How do water and fiber help make certain foods more filling?

If a food is considered to be energy dense, that means it has a lot of calories in a small amount of food. On the other hand, foods with low-energy density pack the same number of calories into a much bigger serving size. Two things that add bulk to a food without adding calories (and therefore make it more filling) are water and fiber.

Many fruits and vegetables have high water and fiber contents, making them the ultimate low- calorie filler.  As well, foods that are high in fiber, such as whole-grain products, can take longer to digest, making you not only feel full, but for a longer period of time. High-fiber fruits such as apples, strawberries and blueberries consist of at least 80 percent water. Carrots, zucchini and spinach are also high in fiber and water.

What kinds of healthy foods are most satiating?

Fiber: Anything containing fiber is your best bet. Fiber slows down gastric emptying, allowing you to feel fuller for a longer period of time after a meal.  High-fiber foods have little effect on increasing serum glucose levels. Since fiber is indigestible, it adds no calories to your diet.  Adding fiber-rich foods to your meals bulks them up (think larger, more filling portions), without adding excess calories.  Fiber allows you to feel fuller and more satisfied even on fewer calories, making weight loss easier to achieve.

Carbohydrates: Focus on eating complex carbohydrates which have more fiber and nutrients, and typically fewer calories, for example; whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta, oatmeal, whole-grain cereals and brown rice.

Water: Many fruits and vegetables are high in water, which provides volume, but not calories. Grapefruit, for example, is about 90 percent water, and has just 39 calories in a half-fruit serving. Carrots are about 88 percent water, and have only 52 calories in 1 cup.

Fruits: Another prevailing source of fiber is fruits. Fruits have fiber, vitamins and minerals, and satisfy a sweet tooth without excessive calories (60 calories per serving).  Choose fruits with the most amount of fiber.  Opt for high-fiber fruits like an apple, pear or berries.

Vegetables: Vegetables are also low in calories (25 calories/cup), and high in fiber, vitamins, phytochemicals and antioxidants. Some high-fiber options include broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, artichoke hearts and hearts of palm. Remember: The more fiber a food has, the fuller you will feel on fewer calories.

Protein: Researchers at the University of Washington found that people who eat a 30 percent protein diet ate 441 calories less each day than those on a 15 percent protein diet. This includes foods from both plant and animal sources. The best choices are those that are high in calories, but low in fat. Always select lean proteins like fish,  white-meat poultry, fat-free dairy products and egg whites. Protein such as legumes, beans, peas and lentils, are also good sources of fiber.

Can you suggest any strategies that might help a person who is concerned with his or her weight achieve fullness without loading up on unhealthy food choices? 

Hunger can be a major obstacle for many people who are trying to lose weight. But incorporating foods into your diet that give you more bang for your buck can be a strong strategy for beating hunger pangs.

Fiber and protein are the two nutrients that take the longest to digest.  It is this perfect combination of foods that keeps your serum glucose levels consistant, leading to improved energy throughout the day.  In addition, since fiber has 0 calories per gram, and protein has 4 calories per gram, you are guaranteed the least caloric intake with the most food itake. 

Eating 3 meals and a snack a day keep your metabolism working throughout the day leading to more calories burned daily.  Eating at regular intervals also helps to keep your sugars from dropping too low, therefore avoiding the symptoms of hypoglycemia, which tend to lead to overeating.

Begin lunch or dinner with a broth-based, vegetable-filled soup or a large salad with a small amount of low-fat or fat-free dressing. Research from Penn State shows that people who eat soup and salad at the start of a meal wind up taking in fewer calories all day than those who skip them. These foods take longer to eat and curb your hunger. This will ultimately prevent you from overeating your main dish as well as night time overeating.

It may be difficult for some people to recognize when they are actually “full.” What are some signs that indicate fullness/satiety?

One can begin by thinking about how you are feeling while you are eating. This takes a conscious effort. Once you’ve eaten some of your food, consider asking yourself some of these questions:

• Is my hunger beginning to settle?
• Does the food still taste good?
• After a few more bites, am I beginning to feel satisfied?

Try stopping about halfway through to determine if you’ve had enough.

Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD is a nutritionist and founder of Skinnyandthecity.com.  She is also the creator of The F-Factor Diet™, an innovative nutritional program she has used for more than ten years to provide hundreds of her clients with all the tools they need to achieve easy weight loss and maintenance, improved health and well-being.  For more information log onto www.FFactorDiet.com.

