Tag: tuesdaytip

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Combat sugar cravings

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Combat sugar cravings 🍬

Reducing sugar has loads of health benefits: boosting the immune system, improving mood and helping reduce calorie intake. But it’s hard to cut back and beat the cravings for sweet things. So after Easter (and no doubt a lot of sugar!) I thought I’d offer tips to combat those cravings.

#1 Regular meals – have balanced meals spread throughout the day to avoid getting overly hungry and reaching for a sugar fix. Ensure meals have a combination of protein, fats and fibre to keep you satisfied.

#2 Sleep – I’ve talked before about how important sleep is. Less sleep means more hunger hormone ghrelin is produced, so you’re likely to eat more. If you’re not getting enough sleep you’re also likely to reach for a sugar high to get you through your day.

#3 Boost natural sugars – try to up your intake of fruits and sweet vegetables early in the day to combat later cravings. Try berries, applies, sweet potato, beetroot etc, but eat them rather than drink their juice. It’s the fibre in them that helps to slow sugar absorption, thereby avoiding the sugar high and subsequent crash.

#4 Boost gut bacteria – recent research shows that gut bacteria affects which foods you crave. Fermented foods like yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi etc actually reduce sugar cravings. They contain probiotics which supplement “good” bacteria in your gut and help them multiply.

#5 Eat Bitter foods – this is a toughie but bitterness counteracts sweet cravings. When you’re dying for something sweet if you can have something bitter instead it will reduce your craving. Things like grapefruit, rocket, radicchio, radishes and kale are good (try kale “crisps” as an easy snack option). Also after eating bitter food sweet foods taste even sweeter which means you can satisfy the craving with less sugar. So something like an apple will satisfy you when usually it wouldn’t.

Your taste buds regenerate every 3 weeks or so, so the longer you reduce your sugar intake and consume more bitter foods, the fewer sweet-craving taste buds you’ll have left making it easier in the long term.

So time to pair all that left over choc with a nice bowl of kale!

Happy Tuesday 🤗

xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday tip: To snack or not to snack?

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday tip: To snack or not to snack? 🍪

To snack or not to snack .. that’s the question! Conventional diet wisdom promotes regular snacks as an aid to weight loss, however the evidence is mixed.

Pro snacking – when there’s a large gap between meals, your blood sugar drops making you tired, and likely to over eat later. So regular small snacks in between meals will stabilise blood sugar and prevent this. Research shows that this can help people lose fat, particularly those with type-2 diabetes. In this context high protein and fibre and low carb snacks are best. Snacking can also help people who struggle with portion control as it prevents you getting overly hungry and bingeing.

Anti-snacking – whilst snacking can help some people, studies show inconsistent results and it can derail your fat loss. The more you eat the more your insulin levels fluctuate; this rollercoaster can cause cravings and fat storage. To avoid this increase fibre and protein in meals to smooth out the insulin curve and keep you full for longer. Although internet experts often recommend 5-6 meals a day to “keep your metabolism running” research doesn’t support this. Instead of controlling appetite several studies show that snacking can have the reverse effect by causing people to eat more, rather than less. Plus it’s good to feel hungry; you shouldn’t graze all day. The key is a little hunger, but not too much.

Everyone is unique and the desire and need to snack are influenced by age, emotions, activity, main meals etc so you have to work out what’s best for you. Experiment; if you always snack twice a day, try reducing it, and vice versa and see how you feel with different eating patterns, often we eat the way we do out of habit.

So ignore the hype; to snack or not to snack is up to you; your goals, work schedule, food preferences etc and it’s not a requirement for weight loss. But it can be a helpful strategy when used appropriately. One good approach is strategic snacking at around 3/4pm to help stave off evening hunger, and there is some scientific evidence to suggest a plan of three balanced meals and one snack works well for weight loss.

Happy snacking! 🤗xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Less Sleep More Fat

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Less Sleep More Fat 😴

There’s lots of evidence now about the link between sleep and weight. Getting less than 7-8 hrs sleep a night is linked to higher BMI. A 2015 study showed that losing just 30 mins sleep can lead to weight gain and increased risk of obesity by 17% and insulin resistance by 39 % and this multiplies for every further 30 mins lost.

