Sweet Tooth?

What category of people do you fall into – the ones who eat to live or the the ones who live to eat? 🙂

Food is an energy provider. Like fuel in automobiles the food we eat gets processed by the body to produce energy with which we are able to sit, stand, walk, run, work, do chores etc. Therefore food is a major part of our daily livelihood and what type of food we consume affects our overall wellness. Leading our busy lives, we most often than not neglect what we eat.

Sweets, for example is a weakness for many and not a necessity for all. Apart from keeping a watch on our carbs it is also important to watch that sweet tooth.

Cravings and temptations for sweets and desserts in this festive season is near impossible for some. With whiffs of yummy sweets filling everyone’s homes sometimes tempts even the non-sweet eaters. This is the worst time if you are trying to cut down on your sweet intake. How many times have you walked passed that chocolate box, or basket of sweet treats that your friends or family brought home this weekend? Giving long stares and almost opening the box and possibly nibbling on the edges? Caught you..? Hahaha… Well, we all have been there and struggled.

Here are some easy ways for you to try and curb your cravings, first let’s have a look at a few easy replacements, when you do wish to eat something sweet:

• Eat a fruit: the easiest substitute are fruits, they are natural form of sugar that you can consume and will be easily processed by our system
• Chew sugar-free gum: when tempted just pop some gum
• Have dark chocolate: its chocolate, it satisfies your craving and as isn’t harmful as pure chocolate

If you are really wanting to cut down and looking for a more permanent solution, here is your list to start:

• During meals eat more protein and fat, both of which make you feel full and satisfied, therefore there is no desire for sweet.
• Have small, frequent meals to help keep your blood sugar level stable and eliminate your body’s need for a quick sugar fix. Avoid skipping meals (especially breakfast).
• Take a daily multivitamin. Some nutrients help keep blood sugar stable, so ensure you get those by supplementing your diet appropriately.
• Eat a breakfast that is not sweet, for example brown rice, or lean protein and blanched vegetables.
• Have no sweets until 3pm. After that eat either fruit or a fruit sweetened dessert rather than sweets that contained refined sugars. Eating sweets in the morning or early afternoon tend to stimulate sweet cravings throughout the day.
• If you have ‘sugar blues’ in the morning and again in the afternoon, drink 1 cup of sweet vegetable juice (natural juice made from the pulp of sweet veggies like carrots, beets etc.)
• Avoid artificial sweeteners. Research has shown that artificial sweeteners cause intense cravings for sweets and are also cancerous for some.

Other than this, just NIBBLE your dessert, anything is excess quantities isn’t good, watch what you eat and watch that SWEET TOOTH of yours. Therefore, like we say in India, ‘Kuch Meeth ho Jaaye’ (something sweet please), let the quantity of sweet be ‘little’ only and you shall be just fine!  🙂

PS: If this post got you tempted, it’s a good time to test the above and let me know how it worked. FYI, I had a fruit! 😉

Food Frenzy

Food is one the most critical aspect of health, fitness and well-being. It is something that (if not all) most people cannot survive without. However, like we have all kinds of people on this planet, we have all kinds of eating habits. Some can survive on one bar of chocolate or an apple for the entire day and stay full of energy. On the other hand there are people who eat will everything around them.

Quantity and quality are both very important for a good meal but regardless of what you eat or how you eat it, what you do before and after is what you must watch out for.

Having the right eating habits before and after eating are more essential than the ‘while eating habits’. It’s the before and after that actually determines the effect of the food. Most of us aren’t aware of certain basics that we should be adhere to before and after in order to ensure a good system. Basics such as:

• Drinking a glass of water before and after but not during a meal
• Eating everything before 6pm – that’s when digestion kicks in
• Having dinner as early as possible
• Hot & fresh dishes over cold & stale ones
• Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper! 

Food provides a connection between all parts of the body. The food you eat surely defines the way to think, look and feel. To get the best out of the food you eat, it is important to have a stable amount of all the components that ensure a balanced diet. However that isn’t enough to help you eat well. You may eat all the right things there are to eat but eating them the RIGHT way is the key!

Happy Eating! 🙂