What if I told you that the feeling that prompts us to walk into the kitchen and open the fridge or pantry is caused by different types of hunger? So often we think of hunger as being one feeling – that gnawing sensation we experience in the morning after our nightly fast or the feeling we have when we get home from work in the afternoon and are anxiously awaiting dinner.
This week I challenge you to try this: next time you feel “hungry” take 10 seconds to stop and differentiate between which type of hunger you’re experiencing. An added perk to taking the time to think about your hunger is that often times we will realize that we do not actually require food and that instead it is something non-food related that we are craving.
Let’s start by going through the three types of hunger that we experience.
When we think “hunger” this type of hunger is often what comes to mind. This is the hunger that we experience when it has been a long period of time, usually 5-6 hours, since we’ve last consumed food. Quite often when we experience stomach hunger our stomach begins to growl. At this time our bodies require food in order to function optimally.
The concept of mouth hunger is probably new to most. An accurate depiction of mouth hunger would be when we crave a food for it’s particular mouth feel or taste. Have you ever craved chips because you’re wanting the crispy crunch and salt? Or craved ice cream for that smooth, cold sensation you get in your mouth? Anytime we eat because we know a food will taste good we are eating because of mouth hunger.
Heart hunger refers to eating because we are experiencing a particular emotion or because of a learned behaviour. This could be indulging in a decadent food after a stressful day at work or needing to have some sort of dessert after a meal.
One of the best ways to determine why we’re eating is to make sure that we are being mindful when we eat. My clients tease me about how often I suggest that they be mindful when eating out, at a party or on vacation. Being mindful is easy to say but what exactly does it mean? What do we do to actually be mindful when we’re eating?
When I say mindful eating it sounds like some spiritual hocus-pocus where you eat in the dark with candles and incense. However, increasing your mindfulness can make a huge difference in how many unnecessary calories you consume in a day.
Below I’ve outlined my top 8 tips for increasing your mindfulness when eating (because this post got a little long, we will break it up to make it a little more manageable). If you begin implementing these strategies into your daily life you may even find that a few of those pesky pounds effortlessly slip away. It is truly amazing how often or what we choose to eat is due to simply being on autopilot during meals or snacks.
The first thing I suggest doing when you feel prompted to open the fridge or pantry for something to eat is to consider the three types of hunger we discussed earlier. Are you eating because you’re bored? Are you eating because you know there is tasty food in the house? Or are you eating because your stomach is growling and your energy is low? Determining why you’re deciding to eat is the first step in being more mindful.
Are we ever really eating anything nutritious when we are standing alone in the pantry with the lights off? I encourage my clients only to eat when they are seated at a table (the driver’s seat of a car does not count). Sitting at a table while we are eating forces us to focus much more closely on what we are actually eating, allowing us to better connect with how satisfied we feel.
Distractions can be your phone, television, computer or even the newspaper, a book or a magazine. I’m sure most of us have experienced a time when we’ve been watching a movie or TV show and eating something, whether it’s a bowl of popcorn (which can be a good snack – see here) or a bowl of grapes, and all of a sudden we reach down and the bowl is empty. Typically when this happens we still have that “hungry” feeling (normally it is mouth hunger) because we don’t really remember eating what was in the bowl because we were so focused on something else.
Later this week we will talk about the other 5 tips but for now, I recommend working on implementing these 3 🙂
Yours in Health,
Kristin
*Note: If you feel like you would benefit a program targeted at understanding why you crave the foods you do, check out a Craving Change™ facilitator near you.
Do you find yourself bored of the same old snacks everyday? Do you find yourself reaching for the candy dish or hitting up the vending machine just for some variety? Does your lonely snack of just an apple leave you hungrier than you were before your snack? This may sound like an infomercial but I have some great options for you!
Below I’ve outlined some tasty alternatives for traditional snack foods that are sure to spice up your day and get you excited about your snacks again. These snacks not only have great flavour but they contain a perfect balance of macronutrients (read more about balancing your blood sugar through snacks here). All of these snacks take minimal time to assemble and by preparing several of these recipes ahead of time you will be sure to stick to your nutrition plan this week (remember - it's when we allow ourselves to get too hungry or our blood sugar levels get too low that we don't make the best nutrition choices)!
