diet Archives - Authentic Simplicity

Eating Intentionally: Respect Your Fullness

May 7, 2012 By Anne Simpson

You may or may not have noticed, but I derailed a little bit in April. I had some other stuff going on (namely, finishing up my e-book that is now being edited and formatted), so I took a little blogging break, and in the process, totally neglected my Eating Intentionally series.

But I’m back now. So here we go.

I’m just going to totally skip principle #4 (Challenge the Food Police) because it kind of echoes a lot of the aspects of principle #3 (Make Peace with Food), and I feel like continuing in that vein will only result in beating a dead horse.

So onward and forward to Principle #5, which is: Respect Your Fullness. Ah, now, here we get to the good stuff.

I have read in many different places about how the French people (any actual French people out there who can attest to the accuracy of this analysis, please feel free to pipe up!) eat foods that we would often consider “bad for you” or “fattening”, but they’re typically quite skinny, and fairly healthy as a society. Many people speculate that one reason is because the French eat very slowly, enjoying their food; and they rarely eat seconds.

I think this is where we as Americans struggle the most. Besides the obvious fact that the average American eats a lot of junk, one big cause of our obesity issues is that we simply eat too much. Food looks appetizing, so we indulge. And we take another helping, because wow, that was some good stuff! We go to buffets and have to sample every single option offered.

In short, we are trapped in our abundance. Even people on limited budgets, like myself, have a wide array of enticing desirable food options, and our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

So the secret is to gain a little discipline: learn to stop eating when the stomach is full. I have seriously been concentrating on this recently. So far, I haven’t seen an improvement on the scale yet, but I have definitely learned that I don’t need to eat as much as I’m accustomed to eating.

How does this work practically? Here are a few tips:

Start with small servings. Chances are, if you put it on your plate, you will eat it. This is why the oft-repeated advice to use a smaller plate is so effective.
Eat slowly. Use all the tricks: put your fork down between bites, take a sip between bites, converse with your fellow diners, etc. (Note: this is where it comes in really hand to have mastered the principle of Honoring Your Hunger. If you are starving when you eat, it will be difficult to eat slowly, and you will inevitably end up over-eating.)
Pay attention to the taste and texture of the food as you eat (more on this in principle #6).
After eating a portion of your food, ask yourself, “Am I starting to feel full? Am I still hungry?”
When you’re finished your meal, note how you feel: stuffed? comfortable? satiated? Learn to identify the feeling of satiated - no longer hungry, but not stuffed or “full” either.

For more information, please read Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche.

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The Importance of Fat {Especially for a Woman} and a Book Review

March 12, 2012 By Anne Simpson

Don’t miss a single exciting post in my Women’s Wellness Series! We’re talking about all aspects of women’s health, plus I’ve got a great giveaway and some guest posts lined up for you! Follow my Women’s Wellness board on Pinterest for even more great articles and product recommendations.

I just finished reading a fascinating book called “The Good Fat Cookbook“. It’s not what you might think, especially if you subscribe to contemporary thought that designates polyunsaturated fats as good and saturated fats as evil incarnate. The back of the book will give you a clue, though, as it lists the Good and Bad fats under consideration. On the list of good fats: butter, coconut, red meat, eggs, bacon, milk, and ice cream. Surprised? How about the bad fats? Canola oil, reduced-fat anything, soy, vegetable oil, and more. Doubly surprised?

If you were even mildly surprised by that good and bad listing, you should read this book! Before diving into some delicious and awesome healthy-fat-filled recipes, author Fran McCullough takes you through the history and science regarding all the various kinds of dietary fats, and explains all the ramifications they have on our health. And even though I’ve been a full-fat enthusiast for years, I learned a lot in this book, so I can recommend it for seasoned whole foodies, too.

Here are some quotes from the book:

In 1875, Americans ate 30 pounds of butter per year. … In 2002, Americans have dropped their fat consumption by 17 percent since 1977. The obesity rate has increased by 25%. Americans now eat 5 lbs of butter, 11-12 lbs of margarine, per person a year. Since 1952, trans fat consumption has risen 2500%. We still eat the same amount of food we ate in 1900, but we eat 127% more sweeteners….

According to Dr. Ron Rosedale of the Colorado Center for Metabolic Medicine, fat is the body’s preferred fuel, not sugar (in all carbohydrates). He points out that when the body stores excess sugar, it’s stored as fat, in a good usable form. Fats not only don’t make you fat (unless you eat them to huge excess - and even then, only if you also ingest enough sugars and starches to stimulate your fat-storage system), they’re good weapons against obesity.

