Grazy

May 29, 2016 –

Last night we were riding with some friends to Houston. I had been working all day and found myself too busy to eat a lunch. We arrived at our destination I had a healthy (by some standards) ‘Brisket Burger Basket’. When they put the tray of food in front of me I thought, oh my gosh, what a bountiful serving! To eat the sandwich I needed three hands, and I forgot to mention I had the side of greasy brown waffle fries! Since I’d missed lunch what do you think I did? Devoured it, all of it! Food coma set in and I had to sit down. Sound familiar? The good news is that I was full for the night. No late night pizza or snacks.

On the drive we somehow started on the conversation about eating frequently, and in moderation. My guess is that my idea of a ‘small’ meal is really an average feast … I love food. Call grazing a crazy notion or grazy!

I’m not sure when ‘grazy’ first occurred, but we’ve gone from a nation of structured “three square meals a day” to grazing all day with small, frequent meals. We do this all in the name of good health and weight control. Does this idea of “fueling” throughout the day really work? Not for most people! While it is well-documented that skipping meals leads to overeating later in the day, eating more often doesn’t really help to control calorie intake any better than eating three meals a day. In fact, eating less often can help cut calories.

The more often you eat, the more likely you are to consume extra calories. And extra calories, healthy or not, contribute to extra weight. It’s also harder to keep track of daily calories when you eat more often — your six smaller meals can easily become six bigger meals. Nobody is truly monitoring us, right? When you eat three times a day (two meals and a small snack if you prefer), you support the regulation of true hunger and fullness. With four to five hours between meals, it is much easier to recognize true hunger, eat a meal, and then sense contentment (fullness). When you’re eating every two hours, with smaller amounts of food, you’re never really hungry and you’re never quite full. That can cause mind-body confusion and lead to overeating. So if your goal is to trim calories for slow and steady weight loss, I’d suggest starting with trimming how often you eat every day.

Stay hydrated between meals with loads of water (flavored with a slice of fruit or splash of juice), herbal teas, or your choice of low-calorie beverage. Remember water is the best low calorie beverage of all!

Please, take this non-grazing protocol as simply a paradigm shift four people had in a car ride and not a new law of nutrition or lifestyle. In many cases such as diabetes, or medicine consumption, food may be necessary more often. But this may be food for thought … are you ‘grazy’? Lol

In good health,

Bob

A guy walks into the doctor’s office. There is a banana stuck in one of his ears, a cucumber in the other ear, and a carrot stuck in one nostril.

The man says, “Doc, this is terrible. What’s wrong with me?”

The doctor says, “Well, first of all, you need to eat more sensibly.”