During the winter months getting enough zinc is important in helping to boost our immune system. Try this recipe to get a great source of zinc and a hit of protein at snack time.
Ingredients
1 cup of pumpkin seeds
2 teaspoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of curry powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Preparation
Preheat oven to 300F.
Coat pumpkin seeds with oil then toss with curry powder and salt.
Roast seeds on a baking sheet for 20 minutes.
I recommend a 1 ounce serving of pumpkin seeds served with 1 apple.
Ingredients
1/4 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
1 tablespoon of coconut oil or butter (for popping on the stove) - omit if you have an air popper
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon of sesame seeds (optional)
Preparation
Pop kernels in a stock pot over the stove with coconut oil/butter.
Once popped, remove from stock pot and toss popcorn with sesame oil and sesame seeds.
I recommend using a stockpot and some coconut oil or butter on the stove to make popcorn. Check out this YouTube video to guide you through making your own popcorn at home.
Health tip: I recommend avoiding the store bought microwave popcorn (even SmartPop or one of those “healthier” varieties). The lining of those microwave popcorn bags (perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C8) is made of the same ingredients used in Teflon pans.
As stated by Dr. Andrew Weil
In June 2005, a scientific advisory panel to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified PFOA as a "likely carcinogen" but drew no conclusions as to whether products made with it pose a cancer risk to humans. However, animal studies have identified four types of tumors in rats and mice exposed to PFOA.
While scientific studies have not established a link between microwave popcorn bags and other products containing trace amounts of PFOA to increases in cancer in humans, the chemical has been shown to cause cancer and birth defects in animals, and it is so pervasive that it's detectable in the blood of 95 percent of Americans.
Ingredients
½ cup chia seeds
2 cup almond milk
1 tbsp maple syrup
4 tbsp raisins
Preparation
Combine all ingredients into 4 - 4 ounce or 8 ounce mason jars (or small glass storage containers)
Stir well and let sit overnight.
Leave jars in the fridge for quick grab-and-go snacks for the week.
Ingredients
1/4 cup of unsalted almonds
1 ounce of dark chocolate (70-80 percent cocoa), melted in microwave or double boiler
1/2 tablespoon of dried cranberries or cherries
1/8 teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt
Preparation
In a bowl, mix together almonds and melted dark chocolate.
Drop mixture onto wax paper.
Refrigerate until set.
Recipe makes 1 serving.
I recommend tripling or quadrupling this recipe to make 3 or 4 servings at one time.
Ingredients
1 ripe avocado, cubed
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh berries
Preparation
Place avocado in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Add the remaining ingredients except the berries.
Serve topped with fresh berries.
May be kept refrigerated for one day until needed. Recipe makes 2 servings.
Hopefully these recipes help to spice up your menu plan this week! Do you have other grab-and-go recipes that you love? Share them in the comments below!
Yours in Health,
Kristin
Stable blood sugar levels are important for everyone, not just people with diabetes. When our blood sugar levels are stable, we have stable energy, stable moods and our hunger remains under control. We’ve all had that feeling before, we have a sugary treat and feel a burst of energy but then before we know it we are feeling tired, hungry or irritable (sometimes all three at once – yikes!) What if I told you that you could prevent (or at least mitigate) these feelings just by combining your foods appropriately?
This term may be new to many of you – the glycemic index refers to the measure of how foods affect your blood sugar and insulin levels. Foods with a high glycemic index will affect your blood sugar and insulin levels more than foods with a low glycemic index.
When we are looking at the glycemic index of different foods, we see that foods are rated on a scale of 0-100. Pure glucose is given a glycemic index of 100 and all other foods are rated in relation to pure glucose. Since foods made up of only fat and/or protein don’t affect blood sugar levels (because only carbohydrate-containing foods affect our blood sugar) they would automatically receive a rating of 0.
