Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Good advice for smaller portions

A lot of my "new lifestyle" has consisted of changing the way I eat and more importantly, think about food. What's better than a huge plate of the yummiest comfort food, right? Well, comfort food is all right in MODERATION (my new least favorite word, FYI.) I found this article on a blog I started following called A Daily Dose of Dieting and it was really interesting.

The article is about thinking more about your food while you eat it. Here is an exerpt from the article (I encourage you to read the whole thing though, they have some amazing recipe and snack ideas on here like making Kale chips and eating them in place of potato chips! I'm going to get some Kale today and I will report later). Here is the link for the article from Real Age.

"When you lift that forkful of whole-wheat pasta to your mouth, do you think "tasty," or do you think "healthy"? To curb overeating, focus on the mouth appeal.
In a recent study, thinking about a food's delicious flavor rather than its nutritional or health-related benefits helped to curb hunger later in the day.

A Taste That Satisfies
Delectable, savory, juicy, crunchy, yummy . . . all good words to have running through your mind when you munch on something healthy. That's exactly what people in a study did when they ate a chocolate-raspberry protein bar. And eating the bar with those kinds of thoughts in mind made the morsels much more satisfying than when the study participants thought of the treat as a fiber- and vitamin-packed health bar.

Thinking Is Believing
Although nothing could be further from the truth, many people mistakenly believe that healthy, low-cal foods simply can't satisfy hunger the way tasty foods can -- and this type of thinking may help explain the study results."

Such an interesting way of thinking! I often find myself powering through my meal, not really tasting or enjoying any of it and then when I get done, I think, huh. I'm still hungry, don't really remember being satisfied with the taste and now what. Food is meant to be enjoyed and celebrated. If you're doing it right, it's a delicate layering of tastes and spices that should enhance your meal and in turn your life.

What do you think?

2 comments:

  1. I love this! I was reading an article recently along the same lines that found those who spend time enjoying their meal (20 minutes was suggested as an ideal time)feel more satisfied when finished. And I immediately thought "That's because I could eat A LOT of food in 20 minutes". However, several studies have been conducted that show it takes our brain time to catch up with our stomach and send the idea that we are full to our stomachs. So by taking our time when we eat, we allow our body time to send those signals. So it is just a matter of retraining our body to identify that threshold of being satisfied without crossing the line of being too full. It has really changed the way I eat my meals.

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