MYTH: EATING AFTER 8 CAUSES WEIGHT GAIN
The reason most people think that eating at night causes weight gain is because people tend to eat extra at night, not taking into account what they have already eaten during the day. Well, the way it works is that at the end of the day, the more calories you eat, the more weight you gain — regardless if it’s during the day or at night.  Even the healthiest foods, when eaten in greater amounts than needed for energy, will be stored as fat. It is not possible to circumvent the laws of thermodynamics and energy balance. It all comes down to calories in vs. calories out.
However, the reason most people do gain weight from eating at night is because they have a late dinner after not eating for a long period of time. This makes it hard to make good food choices and also to keep portions in control. You may end up picking up a slice of pizza or two whereas if you weren’t as hungry you would have time to cook a healthy dinner without sabotaging your diet.

The second concern that comes with late night eating is “mindless” snacking in front of the TV or hanging out with your buddies. People tend to pig out on ice cream, cookies, or pizza (not on celery and carrots) and this leads to weight gain because it is usually extra calories taken in.

So aim to spread your calories throughout the day and if you do have to eat a late dinner, don’t worry about it leading to weight gain as long as you have not overeaten during the day.  Try and eat most of your carbs during the day (carbs are used for energy so eat them at breakfast, lunch and snack to fuel your activities: work, school, gym, etc). At night, focus on eating protein and vegetables since most likely your lying around and don’t need the energy from carbs.

MYTH: SUGAR MAKES KIDS HYPER
This is a huge myth. It has even spawned a popular phrase:  “sugar buzz.” But when researchers put it to the test, they found no evidence that sugar led to hyperactivity in kids or adults. Researchers found that hyperactivity of children at parties or any type of festivity is from the environment they are in. In fact, in one study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, they gave some kids sugared foods and gave others foods with artificial sweeteners. Their parents and the researchers didn’t know who was eating sugar and who wasn’t. They monitored the kids for things like irritability and hyperactivity and they found no difference. 

Another cause for hyperactivity could be from caffeine found in soda or even chocolate. Sugar may have an effect on kids with established hyperactivity, but it won’t make a non-hyperactive child become hyperactive. All sugar will do will increase your energy level, but it won’t cause hyperactivity. Many people still blame sugar for their children’s “wild” behavior, but technically speaking there is no science that proves this.

Any food that affects blood-sugar levels can create an adrenaline surge, which will lead to a burst of energy. However, many kid-favorite, sugary snacks are lacking fiber which is the  reason why your child may become hyperactive.  So if your child is often bouncing off the walls of your home, simply swapping an orange for orange juice or high-fiber cereals for sugared varieties, will keep their blood sugar levels normal.

MYTH: SWALLOWED GUM STAYS IN YOUR BODY FOR 7 YEARS
For the most part, gum is as indigestible as a paper clip. Gum is made from gum resin, flavoring and sweeteners. The human body cannot digest gum resin. Many of us were told as children that it would stick to our insides for seven years, but that is absolutely not true. Our bodies move indigestible material through our digestive systems and out of our bodies in bowel movements.

Many people don’t realize this, but chewing gum can cause bloating because it causes you to swallow air. All that air gets trapped in your GI tract and causes pressure, bloating, and belly expansion.

There is absolutely no nutritional benefit to gum. Sugar-free gum often contains sorbitol. Sorbitol is a sugar substitute that acts as a laxative, which draws water into the large intestine. As little as four sticks of sorbitol-containing gum can cause bloating and abdominal pain.

MYTH: ORGANIC FOOD IS HEALTHIER THAN CONVENTIONAL FOODS
According to The Institute of Food Technologists, organic food is no healthier than conventionally grown foods. Organic food means that its ingredients were grown without chemical pesticides, fertilizers or insecticides. It’s healthy because there are no chemicals, but organic doesn’t necessarily mean the food is nutritious.

Of course, even organic or all-natural food can pack on pounds. So be careful you don’t get carried away.  Take organic potato chips and cookies for example. Over eating these will still make you fat!

Considering organically-grown food can cost more than twice as much as conventionally-grown food, sticking to a diet rich in whole grains, lean protein, fruits and vegetables is your best bet to your healthiest and happiest diet.

MYTH: RAW VEGETABLES ARE ALWAYS BETTER THAN COOKED VEGETABLES
Not so. The amount of nutrients you get from vegetables can differ for a number of reasons, such as how long you store them and how (or if) you cook them. Although cooking vegetables can lose nutrients, cooking can sometimes increase the amount of nutrients available to the body. An example of this is the antioxidant lycopene in tomatoes. Cooking tomatoes releases more lycopene than is available in raw tomatoes.  In addition, in January, a report in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry concluded that cooking carrots, zucchini and broccoli was better than eating them raw.

Loss of nutrients can occur in cooking because some vitamins, like vitamins B and C, dissolve in water. Some can be lost if the vegetables are boiled for too long. Steaming or stir-frying helps retain the vitamins when you cook vegetables. The fact of the matter is vegetables are powerhouses of nutrition, no matter which way you eat them. Whether raw or cooked, five servings of vegetables a day are recommended for good nutrition.

