foods
& often, eat foods you don't really like.
This inevitably results
in giving in, which often means bingeing & feeling terrible about yourself. So, though this idea may sound radical, we
firmly believe there's no good diet.
By "diet,"
we mean the conscious restriction of the amounts or kind of foods you're allowed to eat for the express purpose of losing
weight. A diet is something that you go on when you want to change your body & go off once you've reached a certain goal.
Though we certainly do endorse
consuming a wide variety of healthful foods, paying attention to portion sizes & thinking twice before eating a lot of
foods that are high in calories but low in nutrition, we don't recommend following any kind of plan that tells you what, how
much & how often you should eat, without regard for your body's hunger & satiety signals.
And we definitely don't
recommend any eating plan that you go on & then go off.
Although it may sound surprising,
the negative effects of dieting also hold true even if you aren't following a formal diet but still think like a dieter. If
you count grams of fat, opt for high-protein foods while shunning carbs, rely on "safe" foods, beat yourself up for eating
"bad" foods, consciously or unconsciously undereat (which can trigger overeating later), use diet soft drinks or coffee to
quell your hunger, or decide what you can eat based on what you've already eaten today, you're dieting.
The Physical & Psychological Effects of Dieting
Have
you ever noticed that as soon as you go on a diet, all you want to do is eat?
Even
if you weren't particularly concerned about food prior to dieting, all of a sudden you become obsessed with it. You find yourself
preoccupied with what you'll have for your next meal, whether you can have a snack, what others are eating, or even what you'll
allow yourself to eat tomorrow. What's going on?
The mind & the body are
inextricably linked & never is this more apparent than when you go on a diet. Geared to survive during feast or famine,
both body & mind switch into survival mode when the food supply is radically diminished.
While the body turns down
the metabolism & becomes a "slow burner" in an attempt to hang on to every single calorie, the mind gears itself to one overriding purpose: getting food.
The result? Suddenly,
you may find yourself clipping recipes, planning menus, cooking elaborate meals or dishes for others (neither of which you'll eat yourself), or even dreaming about food at night. The message is clear: Your body
wants food & your mind does, too.
After a few days of extremely
restricting your food, you'll probably become more depressed & anxious. Although this may be due to changes in neurotransmitters like serotonin, it may also occur because you're depriving yourself of things that are very pleasurable that aren't replaced by anything else - leaving a pleasure void.
You may suddenly prefer to
spend more time alone - it takes too much energy to deal with others - & your self-esteem may start to drop. Unfortunately, the more depressed, anxious & isolated you become, the more you'll obsess about food.
Some people can hold out longer
than others, but the result is eventually the same: a binge.
You eat something you "shouldn't,"
which makes you feel as if you've blown it. So you let go & eat. During the binge you feel relief - at last you can relax & do what you've wanted to do all along. But you may also feel as if you're in a trance & can't stop yourself. It's
almost as if your body has developed a will of its own; it's going to feed itself whether you like it or not.
As a result, you can end up eating more food in
one sitting than you ever did when you weren't dieting.
Are you crazy?
Absolutely not. This is a
normal, even healthy reaction to a period of semi-starvation, a reaction that made good sense during primitive times. After
a period of famine, it was natural & necessary for our ancient ancestors to overeat. They needed to be able to take advantage of a feast when they had the chance, because the food supply was uncertain.
To make this possible, their
appetites increased after a period of famine. So the same amount of food that would have satisfied them during times of plenty left them feeling hungry after a period of semi-starvation.
The same thing happens to you when you restrict food.
Suddenly, you develop the urge & the capacity to binge & you no longer feel satisfied after eating what you used to consider a normal meal. In short, restrictive dieting can trigger binges & leave you hungry
even after you've eaten normal amounts of food.
This is true for most Runaway Eaters & even for those dieters
who don't develop Runaway Eating problems.
The Psychological Consequences of Dieting
The
psychological consequences of dieting were clearly illustrated in a classic study of the effects of semi-starvation done in
1950 by Ancel Keys, Ph.D. & his colleagues at the University of Minnesota. In the study, 36 healthy, young, psychologically
sound males were observed over a period of 1 year.
During
the first 3 months, the men ate normal amounts of food; during the next 6 months, they were given 1/2 as much food & during
the last 3 months, their food allotment was gradually increased.
During
the semi-starvation period, the men became preoccupied with food & constantly talked about it, read cookbooks, clipped
recipes & daydreamed about eating. When a meal was served, many took an inordinately long time to eat it, trying to make
it last.
Once they made it thru the
period of semi-starvation, the men ate nearly continuously, with some indulging in 8,000 to 10,000 calorie binges.
The men reported that their
hunger actually increased right after meals & some of them continued to eat to the point of being sick without feeling satisfied.
Although most of the men finally
reverted to normal eating patterns within 5 months of the study's end, some continued with their new patterns of "extreme
overconsumption."
We see these same patterns in dieters:
the preoccupation with food; the anxiety, depression & irritability; the tendency to go off the diet & eat more than one would have in the pre-diet days & a propensity toward bingeing even after the diet has ended.
Reprinted from: Runaway Eating: The 8-Point Plan to Conquer Adult Food and Weight Obsessions by Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., & Nadine Taylor, M.S., R.D. © 2005 Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., &
Nadine Taylor, M.S., R.D. (January 2005; $14.95US/$20.95CAN; 1-59486-038-6) Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA
18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling (800) 848-4735 or visit their website at
www.rodalestore.com
Authors: Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D., is the William R. & Jeanne H. Jordan Distinguished Professor
of Eating Disorders at the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She's also a professor of nutrition in the School of Public
Health & the director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program.
Nadine Taylor is a registered dietitian & chair of the Women's Health Council of the American
Nutraceutical Association. She's the author of numerous health books & articles.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
