Tag: Overeating

A Teaspoon of Sugar: A Mountain of Cravings

June 30, 2013

Are you craving the taste of sweet food?  Do you continue to eat even after you’re full?

If you can’t stop eating food with added sugar, you need to cut down, or eliminate it.

Sugar is difficult to avoid.  It’s added to most packaged, restaurant and fast food. 

Kick The Sugar Habit

Get rid of the food that makes you crave.  Have a mango, instead of ice cream.  Replace ketchup with a slice of tomato.

Mangoes are a tropical fruit that provide a healthy source of natural sugar.  They are low in calories, contain vitamin A, vitamin C,  antioxidants, and flavonoids.

Add More Fiber

Replace sugary food with fruits, and veggies. Eating more produce adds fiber to your diet, improving digestion, and elimination.  As long as you drink plenty of water, you won’t need laxatives, when your diet is high in fiber.

Fresh fruit and vegetables make you feel full because of their fiber content.  Known as roughage or bulk, fiber isn’t digested or absorbed.

Read food labels for added sugar.

When you eat food with added sugar, you’re ingesting calories from the sugar, plus the calories from the food itself.

Eliminate Packaged Food With Added Sugar

If you buy packaged food, read the label to find out if it contains added sugar.  A few examples are canned fruit, tomato sauce, frozen food, and condiments such as ketchup.

Sugar Cravings May Cause Overeating

Some sugars have more calories than others, some have trace minerals, some are lower glycemic.  Xylitol has fewer calories per teaspoon than sucrose, but its sweet flavor, may cause overeating.

Avoid Overweight and Obesity

Health benefits in honey, or maple syrup are of little value, if you experience cravings for more of the sweet stuff. Overeating leads to overweight, and obesity.

Copyright 2013 Irene Pastore and Blue Moon Personal Training

Sneaking Midnight LaSagne

February 7, 2013

LATE NIGHT SNACK

Late night binge eating is now considered an eating disorder by conventional medicine.  If you think you’re a binge eater, here’s some advice from the New York Times about late night eating and weight gain.   ABC News reports about the reasons you binge eat, and how to stop.

REASONS FOR LATE NIGHT BINGE EATING

  • Insomnia
  • Poor nutrition
  • Depression
  • Low self-esteem
  • Anxiety
  • Skipping breakfast
  • Eating first meal several hours after awakening.

POOR NUTRITION

If you’re diet consists of mostly processed foods, and sugars, you’re not getting optimum nutrition.  Clean up your diet, by consuming whole foods.  Cut down or eliminate sweets, and sweetened food.  By the way, almost all food is made with added sweeteners, even vegetarian food.  Read labels and find out what’s added to your food.

When you consume processed foods your body craves nurishment.  You’re going to eat more to satisfy cravings.  Instead fill up on whole food, such as brown rice, breads and pasta made from whole grains, not white flour.  Salt can also create food cravings – so cut down.

WHAT ARE WHOLE FOODS?

Brown Rice, Whole Hulled Barley
Bread and pasta made from whole grain flour
Fresh raw fruit
Whole vegetables steamed, raw or sautéed

WHAT TO AVOID

Sugar
Foods that are sweetened with sugars
Canned food
Overly cooked food
Frozen food is overcooked.  Skip it and eat fresh veggies instead.

Copyright 2013 Irene Pastore and Blue Moon Personal Training

Gluttony 101: Avoiding Thanksgiving Overeating

November 18, 2012

Many Americans are accustomed to over-consuming when they eat.  Holiday time is an excuse to eat even more.  Overeating can lead  to digestive disorders, and obesity.  Monitoring food intake amounts to personal responsibility for one’s health.

7 TIPS TO AVOID THANKSGIVING OVEREATING

A glutton is someone who lives to eat.

  1. Don’t skip breakfast, or lunch, in order to “save room” to overeat on Thanksgiving.
  2. For the cook: Prepare savory vegetable dishes instead of going overboard on potato, and starchy dishes.  Search out creative recipes that give your guests an alternative to turkey, or rich gravy. Continue reading “Gluttony 101: Avoiding Thanksgiving Overeating”

How To Spot Sugar In Packaged Food

August 20, 2012

Sugar is added to most packaged foods, and beverages.  If you want to avoid being overweight, then you have to pay attention to the amount of sugar in your food.  When you get into the habit of reading food labels, you’re going to discover that sugar is difficult to avoid.  “Sugar Shockers,” an article from WebMD, discusses food high in sugar.

CHECKING FOR ADDED SUGAR

Learning how to read food labels, will teach you which brands are packed with sweeteners.  Not all mustard contains added sugar.  The same goes for tomato sauce.  If you’re a vegetarian, sweeteners such as honey, or barley malt syrup, might be added  to non-meat packaged foods. Continue reading “How To Spot Sugar In Packaged Food”