MYTH: CARBS MAKE YOU FAT
One of the greatest diet myths is that carbs make you fat.  Nothing can be further from the truth. If the only thing you ate all day was a bagel, that bagel would not make you fat.  It’s not that carbohydrates make us fat; it’s the quantity we eat which packs on the pounds. For example Italians live on pasta. Yet they eat pasta as their starter-primo piatto, which consists of 1 ½ cups equaling 375 calories. Then they follow with a segunda or main course of lean meat or fish and vegetables.

In the United States, on the other hand, we most often eat pasta as our main course. A typical main course serving of pasta in this country is about 4 cups, or 1,000 calories. Big difference! 

The secret to eating carbs and shedding pounds is eating high-fiber carbohydrates. Fiber is the zero calorie, indigestible component of carbohydrates. The more fiber a food contains, the less digestible carbohydrate there is. It is the net carbohydrate, not the total carbohydrate that gets converted and stored as fat.  High-fiber carbohydrates have lower net carbohydrates than foods that contain no fiber. In addition, fiber adds texture, bulk and chewing satisfaction, which aids in consuming fewer calories, yet still feeling full. Choose whole grain breads, cereals, fruits vegetables, and legumes to fill your tank without gaining weight. 

Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD is a nutritionist and founder of Skinnyandthecity.com.    She is also the creator of The F-Factor Diet™, an innovative nutritional program she has used for more than ten years to provide hundreds of her clients with all the tools they need to achieve easy weight loss and maintenance, improved health and well-being.  For more information log onto www.FFactorDiet.com.

This makes the perfect combination of fiber and protein, helping you to avoid the mid-morning munchies and keep you feeling full all morning long.

Ingredients:
1 container (5.3 oz) Greek Yogurt (such as Fage 0%)
2-3 tbsp water
½ cup Fiber One cereal
½ cup strawberries, sliced
¼ cup blueberries
1 packet Splenda
Cinnamon (optional)

Directions:
1. Mix Greek Yogurt with water to thin it out.
2. Stir in Splenda and cinnamon to sweeten the yogurt evenly.
3. In a dish or tall glass, spoon 1/3 of the yogurt.
4. Top with strawberries and then ¼ cup Fiber One.
5. Repeat layer, but use blueberries for the fruit. Top off with last 1/3 of yogurt.

Serves 1

Nutritional Content: 187 calories ∙ 42 g carbohydrates ∙ 17 g fiber ∙ 16 g protein ∙ 1.2 g total fat ∙ 0 g sat fat ∙ 185 g sodium

Bon Appetite!

Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD is a nutritionist and the creator of The F-Factor Diet™, an innovative nutritional program she has used for more than ten years to provide hundreds of her clients with all the tools they need to achieve easy weight loss and maintenance, improved health and well-being.  For more information log onto www.FFactorDiet.com.

Carbohydrates (meaning “carbon plus water”) are the most efficient fuel for your body. They provide steady healthy energy. Along with fat and protein, carbohydrates are an essential nutrient. The two major forms of carbs are: simple sugars (simple carbohydrates), found in sugars such as fructose, glucose, and lactose, as well as in nutritious whole fruits; and starches (complex carbohydrates), found in foods such as starchy vegetables, grains, rice, and bread and cereals.

What makes carbs different from other essential nutrients (fat and protein) is that they are easily converted to energy by the body. Furthermore, the simplest carbohydrate, glucose, is essential fuel for the brain and muscles. When glucose is absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream, blood-glucose levels increase, and your pancreas begins to secrete insulin to help get that sugar out of the blood and to the brain and muscles. The problem occurs when too much glucose over-whelms the metabolism. In other words, if you regularly eat great amounts of foods with refined starches and sugars—the bad carbs—the pancreas makes too much insulin and the blood sugar drops too far, which, in turn, makes you feel hungry. Furthermore, muscle cells will stop taking in the glucose, and so more of this sugar will be stored as fat, which will result in weight gain.

GOOD CARB FOODS: Complex carbohydrates are the good carbs. Among good carbs are high-fiber, low-sugar fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole oatmeal and all other whole grains, and all types of beans (a Latin staple!). Sweet potatoes, brown rice, grapefruit, fat-free milk (organic and in moderation, please), whole grain pasta (also in moderation), and apples, like other good carbs, cause a gradual rise in blood-sugar levels, which is optimal for sustained energy, mental clarity and focus, and a balanced mood. Also, eating good carbs will help curb your cravings for bad carbs, which in turn can help you avoid chemical imbalances in the brain that can cause depression.

NOTE: I always recommend buying organic products, because they’re free of potentially harmful ingredients.