That's What I said…

New Year’s Day is known for a few things; house parties, hangovers, and of course, New Year’s resolutions. These resolutions, more often than not, entail starting a new diet. So, what exactly happens when the entire country starts or reaffirms their new diet? Inevitably, many get misled by the enormous amounts of diet misinformation on the internet. Unfortunately, nearly all of the health information is either based on preliminary studies or driven by a hidden agenda. Rarely do these sources of information have your health in mind, and frequently they’re just trying to sell you some kind of ‘miracle product’ backed by a fast-talking spokesman and some dubious ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures.

I certainly don’t want to add to the overabundance of sales pitches disguised as helpful advice, so instead I’ll just share some objective diet and nutritional information that you might not have known. I certainly have no ‘miracle product’ for you; just a few points worth considering.

Calories

Not all calories are created equal. It seems obvious, doesn’t it? Most dieters are obsessively counting calories, as if it’s the only way you can measure your food. They are focusing on the quantity of calories that they’re consuming, and ignoring the quality of the food itself. If you asked a typical dieter to choose between 200 calories of steamed vegetables  and a 200 calorie soda, they would make the (obvious) healthy choice with no hesitation. But, left on their own, a less-than-savvy dieter will seek some universal metric to measure their progress, and choose fewer calories over better calories.

Sometimes, the metric of choice is “grams of fat,” but the majority of new dieters focus on calories, and they develop tunnel-vision, ignoring all other health factors in their diet and exercise. Why do these dieters seek out these metrics as the end-all measurement for food? I believe it’s because they’ve been trained to do it. These careful eaters will read the standard nutrition labels that are required on every food product in the US. They trust that the information on the food packaging is the complete and total picture. The efforts of these new dieters are admirable, albeit misguided. Everything on the package besides the nutrition facts is pure marketing, and there’s much that the FDA-backed labels do not include, like glycemic index for example…

What is Glycemic Index?

Glycemic Index (GI) is essentially a measure of how quickly food is digested. To be more technical, it’s a measure of how quickly carbohydrates in the food are broken down and fed into your bloodstream. Food with a high GI will be absorbed quickly into the bloodstream, giving you a quick energy boost, and then leaving you tired and hungry way too soon. If you had eaten something that ‘fed’ your bloodstream more slowly and steadily, you’d enjoy lasting energy, and no premature food cravings. Have you ever seen a child eat a large amount of candy, run around like a maniac for 45 minutes, and then fall asleep? You are witnessing his blood sugar skyrocket and plummet after eating something with a very high GI.

Nutri-Grain Bars. They're meant to look and sound healthy, but they're mostly just corn syrup and processed flours, which gives them a very high GI.

Although it sounds fun, and we’d all enjoy a bout of temporary insanity followed by a nap, few of us have time for it. However, some people do it without even being aware of how it happened. Have you ever struggled through a drowsy afternoon after a large lunch? Yep, you’re on the roller coaster of rising and falling blood sugar levels, which greatly affects your energy and focus. Some call it a ‘food coma,’ which does a good enough job of describing how sharp and energetic you can be after your poorly-chosen meal. Food comas my be common, but you shouldn’t conclude that big meals or late meals cause them. Only unhealthy meals do. My advice? Choose your food carefully, avoiding sugary or processed foods. If you don’t watch your blood sugar now, you might have to later in life as a diabetic.

Would you ever want to eat something with a high GI? Only in very specific and rare situations. If you are a diabetic with very low blood sugar, yes. If you’re an athlete who is exhausted and needs to replenish their glycogen level before finishing their contest, yes. But, don’t consider the athlete or the diabetic too lucky; it doesn’t mean they get to have a candy bar or a pint of ice cream. There are naturally occurring foods with high glycemic indexes, and in both examples it would be better to eat potatoes or watermelon than Snickers or Twix. Sorry, if you want to be healthier, there’s really no scenario where it’s “good for you” to eat candy or junk foods. Gatorade was designed for the aforementioned athlete who feels depleted mid-workout. If you find yourself drinking a sports drink while you watch TV, understand that you’re drinking a beverage that has been designed to rocket your blood sugar as quickly as possible. I doubt you needed that ‘boost’ while relaxing on the couch, but you might not have known any better.

Portions and Eating Speed

In the US, obesity and its related diseases have ballooned (no pun intended) into a monstrous nationwide epidemic. It’s costing the country unthinkable amounts of money, and it’s no easy task to address this complex, multifaceted, heavily-politicized issue.

There have been all sorts of proposed solutions. Some of the suggestions involve pharmaceuticals, and some use the issue as fuel for the movement for health care reform. I’m not going to get into that. My suggestion is simple; have everyone try a true European meal.

In Europe, and most of the world outside the US for that matter, portion sizes are much smaller and eating is done at a slow, deliberate pace. Some particularly offendable Europeans would be appalled at both the size and eating pace of  an American meal. I imagine we are to the Europeans what competitive eaters are to us; awe-striking abominations of eating speed and power.

Takeru Kobayashi, competitive eater, can put down 1 hotdog and bun every 4 seconds. Ironically, he is not American.

In Italy, dinner is just as much of a social event as it is a dining event. It’s far more ceremonious that the average American dinner, and eating is done slowly over about 2 hours in between much conversation. This is a better way to eat dinner, not just because you can touch base with your family and friends, but because you won’t eat more food than your body truly wants: It takes 15 minutes for the stomach to signal to the brain that it’s full and sated. If you are at the Italian dinner table, your slow pace of eating has caused you to eat exactly as much as you wanted, if not a few bites more. But if those were 15 American minutes, you might have eaten an enormous amount of food that you were never hungry for. Entire American meals are eaten in 15 minutes, and if you make a habit of eating too fast for your body to tell you “stop,” you’ll obviously ingest thousands of calories per week that no part of you ever wanted. Plus, it would be hard to convince me that you enjoyed your meal. a full meal in 15 minutes doesn’t sound enjoyable to me, it sounds more like waterboarding torture with hollandaise sauce instead of water.

There’s no easy way to stick to your New Year’s resolutions, whether they be diet-related or not. The best thing you can do is remind yourself of the choices you’re making. Ideally, your resolution would be a smashing success, and you’d meet your goals unfettered. But, if you have a setback, I imagine you’d rather choose to break your diet or decide to have an unhealthy meal rather than unknowingly sabotaging yourself with food that you never knew was bad for you. Anyone could tell you to choose healthy food, I’m just telling you to know your choices.