what to consider when choosing a food

SHBoss1673

I notice, from time to time, that the members of MFP can sometimes have a tendency to over-think this thing we call better health through healthy eating and exercise. To that point, I'm going to give you what I consider the 4 most important things to take into account when choosing foods.

The holidays are a great time to practice this type of strategy. Making a few simple choices during the get together you attend can make all the difference in the world. With that said, I'll dive right into the 4 things I find most important when choosing what foods to eat. Others may have more things they think of, but trying to keep it simple, every time I eat somewhere other than my home (where I can make a great plan and have the "perfect" foods), I run through these 4 things and evaluate how bad I'm being.

1) caloric value - Obviously, eating to many calories, no matter what kind, isn't a good thing. If you don't know, look it up, or avoid it all together. I do, it's not as bad as you've built it up to be in your head. Refusing those cookies or that cake isn't the nightmare that people think it will be. Nobody's going to shriek in horror when you say "no thank you" and your sense of accomplishment will go up. Make no mistake, self confidence is vital to success!

2) portion size - You know the rule of thumb right? If the serving is bigger than your fist, it's to much. That's very general, but in the absence of a scale, or a box with the nutritional info and serving sizes, this is a great practice to use. This goes for most meats, and most carbohydrates. Please note, if adding high fat foods, it should be even smaller. Any high fat food should fit comfortably in your upturned palm (for instance, 1 serving of almonds)

3) nutrient quality - Not something most people take into account when choosing foods. Especially when you are out and about. But think about this. Most foods require some type of catalyst to be used in the way we need. Generally when a food has a high vitamin and mineral content, it's going to be a better choice than one that is all 1 type of nutrient. For instance, when choosing rice, choose whole grain brown rice over white rice. Whole grain keeps the vitamins and minerals with the rice, which means more fiber, more vitamins to activate the carbohydrates and proteins, and a longer digestion time (this ties into the 4th thing below).

4) Glycemic index (or Glycemic load) - GI is the time it takes for your body to digest and metabolize the sugars in the food you eat. Things high in simple sugars have a higher GI than things with starches (complex sugars) and proteins. The longer it takes your body to digest a food, the more evenly your body spreads out that sugar. With high GI foods, blood sugar spikes and fat storage commences. With the exception of after a long (over 90 minutes or so) hard cardiovascular workouts when glycogen stores are depleted, this is almost never a good thing. Better to have foods that have complex carbohydrates and fiber that force the body to take a longer time to turn those carbohydrates into glucose. Glycemic load is just another measure of how much sugar is released. GL just takes portion size into the GI giving you a number more indicitive of how bad that particular serving of a food is. I.E. the GI of a single M&M may be high, but the GL is relatively low because it's so small, but eat 30 or 40 M&M's and the GL is far worse even though the GI doesn't change.

a couple of tips that go along with this.

- Learn your basic food groups, and what's in them. You don't need to know the exact numbers for every food, but in general, it's better to have an idea before hand. This doesn't take as long as one may think to do, Start now, in a few days or a few weeks, you'll be far ahead of the game. Don't rely on a website (like MFP) to tell you how good or bad you're doing.

- Space out your food when you are out. If it's a buffet or appetizer type situation, make your choices ahead of time, look at all the available foods and decide before you start putting things on your plate. Taken as a whole, this will allow you to have what you want and control what you eat. Also, drink water DURING the time you are eating, after each choice, drink 2 oz of water, and let your body digest it for 5 to 10 minutes before going back for the next thing. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes for your body to send your brain signals telling it that you are full. Give yourself the chance to stop before you overeat.

- Eat consciously. don't just plop some food down on your plate. Remind yourself that food is fuel, not something to keep your hands busy when you are talking to uncle Joe or your second cousin Susan. Separate eating from socializing, make a conscious choice to eat your food and THEN talk or talk between eating, not at the same time.

- Don't wish for food! Stop focusing on the pecan pie sitting in the corner. It's not as tasty as it looks anyway. If you shouldn't eat it, don't, refocus yourself on the people, that's what this is supposed to be about.

I know this may seem like a lot of effort at first. Especially if your family is one of the ones that uses food as the "great motivator". Don't be lured in by well meaning family or friends, be strong, say "NO" and mean "NO". You'll feel better afterward, you'll gain confidence, and (usually) your friends and family will respect you for it. There's no reason you can't have a great time while being "good" over the holidays.

