W-Ending Carbohydrate Cravings: Balancing Blood Sugar (energy and balance)
Th-Mistaking Loneliness and Boredom for Hunger: Understanding Nutrient Density and Satiety (fullness)
F-Distinguishing Between Physical Needs and Cravings: Developing Positive Food Habits (habits and goals)
by Beverly Hyatt Neville
1st lecture: Ending Carbohydrate Cravings: Balancing Blood Sugar (energy and balance)
The Hungers: Why We Eat:
Energy, Balance, Fullness, Habits, and Goals
When your blood sugar is out of control, it is called having brittle blood sugar levels. This leads to fatigue and cravings.
When your blood sugar is too low it causes you to crave carbs. When it spikes too high, it'll come down way too low and you will crave again.
Deprivation will not help you save calories or lose weight. It causes carb cravings and sets off a protection survival mechanism. It reinforces a vicious cycle of overeating.
-eat breakfast within 3 hours of waking
-balance carbs, proteins, and fats (usually protein is the one missing)
-have a meal or snack every 3 to 5 hours
-stabilize evening blood sugar as needed (small bedtime snack)
What are carbs? Carbon + Hydrogen + Oxygen in a ring.
Simple Carbs: simplest-1 ring-glucose; 2 rings-sucrose. Body responds quickly to these. (apple juice)
Starch: 30-300 glucose units. Still relatively easy for the body to digest. (applesauce)
Complex Carb--Fiber: 800-10,000 units. (apple)
To End Cravings:
-normalize blood sugar
-avoid deprivation feelings
-stop feeling guilty about eating
-increase the variety of your foods
The more you eat of something, the less you feel satisfied (the less you eat, the better it tastes).
"Soft drinks are the cigarettes of the obesity epidemic." Kelly D. Brown, Yale.
Liquid calories do not provide satiety.
"Educate your desires." Joseph F. Smith
Good things you may not like may change with enough exposure.
Natural Energy Enhancers:
-improved sleep patterns
-30 min/day of moderate physical exercise
-water consumption
-reasonable blood sugar peaks and valleys
-complex carbs
Moving your body will help you regulate your blood sugar (insulin levels).
2nd Lecture: Mistaking Loneliness and Boredom for Hunger: Understanding Nutrient Density and Satiety (fullness)
Don't eat every single day as if it's your birthday. Make treats truly treats...and occasional not a daily occurance.
The gene pool has not changed...the root of the obesity cirsi is the social and cultural environment. (too much food and not enough exercise)
healthyamericans.org
Church-goers generally are healthier and live longer, but they are generally more obese. There is a tradition of high-calorie comfort foods at religious events.
Satiety-state of being full, lacking a desire to eat. It's the missing ingredient in most weight-loss programs.
Satiety Index: (Susanna Holt, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
A list of foods eaten in 240 calorie portions and their satiety rating:
doughnut 68%
white bread 100%
French fries 116%
oatmeal 209%
boiled potatoes 323% (highest ranked food)
high fiber increases satiety
fruits and vegetables increase satiety
high fat decrease satiety
cakes and doughnuts decrease satiety
Concept: Nutrient Density
The current way to measure foods uses volume and considers only calories. Nutrient Density compares other important nutrients.
white bread 1.25 mcg/cal
whole wheat bread 6.25
oatmeal 24
rice krispies 2.3
You can find a list of foods rated by their nutrient density at eatrightamerica.com (look for the ANDI-Aggregate Nutrient Density Index).
It's common to confuse physical hunger with emotional needs or spiritual longing. Filling longings with food only works temporarily.
The book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink of Cornell is a good one.
mindlesseating.org
It makes a big difference to the brain what shape our eating utensils are. Tall thin glasses make us feel like we've had more. Smaller plates do the same.
If the candy dish is 6' away or more you eat half as much as when it's closer. Put the healthier foods on the dinner table and the not so healthy ones leave in the kitchen.
Package sizes send messages to your brains. Experiment: 3 sizes of m&m packages: 0.8 oz, 3.1 oz. and 42 oz. People ate 2 small packages compared to 1-2 medium size packages to they didn't stop eating the large package. We use visual clues to tell us when we are done (instead of our stomach telling us we are full). So change the size of your packaging...use your own ziplocks.
Large portions make you eat more than you wanted. Packaged foods create an expectation regardless of size.
Increase in volume leads to a decrease in satisfaction.
Find alternative fulfillment if it's not a physical hunger.
-intellectual stimulation (read, puzzles, hobbies...)
-exercise
-service* it really is fulfilling
John 6:35 I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
3rd lecture: Distinguishing Between Physical Needs and Cravings: Developing Positive Food Habits (habits and goals)
If healthy food is available, they will seek it.
Why we eat what we do:
-preferences start forming in infancy and are formed by habits and availability.
-peers affect choices as young as 4
-high fat + high sugar = addiction, or it's like an addiction
-preferences can be changed over time
Food Environment:
Where do we eat? Does it matter? 1 Corinthians 11:34 ...let him eat at home.
Family mealtime--if you eat together:
better nutrition, grades, and vocabulary (dinner time conversation helps their vocabulary more that reading to them does), decrease in drug use and delinquency.
Strategies for family meals:
-make it a priority
-plan ahead (involve the children)
-create a positive atmosphere (this is not the time to discuss problems or censure your kids)
Burgers and fries may be part of our environment, but we don't have to accept it. The Natural Man accepts what's in his environment.
The End of Overeating by David Kessler is a good book.
Taking control of the insatiable American appetite--the food industry knows how to hook consumers. Conditioned hyper-eating is a biological challenge, not a character flaw.
Make behavior change rewarding.
Make Habits Work for You
Habits are stronger that goals. Habits cause behavior to continue even when it's undesirable. Create positive habits that reinforce your goals.
Food Rehab: Reverse Habits:
-awareness (come up with a replacement habit)
-competing behavior (control your thoughts)
-support
-change your environment
-positive rewards
Develop Positive Food Habits:
snacks: increase vegetables
desserts: increase fruits
proteins: increase legumes
beverages: increase water
Increase physical activity. "If exercise could be purchased in a pill, it would be the single most prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation." Robert H. Butler
Exercise is the key to brain health, especially in adults over 65. "If you stay physically active, you're buying protection for your brain."
Positive Physical Activity Habits:
-proactively find ways to exercise
-change your attitude toward
-find fun, like recess
-do it with your family
Stress Coping Habits:
Stress is a major cause of overeating. Food is the most common stress management strategy, but it leads to increased stress.
Alternatives:
-be aware of stressors
-deep breathing
-progressive relaxation
Self-help advice from 1832:
Doctrine and Covenants 88:124 Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.
Elder Oaks last General Conference: Desires dictate our priorities which shape our choices which determine our action.
"It is the continuing education of our desires and the alignment of those desires with the desires of our Heavenly Father that becomes the great challenge of education for us." Neal A Maxwell
“You and I must take great care concerning the education of our desires.” Pres. Joseph F. Smith
Doctrine and Covenants 59:16-20:
16 Verily I say, that inasmuch as ye do this, the fulness of the earth is yours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbeth upon the trees and walketh upon the earth;
17 Yea, and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;
18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;
19 Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.
20 And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.