After the excesses of Christmas how many of us make a resolution to lose weight and cut down on junk food, sugar, salt, coffee and chocolate in the New Year? You may be feeling very proud of yourself because you have already cleaned out your cupboards, refrigerator and larder and restocked them with fresh, frozen and dried fruits and vegetables and replaced refined grains with whole grains and swapped animal products like red meat for oily fish, legumes and organic eggs. 

But wait – clearing out your cupboards won’t help you get back in shape unless you have sound strategies in place to deal with food cravings when they strike. To stick to your healthy eating resolutions and weight loss plans you need to understand what makes your body crave comfort foods and what you can do differently to avoid them. 

 

Problem: Night time cravings

 

A recent study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that overweight people tend to eat most of their calories later in the day than people with a healthy weight. Obviously, one of the keys to eating “right” is to eat most of your calories earlier in the day.

 

Solution: Stop eating 2 hours before you go to bed.

 

More than that and you’ll get too hungry – and you’ll be much more likely to give in to your cravings. Less than that and you won’t have enough time to burn the calories before you go to sleep.

 

A healthy dinner should consist mainly of good quality protein and fibrous carbohydrates like veggies (can be a combination of cooked and raw). The fibre will keep you feeling full longer and reduce any cravings you may get before bedtime. And break up your evening routine by limiting mindless activity (like watching TV).

 

One of the reasons many people get cravings late at night is because they’re just plain bored. They consciously or subconsciously turn to food to give their brains something to do. Play a game, do a crossword, read a book, talk to your partner/kids – anything that at least partially engages the brain will keep it too busy to think about food.

 

Problem: Skipping breakfast

 

Skipping breakfast is one of the biggest causes of food cravings throughout the day – even late at night! And eating less in the evening will ensure that you’re very hungry in the morning, so it should be easier to eat a nice big healthy meal.

 

Solution: Simple!

 

Boost your metabolism (fat burning) first thing in the morning and breakfast like a king; a healthy king, of course, so no fry ups. Stick to fruit, live yogurt, smoothes, eggs (poached or scrambled) and whole grains cereal, oats and toast.

 

Problem: Skipping meals.

 

Skipping meals or eating on an unpredictable schedule catapults your body into a state of starvation, depriving your brain and body of fuel. This sets you up to crave starchy or sugary foods for energy. If you keep your levels steady, you simply won’t get cravings.

 

You should also make sure you have drunk enough. Dehydration confuses the body and will often make it feel hungry, especially if it’s cool outside. A small glass of water each hour will keep your stomach full and keep you hydrated.

Solution: Eat a meal or snack every 2 to 3 hours until 7 or 8 pm and plenty of water throughout the day.

Most people find this stabilises their energy and prevents impulse eating and bingeing. Eating before you run out of energy can prevent sugar cravings. By “grazing” like this throughout the day you won’t get hungry and your metabolism and energy levels will stay elevated all day long. Also, your willpower will stay intact because you’re not starving yourself.

Problem: Cutting down on carbohydrates.

Very low-carbohydrate eating plans create cravings for starchy foods and sweets. The reason: the brain runs on glucose, supplied by carbohydrates. When you don’t consume enough carbohydrates to fuel your brain, you get hungry, which many people experience as a craving for sweet foods.

Solution: Include healthy carbohydrate whole foods with your meals and snacks.

For example include roasted vegetables included root veggies, fresh fruits and whole grains, such as brown rice with your meals. Twice a day make sure you add colourful vegetables, especially greens, to your meal.

Problem: Not enough protein or fat.

If you go the other way and eat a diet too high in carbohydrates, particularly refined carbohydrates you will get cravings for sweets.

Your body needs a balance of carbohydrate, protein and fat because protein and fat slow the release of carbohydrates into your bloodstream, stabilising your energy and starving off food cravings. Protein-rich foods also pack important nutrients, and healthy fats and oils improve nutrient absorption, boost immunity and increase satiety at meals.

Solution: Include a dash of healthy fat (nuts, seeds, olive oil) and a small portion of healthy protein (legumes, tofu, and oily fish) with every meal or snack.