High Glycemic Index Rating: 70+
Moderate Glycemic Index Rating: 56-69
Low Glycemic Index Rating: 55 or less
Let’s begin by discussing which foods have the biggest impact on our blood sugar levels. Foods that likely comes to mind are candies, cookies, and chocolates. These foods absolutely have an impact on our blood sugar and insulin levels but other foods that also our impact blood sugar and insulin levels include fruits, vegetables (some more than others), grain products and dairy products. We don’t often think of foods other than indulgent sweet foods as having a significant impact on our blood sugar levels but remember, natural sugar, added sugar and starch breakdown the same way in the body once they are consumed.
Let’s look at some of the numbers:
Grapes - 59
Carrots - 35
Potatoes - 82
Yam - 52
Green peas - 51
Fruit Roll-Ups - 99
You can see a more comprehensive list here.
In order to understand the glycemic load we need to have a good understanding of the glycemic index. So now that we’ve discussed the glycemic index and how different foods affect our blood sugar levels, let’s dive a little deeper and talk about the glycemic load.
The glycemic load is calculated by dividing the glycemic index rating by 100 and multiplying this number by the number of grams of available carbohydrate in the food (the amount of available carbohydrate is found by taking the total number of carbohydrates minus the number of grams of fibre). In simpler terms, glycemic load takes into account how much of a food we will actually consume. Let’s use watermelon for example; the glycemic index of watermelon is 72, which is high. However, the glycemic load of watermelon is only 7, which is low. Why is this? Well, if we eat the whole watermelon (approximately 5 cups), yes our blood sugar and insulin levels are going to be impacted significantly, but if we eat a cup of cut up watermelon (an appropriate serving size) it is not going to have a huge impact on our blood sugar and insulin levels. Make sense?
High Glycemic Load Rating: 20+
Moderate Glycemic Load Rating: 11-19
Low Glycemic Load Rating: 10 or less
Now let’s discuss the components of food that can fight the blood sugar spike caused by simple carbohydrates (sugars) – protein, fat and fibre.
An easy comparison to make would be to compare fruit juice versus a piece of whole fruit. The glycemic index and glycemic load of orange juice versus a whole orange is 50 and 40 respectively. The major difference between fruit juice and a piece of whole fruit is the amount of fibre each contains. One cup of 100% real orange juice contains 0 grams of fibre, whereas a whole orange contains an average of 3 grams.
So what does this tell us? Fibre reduces the glycemic index and glycemic load of a food.
Let’s use yogurt as our second example. The glycemic index and glycemic load of regular plain yogurt is 14 and the glycemic index and glycemic load of plain Greek yogurt is 5. The major difference between these two types of yogurt is the amount of protein they contain.
From this example we can see that protein reduces the glycemic index and glycemic load of a food.
For our last example we will use a slightly different comparison – fruit juice versus a chocolate bar. I use this example because I have heard from many diabetic clients over the past few years that often times they will keep a chocolate bar on hand to help bring their blood sugar up if they are having a low. When I suggest against using a chocolate bar I get the same question, “but one chocolate bar contains ___ grams of sugar, shouldn’t this help bring my blood sugar up quickly?” If we are trying to bring our blood sugar up as quickly as possible (which is only really necessary for diabetics experiencing a low blood sugar level and for athletes manipulating their blood sugar prior to or during an event) we want to have as little fat in the food/meal as possible because fat, like fibre and protein, also slows down the release of sugar into our bloodstream.
In summary, protein, fat and fibre all slow down the release of sugar from food into our bloodstream and therefore reduce the insulin response that these foods cause the body to have.
This is easy and once you start implementing these rules you will notice a huge difference in your energy, mood and hunger levels throughout the day.
At a meal, be sure to have a food that fits into each of these three categories: protein, fat and complex carbohydrate and at a snack have a food that contains fat OR protein WITH a food containing complex carbohydrates.
At a meal this combination of protein, carbohydrate and fat could be:
meat (protein)
vegetables (carbohydrate)
butter/olive oil/coconut oil on the vegetables (fat).
At a snack this could look many different ways:
Challenge this week: look at your meals and snacks to determine whether or not you are optimizing your blood sugar levels with your food choices. Use some of the snack options above and see how you feel at the end of the day. The goal is to make a small tweak with your meal and snack options to maximize your energy, improve your sleep and stabilize your mood.
Do you have some balanced snacks that you love that I didn't list above? Comment below and share!
Yours in Health,
Kristin