We know… that by and large the food we’re eating in the early twenty-first century is not making us flourish. There are exceptions, of course: the Japanese and French, who happen to be the most and the second most healthy people in the world. Both these groups eat quite a different menu from the standard American one, and both their diets are full of good fats (fatty fish and eggs for the Japanese, butter, cheese, duck fat, olive oil, and an occasional treat of foie gras for the French). Right behind these two exemplary groups of healthy populations are the Mediterraneans, whose famous diet, rich in monounsaturated fats such as olive oil, is especially tasty. … It seems that every geographical area supplies essential fats for its population in a natural, accessible form. Among the Greenland Eskimos, traditionally there were no reliable supplies of vegetables and fruits, but fatty fish and seaweed provided them a completely healthy diet, perhaps the healthiest of all. In the Pacific islands, there’s fish and coconut - that miraculous substance. In Mexico, there are avocados and fish and lard. In Russia, caviar is a traditional miracle cure, prescribed for pregnant and nursing women and anyone whose health needs a boost. Even in the Ireland of the great famine, there were fish and seaweed and wild purslane for the taking. Only in America, where we insist on having it all, do we have very little of these valuable foods, mainly because we’ve taken them out of our food supply in the misguided notion that our health will improve as a result.

The food industry and healthy food police, those talking-head health experts with their extensive media exposure, have promoted polyunsaturated fats mercilessly, which is why all of us think they’re so good for us. These fats do reduce cholesterol in the blood, but they have a disastrous downside: they increase it in the tissues, which is where it really matters. They are deposited in the vascular membranes, and because they’re unstable, cholesterol has to come and pave them over to stabilize them. That’s the way, current thinking goes, we get vascular blockage that can lead to a heart attack. but, in fact, only polyunsaturated fats oxodize cholesterol; saturated fat, from animal sources, won’t oxidize that cholesterol, which is what makes it dangerous and likely to trigger cardiovascular incidents and strokes. … And for strokes too, according to Dr. Mary Enig, polyunsaturated fats are initiators, while saturated fats are protective.

I could offer you a lot more quotes from the book, but really, you should read it yourself. Some of the topics McCullough covers:

how the cholesterol-heart disease connection came about, and how it is faulty
how the different types of fat work in your body
why the government and media make recommendations that have been scientifically proven to be faulty
good sources of good fats
what are the best fats for your budget
why polyunsaturated oils are so terrible for your body
free radicals, oxidation, and antioxidants

There are some things I noticed in the book that you should be aware of. For one, I find the author to be occasionally confusing, and seems to contradict herself at times. Also, while she is well-researched regarding fats in the diet, she misses the mark on some of her other recommendations (for example, she offers Splenda as a good substitute for sugars in the dessert section of the cookbook). Also, be aware that the book was written 10 years ago, so some of the information is outdated.

Over all, though, I highly recommend reading this book, whether or not you are well versed in the sad history of fat in America. You will find it fascinating and thought-provoking if nothing else. And besides, she’s got some great recipes in the back of the book, like Lemon Posset, and Cuban Roast Pork with Lime.

Since my topic is Women’s Wellness, though, I want to focus for a second on the connection between fats and hormones, which she mentions in the book. Here’s a quote:

What we have deprived ourselves of - the delicious, satisfying good fats of traditional diets all around the world - are also startlingly health-protective and offer many other desirable benefits, such as good skin, great hair, a good sex life, fertility, a vital immune system, enough vitamin E for your heart, optimum hormone production and antiaging properties. (This sounds like a headline list for a woman’s magazine! Only you won’t find these things in bottles or pills, you’ll find them in fat! ~ AS) Your hormones, which control every cell in your body, don’t work properly without adequate fat, and neither does your immune system.

Did you know that your body needs cholesterol to make hormones? Or that eating low-fat dairy products inhibits your body’s ability to ovulate? Or that essential fatty acids can ease PMS symptoms? Read about some more essential roles that fat plays in the body here.

Clearly, our bodies require fats, and not just in small amounts, either. It’s a commonly accepted fact that fat is one of the three macronutrients - foods our bodies need in large amounts in order to survive and thrive. Many people try to reduce either carbs or fats, but the simple truth is we need both.

While the media continues to draw the opposite conclusion, it seems to me that all the evidence points to this: fats are essential to health, especially to a woman’s reproductive health. The only kind of fat proven to be detrimental to reproductive health is trans fats, and we all already knew those were evil. But basic biology and nutrition show us clearly that we need to have an adequate amount of fat in our diet in order for all our body’s systems to run smoothly.