Problem: Too much salt.

Salt stimulates your palate and if you are used to eating foods heavily seasoned with salt it will take a while to re-educate your taste buds so you don’t crave it when you eat. Processed foods, chips, crackers, cured meats, dips, condiments and canned soups can make your calorie and salt intake — and desire for salt — soar.

Solution: Cut your salt intake in half.

Cutting your salt intake in half will help re-educate your palate making it easier for you to know when you are hungry and when you have eaten enough. Read labels, even in health food stores, and make lower-sodium selections. Add half as much salt to recipes, then try using half as much salt again the next time you prepare the recipe. At the table, replace the salt shaker with lemon pepper or sea vegetable sprinkles, such as nori, or use herbs to spice up your meal instead. (See elsewhere in this issue for more advice on cutting down on salt.)

Problem: Addicted to sugar.

If you have a sweet tooth you may find yourself reaching for sugary snacks several times during the day; the problem is refined foods high in sugar won’t ever be able to satisfy your cravings because they lack satisfying fibre and nutrients found in whole food. Sugar also stimulates your appetite — the more you eat, the more you want.

Solution: Replace refined foods and sugar with satisfying whole foods.

In the days and weeks ahead start becoming aware of how much sugar you are eating and cut down gradually. Take the sugar bowl off the table and if you add sugar to your drinks start cutting down slowly until you can drink them without.

This may seem impossible at first but ask anyone who has given up adding sugar to their tea and they will tell you that you soon get used to it and now the thought of a sugary tea is repulsive. Incorporate at least one sweet vegetable (such as carrots, parsnips, beets, sweet potatoes or winter squash) or cooked or dried fruit into each meal and snack. This will satisfy your sweet tooth at mealtime so you don’t need to search for sugary snacks between meals.

And start looking for healthier ways to satisfy your sweet tooth. Fruit is a delicious alternative to high calorie chocolate and instead of ice cream try frozen fruit sprinkled with cinnamon or a fruit smoothie with a handful of satisfying nuts and seeds. 

Problem: Psychological cravings.

No amount of dessert will satisfy your emotional needs or take away your troubles. Reaching for cookies, pastries, ice cream and other high-sugar foods when you feel fearful, angry, lonely, bored, depressed or stressed usually will give you more grief: aches, pains, indigestion, excess body fat and health problems that can make you feel even worse.

Solution: Real cravings stay with you but psychological ones don’t.

If you’ve eaten enough and are hydrated, putting off a decision for 15-20 minutes will help the feeling dissipate. And when a craving strikes try distracting yourself from it. For example, if you’ve been working in front of a computer but feel the need to eat, do something else. Make a phone call or read the newspaper.

Changing your mindset might be all you need. If you start to exercise and your cravings aren’t physical, you’ll feel better almost instantly. If it is physical, you’ll never be able to really get into your workout, which is a sign that you need to eat.

Keep healthy snacks around. Sometimes you just can’t take it, especially if you’re on a restricted calorie diet. Keeping healthy snacks around will help. Have a piece of fruit or some raw veggies. If it’s not helping, you’ll know your craving was psychological.

Finally, try changing your routine. Habit can affect a craving, so shake up what you do, even if it’s just slightly. Move your desk, sit differently, get up every so often and stretch or drink water, do anything different. Forcing simple changes can make it easier to follow through with tougher ones

And when absolutely nothing else works, give in and allow yourself a little of what you fancy. Have a square of chocolate instead of a whole bar, a serving of crisps (around 20) instead of a bag, a couple of organic biscuits instead of the whole packet. And never let one bad evening throw you off course; as long as you are eating healthily 80 per cent of the time you can afford the odd indulgence.

Whether it is to revive flagging spirits or cheer you up the British like nothing better than a good cup of tea. New research is proving that it can positively benefit your health but some teas are better than others.

 

Green tea: Green tea is a rich source of vitamin C – one large cup has the same amount as a glass of orange juice.  It also contains anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antibacterial properties to help fight gingivitis, gum disease, bad breath and flu.

