Satiety

            Don’t you just love the holiday season?  There are so many wonderful things that we associate with this joyous time of the year, Christmas lights, presents, time spent with friends and family, and FOOD.  Unfortunately, there are a couple of not so wonderful things that often happens over the holidays and those are overeating and subsequent weight gain.

            Let me share a powerful way to prevent these two problems.  Focus on achieving a sense of satiety after eating.  Dr. John La Puma, in his book, Chef MD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine says, “Satiety is feeling full and fully satisfied after a meal and staying satisfied until your next meal—without snacking, munching, and mindless eating.”

            It really is snacking, munching, mindless eating, and excessive eating that is our downfall over the holidays.  So, how do we achieve a sense of satiety in order to prevent overeating?  Here are 7 keys.

            Key #1: Engage All of Your Senses.  Besides tasting your food as you eat, use your sense of smell to appreciate the aroma of the food before and as you consume it.  Try to notice the feel or texture of what you are eating.  Is the food crunchy, creamy, mushy, crispy, or chewy?  What does the food look like?  If food is delicious looking, beautiful, and well presented, we can feel satiated with a smaller amount of this food.  Even sounds can enhance the sense of satiety.  One of my favourite dining experiences is ordering a dish that is brought to my table and it is still sizzling.  The sound of that hot food sizzling gets my mouth watering in anticipation of a yummy meal.

            Key #2: Eat Healthy Fats.  Healthy fats found in avocado, fish, seafoods, canola, olive, flax, hemp, and nut oils stimulate a hormone known as cholecystokinin (CCK).  This hormone helps you feel full after eating.  Saturated and trans fats found in most animal products, commercial baked goods, and junk foods, worsen insulin resistance and make you hungrier.  Long chain fats found in the healthy foods improve insulin sensitivity and help you feel full and to stop eating because you’re satisfied.

            Key # 3: Eat Lean Protein.  Lean proteins are more filling than most foods.  This is because they cause food to stay longer in the stomach before moving into the small intestine.  Protein foods digest slowly helping to keep the blood sugar stable for longer periods of time.  Finally, the body uses more calories digesting protein than other foods.  All these points add up to better satiety.

            Key #4: Eat the Right Carbs.  Most carbohydrates have the annoying habit of digesting quickly into glucose, spiking your blood sugar, stimulating insulin secretion, and causing a subsequent crash in blood sugar.  The right carbs contain starch and lots of fiber which slow down digestion, elevate blood sugar slower, and contain only one calorie per gram rather than four, like regular starch.  These carbs are found in lentils, beans, whole grains that are minimally processed such as whole wheat, brown rice, barley, quinoa, steel-cut oats, and buckwheat.  An added bonus to eating these kinds of carbs is that they burn slower and longer and help you lose weight.

            Key #5: Eat more Fiber.  Try to eat a combination of soluble and insoluble fiber.  The more fiber in your meal, the slower the digestion and the faster and longer you will feel full.  Fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts with their skin, all are rich sources of fiber.  Health benefits of fiber include better blood sugar control, lower cholesterol, better bowel health, and regularity.

            Key #6: Volumizing.  Eat foods that are high in water and your body will digest it more slowly.  By consuming lots of fruits, vegetables, soups, and smoothies, you increase the volume of water in your diet and stretch your stomach with lower calorie foods.  You will achieve satiety faster and hunger signals turn off.

            Key # 7: Eat Mindfully.  Be present and conscious of what you are doing while eating (also eat sitting rather than on the run and not in the car while driving).  It is way too easy to overeat if you are distracted while eating.  For example, eating while watching T.V. or in a movie almost guarantees you will eat more than if you are eating at the dinner table and just focusing on your food.  Be conscious of how fast you are eating, how much you are chewing, the sensations in your mouth, throat, and stomach.  Pause during your meal to get a sense of how full you feel.  Are you still hungry?  Are you getting full?  The important thing is to get in touch with your body in order to know what it feels like to be satiated, but not stuffed.

            I love the treats and foods available over the holidays as much as the next person.  But, I hope you readers will join me this season in considering how we can focus on achieving satiety and not gorging.  This way when the holidays are over, we won’t have to deal with making resolutions about losing that weight gained over a short period of time.