Rice cakes. Popcorn. Celery sticks. High-fiber crackers. Raw broccoli. “Healthy” ice cream. These are very different foods, but they all have one thing in common: They fill up your stomach, but contain very few calories. This means you can eat a large portion without consuming many calories. Or, as one of those “healthy” ice cream brands says, “Eat until you see the bottom!” Sounds like a good thing, right? Turns out it’s not — for multiple reasons. Here’s why.
Fullness is not the same as satisfaction.
The foods mentioned above do a great job at physically filling up and stretching your stomach. You can only eat so many broccoli florets or high-fiber crackers before you feel full. But while these foods may take care of the physical part of satiety, what about the mental aspect? So you feel full after eating a huge bowl of veggies, but are you satisfied?
Chances are, the answer is no. And when you don’t feel satisfied, you’ll continue to search for foods to give you that satisfied feeling — regardless of how full your stomach is. You may find yourself grazing on a variety of different foods, picking at things and feeling neither hungry nor full. This often leads to overeating and bingeing, all because your original meal wasn’t satisfying.
[See: 11 Things to Tell Yourself When You’re About to Binge Eat.]
Take that “healthy” ice cream, for example. Sure, you can eat more of it for fewer calories, but does it taste as good as real ice cream? Does it have a comparable texture or mouthfeel? If not, you’ll eventually end up wanting more food. If you had just eaten the real ice cream, you would have been more apt to have some of it, be full and satisfied, and move on.
Trying to trick your hunger will backfire.
Foods that are high in volume but low in calories may seem like a good idea to your brain (who doesn’t want to be able to eat the whole pint of ice cream?), but in reality, you’re trying to trick your body, and that never works in the long run. Physically filling up your stomach is only one part of your body’s appetite regulation equation. The three macronutrients — protein, carbohydrates and fat — all play a role in triggering a cascade of events and hormones that signal to your body that it is done eating. If you’re missing out on any of these food components, you may feel physically full for a short while, but soon after, you’ll find yourself hungry again.
[See: 12 ‘Unhealthy’ Foods With Health Benefits.]
So instead of choosing foods because they’re low in calories, follow these steps to build satisfying meals:
— Pick a carbohydrate, a protein and a fat. These three macronutrients all work in different ways to help signal fullness. Carbohydrates raise your blood sugar, which causes the release of hormones like insulin, amylin and GLP-1, all of which signal your brain to stop eating. Protein and fat trigger the release of other hormones like cholecystokinin or CCK, which your brain interprets as satiety.
— Figure out what tastes and textures appeal to you. For a food to be satisfying, it needs to look good, smell good and taste good — to you. This will mean different things to different people. Instead of choosing foods that you think you “should” eat, choose foods that you enjoy eating and that make you feel good. Maybe you like creamy foods better than crunchy foods, or maybe you like to have multiple tastes and textures all at once. Some people find that they’re more satisfied with hot foods than cold foods, while others like a combination of both. What satisfies you can change from week to week and even day to day. Before each meal, take a minute to think about what food sounds good to you right then. If you’re used to eating based on food or diet rules, or based upon what you “should” eat, this may be difficult. Experiment, be curious and make note of how full, satisfied or unsatisfied you feel after eating certain foods.
[See: 6 Darn Good Reasons to Eat Sugar and Not Apologize for It.]
— Practice mindful eating. An important part of satisfaction with food is being conscious, or mindful, about what you’re eating, why you’re eating and how it tastes. If you aren’t fully present during a meal, you’re less likely to be satisfied with the food. Try to slow down your speed of eating and, as much as possible, eat without distractions. Turn off the TV, put down your phone and avoid eating in front of your computer. Tune in to what you’re eating, the taste of the food and how it makes your body feel. This will help you to not only stop when you feel full, but to be more satisfied with what you’ve eaten.
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The Problem With Eating Filling, Low-Calorie Foods for Weight Loss originally appeared on usnews.com
