By CEZ DONASCO
ONE of life’s pleasures is eating.
The downside of that is gaining weight. But there are ways to indulge in food without necessarily gaining unwanted pounds.
Here are three tips:
1. Count 32 before swallowing your food.
There are different theories about the number of times you are supposed to chew the food before you swallow. It depends on the texture and the type of food. It ranges from 30 to 40 times. A safe count would be 32.
There are many benefits of chewing food properly. Based on the studies made by the researchers in Harbin Medical University in China, chewing the food longer can help one lose weight. Volunteers who chewed a mouthful of food 40 times ate 12 percent less food than those who chewed a mouthful15 times. It also lowers the levels of Ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger.
If you chew the food properly, it will be broken down into finer particles, which are actually very easy to digest, thus allowing your digestive system to do its job efficiently.
When the food particles are already small, the absorption of nutrients begins early from the mouth to stomach. Once it’s already in the small intestine, the nutrients will be easily absorbed. The more you chew our food, the more nutrients are retained in your body.
Chewing food properly enables you to savor every last morsel of it because it helps in the release of its flavor.
Chewing food doesn’t only give satisfaction due to different flavors but also exercises the mouth and helps in strengthening the bones that hold your teeth.
Studies show that it takes 20 minutes for the brain to recognize that you are already full. So if you eat fast, you are more likely to eat a lot before your brain tells you that you are already satiated. Eating slowly lessens your food intake and helps prevent weight gain.
2. Cut fruits and vegetables into large pieces instead of smaller ones.
The smaller the slices of fruits and vegetables, the larger the surface area of the food exposed to air or heat. The larger the surface area of the food exposed, the more nutrients are likely to be lost.
If you can’t prevent from cutting them into smaller pieces due to food presentation or convenience, make sure that the food is consumed shortly after cooking/slicing/shredding etc.
Also, bear in mind that you should only slice/shred your fruits/vegetables until a few minutes that they are to be cooked. While eating the right type of food is important, you will not be able to maximize its nutritional benefits when the nutrients are already lost on the process of preparation.
3. Sleep early.Sleep better. Sleep smart.
The more you stay awake late at night, the greater the chance for you to feel hungry and give frequent visit to your friend that is the refrigerator.
People who do not get quality sleep at night, tend to become more hungry in the morning due to lack of energy. Unfortunately, your body will compensate for your lack of energy by eating more than what is enough, hence the weight gain.
Also, it will affect your metabolism and your appetite-regulating hormones. You have two hormones which regulate your appetite that are produced mainly while you’re sleeping. Ghrelin is the hormone which tells you when to eat, and Leptin on the other hand, tells you to stop eating.
A sleep deprived person has more Ghrelin and less Leptin in their body, which results to a lesser ability to feel full. It is also during the night that the muscle repair and maintenance take place, so if you are not getting enough sleep, your body isn’t getting enough time to get these things done, thus affecting your metabolism because in theory, the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism becomes.
(The author, formerly nutritionist in Fitness First, is a freelance nutrition consultant.)