Hope this helps guys

-Banks

forthefab5

Great post! Thanks! This is one of my big 'problem areas' when it comes to eating...

TropicalKitty

- Space out your food when you are out. If it's a buffet or appetizer type situation, make your choices ahead of time, look at all the available foods and decide before you start putting things on your plate. Taken as a whole, this will allow you to have what you want and control what you eat. Also, drink water DURING the time you are eating, after each choice, drink 2 oz of water, and let your body digest it for 5 to 10 minutes before going back for the next thing. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes for your body to send your brain signals telling it that you are full. Give yourself the chance to stop before you overeat.

First, I want to say that I agree with a lot of what you say. I think another good rule is being able to identify what something is, like a lot of foods can be processed so much you no longer can identify what products are in them. (I'm thinking some of those fun pasta salad type dishes...funky dips...)

Anyway, about what I pulled from your post above, re: drinking during a meal. I've been told in the past that you really you shouldn't drink a lot around meal time because it dilutes the digestive enzymes. Thus making digestion inefficient, particularly in the mouth. And if you think about it, the amylase in your saliva would be highly diluted. (I know in my previous job we had suggested that people have nothing to eat or drink 30minutes prior to saliva collection for DNA purposes as it was still mostly water.) One nutritionist had said nothing 30minutes prior to meal time and nothing during.

Just something to think about when you are slugging back water to avoid eating more. Sometimes the "tricks" we can pull can be put into use in a way that will not be beneficial internally.

PS- But your point in drinking the water I get, find another distraction from the food to give your brain time to catch up.

IsMollyReallyHungry

bump! Will read later. Thanks Banks and Vicky!

MissJennaBelle

BuMp!! Will definately have a read once Im finished work Thanks!

zumba66girl

bump

thelima

Another great post!!

A trick I've put into play--instead of taking the whole slice of pie, or all of the cookies, choose to taste a bite or one cookie, instead. SAVOR it. Don't just shove it in, chew and swallow, but enjoy the taste, the texture. Don't look at it as deprivation, just know that the one taste/one cookie will be plenty to satisfy the special feeling of celebration/holiday.

Cheers to all and happy holiday eating!

abeare

Ok, so I get all the other points with the exception of the GI-GL one. How would I know if what I’m eating is high GI-GL? I get that processed sugars are high, but is that the only thing to really look out for? Is dairy high or low?

SHBoss1673

Ok, so I get all the other points with the exception of the GI-GL one. How would I know if what I’m eating is high GI-GL? I get that processed sugars are high, but is that the only thing to really look out for? Is dairy high or low?

Depends on the dairy, you can google GI chart to give you a more complete list. Essentially anything with added sugar or HFCS is pretty much guaranteed to be high GL even if the GI isn't that high (that's why GL is important). Remember, our digestive systems were geared towards slowly processing complex carbs from natural foods, it wasn't until very recent that processing carbohydrates became the main way to ingest them. Our bodies are designed to release glucose into the blood as it comes, and designed to take the excess and storing it as fat. Some animals were designed for large carbohydrate meals or large protein meals, we were designed as neither, our carbohydrate metabolisms grew out of an omnivore diet that was relatively low, one time carbs (like picking a root out of the ground and eating it), not large volumes. So our bodies handle large influxes of glucose the only way it knows how, I.E. use what it can and store the rest as adipose fat.

Fortunately it's relatively easy to spot the real big high GI and GL suspects. White flour items (cakes, cookies, pies), fruit preserves (jams, jellies...etc), frostings and toppings (usually have some kind of sucrose or processed fructose in it), certain fruits...etc. Where as things like whole grains, solid cheeses (non-spreadable cheeses are usually, but not always, better), nuts, legumes, whole veggies, lean meats are mostly very low GI and GL. This is all just very general, if you want more, download a GI table and read up. The info is all over the web for GI and GL.

rore1

thank you for this info!!!! most of it I do but the GI thing is what I need to deal with....and I bring my own food everywhere! yes ppl get insulted but that is how it is gonna be until I lose this. Then when I maintain I can bring snacks but the meal I will know how to portion control it and make better choices:)