Women, in particular, struggle with this because of our body shape and image. We want to look skinny, so we follow the contemporary advice that instructs us to eat less fat so we have less fat. The problem is that this advice is flawed on so many levels. First of all, women aren’t meant to be super thin. We’ve all heard of the gymnasts and ballerinas with amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) because they don’t have enough body fat and exercise too much, but we don’t stop to consider that the same thing could be happening to us, just not on as extreme of a level. Maybe we don’t want to look like a gymnast, but we still starve ourselves or work ourselves to the bone trying to get rid of something that’s supposed to be there. (Now, of course, there’s the opposite extreme. Obesity doesn’t help your reproductive system - or any system in your body for that matter - either. I’m talking about a healthy weight here!). Secondly, fat doesn’t make you fat!

Which brings me back to what I started with: read the Good Fat Cookbook. Or Eat Fat, Lose Fat. Or In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto. Or The Maker’s Diet. Or Nourishing Traditions. All of these books will convince you of your need for fat in your diet, and far more eloquently (and accurately!) than I ever could.

So what fats should you eat? McCullough’s “Good” list pretty much sums it up:

Butter
Nuts
Coconut
Olive Oil
Fish
Avocado
Red Meat
Eggs
Bacon
Milk & Full-Fat Dairy

So go clean the low-fat, fat-free fake food out of your fridge, and enjoy some real, God-given fat-full food!

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Eating Intentionally: Make Peace with Food

February 29, 2012 By Anne Simpson

This year, I’m learning to Eat Intentionally, and I’ve invited you along for the ride. In January, we focused on ditching the diet mentality, and February was learning to honor our hunger.

Eating intentionally is, in the end, about having a normal relationship with food. Food was created to nourish our bodies, and it was also created for enjoyment. So often we abuse it to the extent that it does neither, and intentional eating is about getting back to that balance of food that both delights and nourishes.

That’s why principle #3 - Make Peace with Food - is so important. In the end, that’s what it’s about. You shouldn’t be in conflict with your food. Food should not control you, but neither should you control it. It’s not a domineering relationship on one side or the other.

And it’s not the enemy either. Think of food more as your ally, not your enemy. It’s not the “thing that makes you fat” - no! It’s what nourishes you, gives you energy, keeps your body’s systems running smoothly, and yes, is enjoyable.

Just think about that for a minute: food was meant to be enjoyed. Not in a gluttonous way, but as a simple pleasure. It’s a necessary fact of life, but it’s not a drudgery! Isn’t that amazing? Truly, if we don’t eat, we die, so it’s an absolute necessity. And yet, unlike other necessities of life, it’s a pleasing occupation. It’s a pleasure to sit down to a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, yogurt and fruit. There’s no need to feel guilty about enjoying it, because it was given to us to enjoy.

So here’s permission to enjoy your food, especially your favorite foods. It’s not a sin to savor a piece of chocolate or laugh over a cupcake at a birthday party. Food is a way to share love, with your family, with a sick friend, or with a neighbor. Food is the centerpiece of celebration, so celebrate!

H2W

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Eating Intentionally: Eat When You’re Hungry!

February 1, 2012 By Anne Simpson

Join me this year as I Eat Intentionally, putting into practice the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, one at a time. In January we worked on ditching the diet mentality, learning not to count calories, or measure portion sizes, or concern ourselves with how much we’re eating in any way. Now that the foundation of a healthy mindset is in place, we’re going to build from there. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single post! Every Monday, we check in with our progress during Menu Plan Monday.

This month, your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to Honor Your Hunger.

Consider a baby: they know when they’re hungry, and they won’t rest until that hunger is satisfied. It doesn’t matter if they just ate 2 hours ago, they’re hungry now, and they want to be fed now.

Those same hunger cues don’t go away. And honestly, the time frame doesn’t change much either. From infancy to adulthood, the body needs to eat every 2-4 hours during the day to maintain adequate levels of energy. Our bodies were created to give us a signal whenever more nourishment is needed, and that signal is called “hunger”.

Unfortunately, many of us have learned to ignore that signal. When trying to lose weight, we force ourselves to eat a certain amount of calories a day, and we push ourselves through hunger so we can hold off consuming any more calories than we think we need.

This is counter-intuitive. Literally. When we ignore those hunger signals, thinking we will do our bodies a service, we actually do more harm than good. Inevitably, this is what happens:

The hunger increases in intensity to the point where we can’t ignore it.
We may feel shaky, irritable, faint, or even experience stomach pangs.
We become so extremely hungry, we grab whatever is closest and easiest (usually not healthy).
We eat rapidly in an attempt to quell the hunger pangs as quickly as possible.
We eat more than was necessary and end up feeling sick to our stomach.

Has that ever happened to you? It’s happened to me more than I care to admit! Clearly, ignoring those initial hunger signals sets off a domino effect of consequences…. none of them good!

