Information Courtesy RealAge
A good way to avoid weight gain as you age? Eat six small meals regularly throughout the day. Want to keep your blood sugar stable and avoid cravings? Same story.
Get Regular: Regular eaters not only weigh less and have smaller waists but also are less likely to develop metabolic syndrome or experience insulin resistance -- conditions that can pave the way for heart disease and diabetes.
Plan for More: Eat many small meals throughout the day instead of three large ones. This keeps the appetite from raging out of control and keeps blood sugar stabilized—no more mind-gripping cravings and you eat less overall throughout the day. Here’s how to turn three meals into six:
If you focus on diversity and proper portion size, eating six mini meals per day instead of three larger meals can help you feel fuller, eat a more varied diet, and be healthier overall. The first step in eating six diverse meals is to kick the word "snack" out of your vocabulary as it usually conjures up images of fairly low-nutrition items—chips, pretzels, or a scoop of ice cream.
The second step is to focus on size. Doubling meals shouldn't double the food eaten each day. Instead, three big meals simply become six mini meals. The goal is to continue taking in roughly the same number of calories each day, assuming that you are not currently overeating.
Finally, with six meals per day, each mini meal is an opportunity to reach the ultimate goal of a diverse and balanced diet that includes a proper amount of protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats, as well as an appropriate amount of important vitamins and minerals.
More is actually less. The health bonuses of eating more meals are varied. Studies show that people who eat more meals tend to eat a greater variety of foods. They are also more likely to meet their nutritional needs for each day. Frequent meal consumption also helps control appetite, which in turn helps control weight. And by breaking up three big meals into six smaller meals spaced evenly throughout the day, you'll not only eat a more balanced diet and fewer calories, but studies show you can also lower your blood cholesterol and your risk of heart disease.
Another reason to do six mini meals: When you eat three square meals per day, the meals are typically spaced too far apart and this allows blood sugar levels to drop down too low. When this happens, the urge to reach for unhealthy snacks and satisfy cravings arises, which can mean trouble. Grabbing a quick high-carbohydrate snack may bring blood sugar levels up quickly, but most likely too quickly, after which they crash once again and leave you searching for your next food fix. (Oh do we relate to this scenario!) However, as long as the meals are balanced, eating many small meals throughout the day can stabilize blood sugar, so you don't get energy highs and lows.
The key to the mini meal approach is to pack your meals with enough nutritional punch and fiber to sustain you, without adding a lot of unnecessary saturated fat and calories. The fruits with the most fiber are dried figs, dates, and currants; raw raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, and cranberries; raisins; raw kiwi and figs—with amounts in order of listing, from most to least. The idea is to choose foods your body can use well—foods that will increase blood sugar levels slowly and stably and keep your blood glucose levels steady throughout the day,
Try to include a fiber-rich item, a protein-rich item, or a bit of healthy unsaturated fat in every mini meal in order to sustain your energy over a longer period of time. These foods items digest more slowly and raise blood sugar levels more steadily.
Also, focus on diversity with each mini meal. Balance your intake of lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats throughout the day, and you’ll be able to enjoy a number of different items from each food group.
For example, if your morning meal contained protein-rich dairy, get protein from another source in the afternoon, be it from lean meats such as canned tuna or from vegetable sources such as soymilk, almonds, or red beans. If the fiber-rich carbohydrate in your midday meal was whole-wheat bread, get your fiber fix from a fiber-containing piece of fruit later in the day.
Mini meals will be more diverse if you include items from at least two different food groups in every meal, at least one of which should be the fruit or vegetable category. Try to avoid mini meals that contain only a single kind of food item. Pairing certain foods can help maximize the benefits of the six-meal lifestyle. Here are a few examples of great pairings:
Couple vegetables with a bit of healthy fat to help your body better absorb the vitamins and minerals. For example, by drizzling olive oil and vinegar on a salad of mixed greens and sliced tomatoes, the olive oil will help your body absorb the lutein in the greens and the lycopene in the tomatoes.
Pair complex carbohydrates with a protein or healthy fat. The addition of a protein or healthy fat slows down the rate of digestion even more than a complex carbohydrate alone. Try whole-grain bagels with natural peanut butter or dip whole-grain crackers into spicy hummus. Or add walnuts to a fruit salad, which helps the body use any carotenoids in the fruit.
Eating smaller, more frequent meals is a great way to increase opportunities to meet nutritional gaps in your daily diet. Mini meals that incorporate whole-grain foods, colorful fruits and vegetables, lean fish or poultry, low-fat dairy, and unsaturated fats not only stabilize blood sugar levels, they reduce the risk of several diseases—heart disease and hypertension, diabetes, and certain cancers. Saying goodbye to snacks and three squares a day never sounded sweeter.
Finally, here’s an anti-meal-skippper recipe we just LOVE:
Apricot-Wheat Germ Muffins
Courtesy Eating Well
Nutty toasted wheat germ and tangy dried apricots give these muffins a homey, satisfying flavor. Plumping dried fruit before adding it to the batter keeps the muffins moist.
3/4 C dried apricots, chopped
1/2 C orange juice, divided
1 C whole-wheat flour
3/4 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C plus 1 tablespoon toasted wheat germ, divided
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1 C buttermilk (or 1 cup milk with 1 Tbsp vinegar)
1/4 C canola oil
2 Tbsp freshly grated orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.
Combine apricots and 1/4 cup orange juice in a small bowl. Cover with vented plastic wrap and microwave on high for 1 minute.
(Alternatively, bring to a simmer in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat.) Set aside to plump.
Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in buttermilk, oil, orange zest, vanilla and remaining 1/4 cup orange juice. Add to the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula just until moistened. Add apricots and mix just until blended. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon wheat germ.
Bake the muffins until lightly browned and the tops spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly. (Makes 10)
Nutrition Information per muffin:
Calories: 242, Carbohydrates: 38g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 3g, Protein: 7g, Cholesterol: 36mg, Dietary Fiber: 4g, Potassium: 138mg, Sodium: 184mg
Download this recipe.
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