 

Green tea is high in antioxidants to help ward off cancer and to protect against heart disease by lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. One study of 512 patients in Fukuoka City, Japan, showed that green tea could prevent hardening of the arteries. Another study of Japanese workers found that those who drank one cup of green tea daily saw a significant drop in cholesterol. And if all that wasn’t enough researchers have also found that green tea may also help boost a woman’s chances of conceiving and be a weight loss aid because it can help boost metabolism (fat burning).  (The NutriPlus supplement I use as part of the ‘Lose Your Belly’ programme contains green tea extract).

 

Tea tip: Infuse loose leaves in a pot to get the fullest flavour.

  

White tea: More research needs to be done on this rare and often expensive tea but it contains exceptionally high levels of cancer fighting antioxidants.

 

Tea tip: Try brewing in a glass or china pot for the best flavour.

 

Red bush tea or Rooibos: Red bush tea has anticancer, antiviral, anti inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Studies at Okayama University, Japan, showed that extracts of Rooibos increased the number of antibodies boosting the immune system. Rooibos is also caffeine free and tannin free and rich in vitamin C, iron, potassium, copper, magnesium, zinc and manganese. Rooibos also contains anti ageing antioxidants.

 

Tea tip: The perfect brew at bedtime – brew for three minutes or longer for the fullest taste.

 

Black tea: Black tea, the most popular tea in the UK, has lower antioxidant levels than green tea but it can still help to reduce the risk of heart disease and lower cholesterol levels. It also has anti cancer properties. But be careful of this tea as it contains more caffeine than green tea and can cause restlessness and irritability.

 

If you are drinking black tea then to reduce caffeine, throw away the first cup from the pot within the first 30 seconds of brewing. The following cups will contain less caffeine but have all the antioxidants. The tannin in tea can also block the uptake of minerals including iron so always drink black tea away from food and do not take with food supplements especially iron supplements.

 

Tea tips: Try iced tea – brew, then allow to cool and drink with ice, lemon and sprigs of mint.

This month’s case study is ‘Lisa’ who came to the Clinic wanting to lose weight.

Lisa’s story:

I had always been very slim and a size 10-12 throughout my twenties and thirties and since reaching my forties I had been gradually gaining weight and finding myself buying size 14-16 clothes. My lifestyle had always been very rushed – working long hours in London, commuting and not always eating the right foods because of lack of time.

What I couldn’t understand was why the excess weight was accumulating around my middle, and nowhere else. All my clothes felt tight and my waistbands very uncomfortable. I had tried several diet books and slimming programmes, none of which worked in the long term and have all been very difficult to maintain.

I was on the train coming home from work one night with the usual tight feeling around my waist and I read an article about ‘Fat Around the Middle’ by Dr Marilyn Glenville. As I was reading it, I found I could really relate to it and it just sounded like me – high stress levels, eating on the go and constantly on and off diets. This was the prompt I need to do something about it!

I called the Dr Marilyn Glenville Clinic and booked an appointment. I had read all about the link between high stress levels and gaining weight around the middle so I decided to perform the Adrenal Stress test before my initial appointment. The test kit arrived and all it involved was providing 4 saliva samples over a 12 hour period, which measured the stress hormone called cortisol.

I also had to fill in a very comprehensive questionnaire and return before my first appointment. The questionnaire enabled me to give my full medical history, symptoms I was experiencing apart from weight and importantly my current dietary habits. It was actually really valuable writing down my food intake and made me realise just how erratic my eating habits were.

My first hour appointment was broken down into sections. It started with the practitioner gathering information about me; explaining why I had been gaining weight, and then giving me dietary recommendations and a course of nutritional supplements. What I didn’t realise was that being ‘fat around the middle’ or apple shaped could actually be dangerous to my health, increasing my risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and certain cancers. This really worried me because there is quite a strong family link with diabetes.

