Sugar!
Sugar is one of the top 5 most addictive substances so it's no wonder we struggle to resist it! The best way to do this is to keep blood sugar levels even throughout the day.
We get our energy from carbohydrates mainly. To absorb carbohydrate the body must break it down to single sugar molecules, (blood glucose) which can then be used or stored for energy. Insulin is secreted into the blood stream in direct proportion to the amount of sugar consumed. This then allows the sugar from your last meal to get stored, primarily in your muscles then a little in your liver and any excess will get converted to fat. The trick is to consume carbohydrates that are absorbed slowly and that don’t have large amounts of energy in them. This will keep energy levels stable with a steady stream of blood glucose without storing it as fat. Compare a piece of broccoli to a piece of chocolate. Both get broken down to single sugar molecules but one takes a long time and doesn’t have as much sugar, the other will get absorbed extremely quickly with a lot more sugar in it.
Start the day right.
Breakfast plays a massive role in what you eat for the rest of the day. Cereal for breakfast results in big peaks and troughs in energy levels, fat storage and makes it very hard to make healthy choices for the rest of the day. A balanced protein, fat and slow release carb breakfast however, will keep you feeling full for hours, keep a steady energy level, make healthy choices during the day easier and not store fat.
Intermittent Fasting
Some people find that missing breakfast altogether and eating between a 8 or 10 hour window helps with increasing insulin resistance which means your body can handle blood sugar better and is less likely to store fat. However, this doesn’t apply to everyone and women, especially menopausal women, are less likely to have the same benefits. It also seems that if you have excess body fat to lose, this can work really well but if you are already on the lean side, it might not. The best advice I can give is to try it, ease yourself in slowly, and just see how you feel. If you feel energised and are losing unwanted fat then great! However, if you you try it and feel lousy, sluggish and weak it may not be for you. (I would NOT recommend even trying it though if there is any history of disordered eating) If you want more info on various ways of Intermittent Fasting then check out this Precision Nutrition article https://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting
Continuous Glucose Monitoring
We are all different and we all digest, absorb and use what we eat differently so a great way to see how your body reacts to certain foods is to try a Continuous Glucose Monitor. This was developed to help diabetics to manage blood sugar levels without having to prick fingers multiple times per day. It is now available to all of us from the people at Zoe https://joinzoe.com/how-it-works and also from Veri https://www.veri.co There is of course a price for this and you may feel its not worth the outlay however, as time goes on, these will come down in price so worth keeping an eye on.
I used the Veri device last year as an experiment on myself and it pretty much confirmed that what I was eating, in the main, was giving me manageable blood sugar levels. It did though give me a couple of surprises. Even a well balanced meal with plenty of protein and good fat would raise my blood sugar levels over what would be ideal if it was a large meal. So portion size for me is relevant not just balance of protein, fats and carbs. The biggest sugar spike I got, by far, was a vegetarian ‘burger’ in a posh restaurant. (All carbs, mostly starchy, and very little fat or protein. That’s not to say vegetarian is bad but it’s harder to get the balance right and reducing starchy carbs is still important. In fact eating more plants and reducing animal protein is very good for you!