The solution to avoiding this scenario is simple: eat when you’re hungry. Your body doesn’t always require a full meal, but it may need a snack at different points throughout the day. Keep healthy snacks handy, and when your body says, “Eat something!”, obey. The first time!

A few snack ideas you can bring with you when you know you’ll be out all day (so you don’t starve yourself into gorging on junk, and/or succumb to the fast food drive through):

granola bars
Larabars or other healthy all-natural snack bars/protein bars
nuts
dried fruit
trail mix
apple or banana

Have you ever been so hungry you gorged yourself? Does it happen more often then you’d care to admit? (I know it does for me!) Let’s make a pledge not to let this happen for the month of February: instead, we’ll eat when we’re hungry!

Sounds good to me. You in?

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Eating Intentionally: Entering the No-Diet Zone

January 1, 2012 By Anne Simpson

This picture is a free graphic printable available at the adorable blog Lil Luna. Click on the picture to see more free printable cuteness! (She asks that you follow her on FB before indulging in a print.)

How many of you made a New Year’s Resolution to go on a diet? Raise your hands high - you know who you are!

I am here to help you break your resolution.

No, seriously. I don’t believe in diets.

“What?!” I hear you ask incredulously. A healthy blogger who doesn’t believe in diets?! Uh huh.

I believe in Eating Intentionally, inspired by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche, who wrote “Intuitive Eating”, a brilliant book that I read and reviewed back last year. Their concept of “intuitive eating” really struck a chord with me, and validated my own personal thoughts regarding food consumption and healthy eating.

I’m taking the concept a step further this year and making it a part of my life, from abstract idea to internalized principle. My personal guide word for 2012 is “Intentional” (inspired in part by my friend Leigh Ann, who blogs at Intentional by Grace), and my goal is to be intentional in every area of my life, including what and how I eat.

And I invite you to join me! Each month (from January to October), I’m going to highlight one of the 10 principles behind the concept of intuitive eating, and put it to practice in my life. I’m going to encourage you to do the same! On the first Sunday of every month, I’m going to write a post explaining the principle I’m going to work on throughout that month. Then, every Monday, as part of my Menu Plan Monday post, I’m going to have an Eating Intentionally Check-In, where I’ll keep you updated with my progress. In turn, if you decide to go on this journey with me this year, you can check-in with me, too! Leave a comment in each Meal Plan Monday post telling me how you’re doing with that month’s principle. If you’re a blogger, write a post about it, and leave a link in the comments section!

And now for January’s principle: Ditch the Diet Mentality.

Your mission this month, should you choose to accept it, is this: if one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to go on a diet, then cross it off your list. Scared to? I highly recommend you read Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works, as the authors go into great detail about the detriments of dieting. Talk about scary! To summarize, here are my thoughts from my original review of the book:

All the research - ALL the research, and they cite quite a bit of it – proves that forbidding foods (either specific foods or limiting amounts of it) always results in an almost “hoarding” mentality, wherein you binge either before or after dieting because you feel deprived. It’s ingrained in us as part of our survival to make sure we always have food available – we need it to live! So when we anticipate (or experience) a deprivation of food, our bodies naturally kick into preservation mode and begin hoarding food, fat and calories to keep us alive. This is partly a psychological function, but it has its roots in biology, which made the biggest impression on me. I won’t go into the science of it here (because I know I’ll mess it up, science not being my strong point), but the bottom line is that there is a biological reaction that occurs in your body whenever you expect to be deprived of food, or indeed are deprived of food. And that biological reaction goes against the whole idea of dieting, because it causes your body to lose muscle mass, store fat, and eat more food. So from a biological standpoint, there is no point in dieting; it is, in fact, counter-productive.

What does “ditching the diet mentality” mean practically? How exactly do you go about doing that? It means:

Forget about the New Year’s diet resolution. It won’t last long anyway.
Don’t read any books, magazine articles, blog posts, or any other written material about dieting or diet plans or losing weight. Just don’t.
Don’t look at nutrition labels for calories and fat content. DON’T!!! And I mean it.
Don’t mentally calculate calories.
Don’t even worry about portion sizes.

I’m not saying that ALL of the above activities are bad in and of themselves. But each one of them lends itself to a crippling mindset that you have to cut back on what you eat, which then leads to that hoarding mentality that will totally backfire on you. Take this entire month to work yourself out of that mindset - which comes almost naturally to the average American woman - and work yourself into a much healthier frame of mind so you can then get on with the real business of eating intentionally.

So - are you ready to jump in and join me? Are you ready to ditch the diet? Are you brave enough to cross it off the list? Let me know by leaving a quick comment below. And then don’t forget to subscribe (if you don’t already) so we can all keep track of each other’s progress as we learn to eat intentionally.