The practitioner explained the main reason some people gather more fat around their middle than others is specifically because of the action of the stress hormone cortisol and she explained that a fundamental reason for this weight gain is poor blood sugar control. When blood sugar increases (a result of the stress response or from what you have eaten), our body releases insulin to help move the glucose out of our blood and into the cells to actually provide them with energy. But if we don’t need that energy the body will store the glucose as fat.

If the stress continues (it usually does) cortisol levels remain high, so the body triggers the breakdown of sugar stores in the liver and muscles to provide further fuel. Out comes more insulin to deal with the extra blood glucose. It made such perfect sense as she explained that over time, the body simply can’t respond to insulin the same way it used to. We then become intolerant to insulin – or insulin resistant. It was recommended that I follow some basic dietary principles to help me lose the weight from around my middle. The main principle was to keep blood sugar stable during the day by always combining protein with carbohydrate (i.e. fish or beans with vegetables and brown rice) which I rarely did because I lived on pasta with tomato based sauces because it was low fat so I thought I was being healthy!

The second principle was to eat breakfast otherwise cortisol is produced and the whole blood sugar/insulin roller-coaster starts. Again, I rarely ate breakfast because I was always running late for the train or just not hungry. I suppose I had got so used to living like this my adrenals were just allowing me to ‘run on empty’. Something that surprised me was having to give up coffee and fruit juice. I thought I was being good by having my glass of orange juice each day and surely if my lattes were made with skimmed milk there are virtually no calories?!?

She explained that fruit juice is very concentrated which increases blood sugar and consequently more insulin needs to be produced and we’re back to the roller-coaster effect again. The same is true of caffeine – I had no idea that caffeine stimulates the same blood sugar response as sugar! So I had been doing everything wrong! I had been more concerned with counting calories and fat and eating a lot of starchy foods like bread and pasta which I then realised were not helping to keep my blood sugar levels stables and in fact were exacerbating my sugar cravings. The adrenal stress profile really helped me to understand what was happening to my body and the link between cortisol and the weight around my middle.

Each cortisol reading throughout the day was significantly higher than it should be which meant I was putting too much strain on my adrenals. In the longer term when the cortisol levels have been depleted, it can end up as to total exhaustion where symptoms of chronic fatigue can appear. I think seeing my results in black and white gave me the motivation to really make a change.

Finally, the practitioner recommended some specific vitamins and minerals and herbs to support my adrenal glands, blood sugar and cravings and weight loss. She also asked me not to weigh myself and rather judge my success by how my clothes fitted. This made so much more sense than hopping on the scales every day, which in fact was very soul destroying.

One month later I had my follow up consultation. In this time I had been keeping daily diet diaries that really kept me on track! I was definitely losing weight from around my middle as I could see some shape to my waist and my waistbands did feel more comfortable which psychologically made me feel more positive and motivated. I couldn’t believe that I was actually eating more food and losing weight!?

I was having breakfast, lunch and dinner with a mid morning and afternoon snack. My energy levels were also better and I felt less stressed and anxious, so better able to cope with the day to day work/life pressures. Three months on and I’m looking and feeling great. People have commented on the ‘new me’ and it’s given me a real boost to my confidence. I now realise that this is a way of life for me and I’ll never be tempted to follow quick fix diets!

Marilyn’s comments:

Lisa’s story is such a classic example of the women we see at the clinic where they have lead busy lives during their twenties and thirties, holding down stressful careers or bringing up their children and not really looking after themselves and really ‘living’ on their adrenals.

When they reach their mid to late forties the weight suddenly creeps up because they have pushed their adrenal glands to the limit. Of course it is not just purely down to lifestyle, because with age we lose more muscle mass which is essential to help us burn fat.

Although the diet is the most important area we focus on, we do recommend nutritional supplements and exercise to support and enhance how successful your outcome is. Successful weight loss is about looking at all aspects of your life, i.e. diet, lifestyle and stress and activity levels and making changes for the best outcome. So if you are caught up in the yo-yo dieting trap and you want to take control of your weight and life, then please do contact the Dr Marilyn Glenville Clinic. If you are interested in having the Adrenal Stress Test mentioned please click here.