Eating Habits Your Parents Got Wrong

I’ve outlined five myths about eating habits.

1. No snacking! You'll ruin your appetite!

Actually, snacking can be healthy, as long as you choose wisely. A healthy snack serves many purposes. I eat a little smaller breakfast because I know I’ll be eating again in 3 hours. I’m not as hungry at lunch because I ate three hours ago and I’ll be snacking again in about three hours. My dinner will be smaller because I’m not as hungry because I just ate something three hours before . If I’m going to be up more than four hours after dinner, I’ll snack again about three hours after dinner.

I know what you’re thinking, what about all those calories?, but it’s not that much, snacks can be healthy and not a lot of calories. My general rule is never go four hours without eating (something small) This keeps your Blood Sugars stable. Fluctuations in blood sugar will cause cravings. And eating more often will avoid that. When your hungry, you over eat and then your blood sugar spikes and when it drops or crashes you’re hungry again.

Tip: Try cutting back slightly on size of meals so you can have three daily snacks between 100 and 200 calories. Good choices include nuts, fruit, yogurt, and vegetables with dip. By snacking, you’ll avoid those big meals.

At first you might have to count calories. When you eat six times a day it’s easy to over-eat. (Consult your doctor for your correct calorie intake for your size.)

2. Finish everything on your plate.

It's fine to leave a little food, get in tune with your body to know when you've had enough. (if your worried about wasting food, save it for later, there's nothing wrong with leftovers) or simply do not fill your plate so full.

Tip: As you're eating, notice how you're feeling. Are you full? Are you eating just because there is still food on your plate? Be particularly careful when you're eating out -- the food is appealing, the plates are huge, and you may want to eat it all because you paid for it. If there are large portions, ask for half now and have them box the other half. Remember the dangers of spiking your blood sugar.

3. Don't eat before exercising -- you'll get a cramp.

You won't want to go running immediately after dinner, but eating a little bit 30 to 60 minutes before exercising can help you maximize your workout. (carbs before, protein after). You'll get a quick boost of energy that helps you optimize the exercise session.

Tip: Choose high-carbohydrate, low-fat, low-fiber snacks with moderate amounts of protein in the 100- to 300-calorie range, such as a glass of chocolate milk, a slice of toast with peanut butter, or a granola bar. Fruit is also fine, although it won't have much protein (add a few nuts for that). Personally, I like a plain yogurt cup and I add dried fruit.

4. Hurry up!

Did your parents rush your breakfast so you were on time for school? If you still eat in a hurry, you might miss your body's cues that you're full. It takes 20 minutes for the brain to register that you feel full. If you eat too quickly, you can scarf down a lot of food in a 20-minute period, and then you feel stuffed.

Tip: Slow down. Take mini-breaks by putting your food and utensils down between bites. I like to eat with other people, I spend more time talking and less time eating.

5. You deserve dessert today!

We never want to use food as a reward; it sends the brain a wrong message. The wires get crossed, and we no longer eat because we're hungry; we eat because we were good and we deserve something. This behavior starts at childhood.  It was a way parents got their kids to finish all their food.  Today we know to leave kids alone, there’ll eat when their hungry.

Tip: It's great to reward yourself, but not with food. How about a movie, a manicure, or time with friends? Soon, you'll realize that you shouldn't just eat because you think you deserve something.

Those five myths were drummed into my head as a child and I'm sure many other kids too. Today, most of us know better and we do thinks differently with our kids.

But the overweight problem is getting worse, not better. Americans' belt size continues to inch up, and women's waistlines are widening faster than men's, according to new government research.

The average waist size ballooned more than an inch -- from 37.6 inches to 38.8 inches -- between 1999 and 2012, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found.

Based on their waist circumference, 54 percent of Americans were abdominally obese in 2012, up from 46 percent 13 years earlier.

"Waists are still expanding in the U.S., and particularly so among women," said study researcher Dr. Earl Ford, a medical officer at the CDC.

While men's waists increased less than an inch -- about 0.8 of an inch on average -- women's midriffs grew about twice that, or 1.5 inches, Ford said.

Waistlines larger than 35 inches for women and more than 40 inches for men are considered abdominal obesity, a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes.
Waist circumference is a simple tool that reflects the amount of total body fat and intra-abdominal body fat. Like body mass index (BMI), which is a calculation based on height to weight, it is used to predict heart disease risk.

For the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Ford and his colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) on nearly 33,000 men and women ages 20 and older. The finding that waist sizes are still increasing was surprising, Ford said, since the prevalence of obesity seems to have reached a plateau recently. Even so, more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, according to the CDC.

Why women's waist sizes are enlarging more than men's isn't clear, Ford said.
As baby boomers age, the natural decrease in muscle mass and slowing metabolism leads to more body fat. In addition, given the size of the baby boomer generation, these aging changes will impact statistics. Inadequate activity is probably a factor, too, as it leads to body fat gain.

Getting at least five or six hours of sleep nightly may help regulate hunger and help prevent more weight gain. Also, current guidelines call for at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, a figure few Americans achieve.

Children and teens in the United States may be faring better, according to another study published in July 2014. For that report, University of Minnesota researchers used the same NHANES data and found the proportion of children ages 2 to 18 classified as obese based on waist size held steady at nearly 18 percent from 2003 through 2012.

For the younger generation research is showing hope that the problem will get smaller in years to come, but in the short term, obesity is on the raise. Today 66% of adults are overweight and in 10 years the percentage will climb to 75%. It looks like the thirty something's and older will have to deal with the overweight problem and the next generation may get a pass. They maybe learning from us and hopefully won't make the same mistakes.