We set the record straight on what fills you up and what trims you down.
It’s not the fat in foods that makes you feel full
That greasy cheeseburger will leave you feeling full all day, so it’s worth the splurge, right? Wrong! Fat is the slowest food component to clear the stomach, so for years it was assumed that fatty foods slowed digestion and kept you feeling full longer. Recent research proves the proportion of sugar and fat has little or no differences in satiety ratings.
In fact, protein tends to leave people feeling more satisfied than either carbs or fat. The problem with fat is that it has more than twice the calories of protein or carbs.
To eat more and weigh less, reach for foods high in fibre, like fruits and veggies and whole grains. Fibre and whole grains affect feelings of fullness and satisfaction. We don’t know exactly why, but fibre and whole grains could affect the hormones that send the signal to your brain that you’ve had enough to eat.
Missing meals is not a good way to drop kilograms
Research has repeatedly shown that people who eat at regular intervals, starting with breakfast, are better nourished, think more clearly and report fewer mood swings than those who eat erratically. Meal skippers are more prone to weight problems probably because once they do eat, they eat too much of all the wrong stuff. People often think they can save kilojoules by skipping meals, but if they kept food journals they’d find that they more than make up for those saved kilojoules at other times of the day.
Once meal skippers do eat, they find it very difficult to stop, consuming way more kilojoules than people who eat more frequently. Researchers at the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) report that spacing food evenly throughout the day is key to weight-loss success. Weight maintainers eat every four to five hours, regardless of whether it’s a weekday, weekend or holiday.
There are good and bad foods
You may have heard that there are no good foods or bad foods, only good and bad diets. Nutritionally, a potato chip can’t hold a candle to a baked potato. We usually don’t have a problem treating ourselves to those tasty foods, so to say there are no bad foods might be a license for some people to eat anything whenever they want.
If having cookies in the house triggers a person to binge, then that food could be a problem simply because it results in unhealthy behaviors. Enjoy bad foods only once in a while and in reasonable portions but always stock your kitchen with good foods, such as fruits, vegetables and whole-grain breads.
Eating healthfully can save you money
With a little planning, eating well can actually cost less than typical fast-food fare. Granted, wild salmon and imported olive oil cost more than a Happy Meal, but you need to factor in the hidden costs of a diet that is high in fat.
Rand for Rand, health-boosting whole foods are a lot cheaper than fast-food fare. To help pare down your grocery bill, buy less-expensive produce such as apples, oranges, carrots, spinach and cabbage; and purchase whole grains like oatmeal, rice and bulgur in bulk.
No miracle diet will banish cellulite!
Medically speaking, there is no such thing as cellulite. It’s a marketing term for plain old pudge that ripples (mostly on the thighs) in varying degrees in 50-90 percent of women, regardless of clothing size or fitness level.
This clumpy fat results from fat cells stored just under the skin in honeycomb-like structures held in place by bands of connective tissue. The more fat cells stuffed into each honeycomb, the more puckered the texture. Women are more prone than men to dimply fat because our skin is thinner, we have less-even fat distribution, and we store more fat in our hips and thighs. Since cellulite is just ordinary body fat, there is no unique diet trick to remove it.
The bottom line? A kilojoule-controlled, healthy diet plus exercise helps you lose fat throughout your body.
Your body doesn’t need loads of protein
Even if you exercise regularly, you don’t need any more protein than the average couch potato!
If it were true that only a high-protein diet was important for building muscles, everyone on the Atkins-type diet would look like a bodybuilder.
The best diet is one that contains 15-20 percent lean protein, 55-60 percent carbs and 20-30 percent fat. Eat this way and you’ll have no trouble achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.
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