A university of Colorado study found that lack of sleep was linked to food choices and meal patterns. Those with less sleep ate more, but also chose food higher in fat and carbs, ate smaller breakfasts but were more likely to snack after dinner. Another study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that lack of sleep resulted in participants eating an average of 300 extra calories per day (and mostly saturated fats). This is due to the impact sleep has on the hormones that regulate hunger and fullness – ghrelin and leptin.

Ghrelin tells your brain you’re hungry – less sleep means more of this is produced. Leptin, tells your brain you’re full – lack of sleep causes this to drop. So you feel more hungry and less full – meaning you’re likely to eat more. Cortisol levels also increase which cause the body to conserve energy and store fat.

I’ve talked about ways to improve sleep before but key things are reducing exposure to light and electronic devices an hour before sleep, increasing exercise in the day, cutting out caffeine (after 2pm) and alcohol (3 – 4 hr’s before bed) and sticking to a regular sleep schedule of bedtime and waking.

Sweet dreams!

Happy Tuesday 🤗 xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Do you deserve that dessert?

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Do you deserve that dessert? 🍰

One of the important habits to crack when trying to lose weight is eating for reasons not related to hunger. It’s that inner voice that tells you that you “deserve” that dessert, chocolate, glass of wine, or take away. Perhaps you’ve had a really busy day, or you’ve achieved some milestone, or some other reason, and so you deserve to reward yourself with food. It’s emotional eating – both positive and negative and is a massive factor in long term weight maintenance. You are ‘rewarding’ yourself with behaviour which actually makes you feel worse! So how do you stop it?

# 1 Stop thinking of food as something that has to be earned. Food keeps you alive and functioning, it’s essential and you can eat as much or as little as you want, whenever you want – you don’t need to earn or deserve it. You do however need to be ok with the consequences (e.g. if you eat loads of junk food maybe you won’t lose weight). We’re all guilty of it – I often hear myself thinking I’ve ‘earned’ this chocolate – so start reconsidering this approach.

#2 Ask yourself instead – how can I give myself what I really want? How else could you feel rewarded without reaching for that slice of cake? What would be a more effective way to relieve the stress of a busy day than nose diving into a tub of ice cream? How else could you spend that “me time” rather than with a glass of wine? Life is full of ups and downs and you don’t need a special reason to do something that makes you feel better.

So here are some ideas to reward yourself that don’t involve food: take a nap, play your favourite music, do your nails, read a book, do some adult colouring, have a bath, take a walk without your phone with you, have a little dance in your kitchen, call a friend, spend time with your pet, etc

So the next time you find yourself justifying your food or drink choice because you deserve it .. stop and think… and see if there’s another way to reward yourself and break that habit.

Happy Tuesday 🤗xx

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip: Protein isn’t magic!

Dr Nancy P

Tuesday Tip: Protein isn’t magic 🔮

I talked about carbs last week – the devil food 😉 so now I thought I’d touch on the supposed super star – protein. Eat more protein and you’ll lose weight – right? That’s the rhetoric out there isn’t it? Well I’m sorry but protein isn’t magic – I wish it was, but it just isn’t!

The idea that eating more protein will magically alter the laws of thermodynamics and make you lose weight regardless of how much you eat is just silly. There is a basic law of physics at play here – to lower fat content of the body (i.e. to lose weight), you have to reduce the calories consumed, or increase the calories burned – where these calories come from makes no actual difference. In fact it’s been clearly disproved in many studies – in one study from Columbia University they fed participants liquid meals of fixed calories, some with vastly more protein, some with more carbs, some with more fat – but all contained the exact calories required for the participants to maintain their weight. Guess what – they all maintained their weight… even those eating more protein…

Now that’s not to say protein isn’t super important and a useful factor to consider though. There’s no denying that higher protein foods tend to keep you fuller and more satisfied for longer (especially when combined with fats), and as I’ve mentioned before there is a small increase in the calories used to digest protein (very small and not enough to really influence overall weight loss), it’s also full of vital amino acids for muscle repair and building. If you’re a body builder and looking to put on large quantities of muscle in a short time then yes def prioritise protein (but you’ll be over eating anyway as your goal is muscle gain… not weight loss). If you struggle to stick to your calories because you’re always hungry then yes definitely consider upping your protein and fats a bit in your meals – but not at the complete sacrifice of carbs (otherwise you will crash and burn).

So there it is – yes protein is great, but no it isn’t magic! So no need to fret over it too much!

Happy Tuesday 🤗 xx