If I Could Give A SECOND Piece of Nutrition Advice… To ALL Age Groups, But Especially Adults
In case you missed the FIRST piece of Nutrition advice, especially as it relates to children, you can read it (watch it) here.
I made the recommendation to “crowd out carbs” … the unhealthy, refined, extra sugary ones… and to place greater emphasis on healthy fats and clean protein with a dash of quality carbs.
The second piece of Nutrition advice is to eat less often.
Not eat less, necessarily… but eat less often.We’ve been told to eat small meals, mini-meals, healthy snacks and graze throughout the day to “keep our metabolism boosted” and to “keep our blood sugar in check”… when ample scientific and clinical evidence is showing us that nothing could be further from the truth!
If your goal is vibrant health NOW, as well as maximizing your longevity potential for the long run, then we need to look at our eating habits quite differently than food manufacturers would have us do!
In the video above, I talk about one of the most critical hormonal/metabolic reasons to put the fork down and give it a good, solid rest between meals… it’s all about INSULIN. Even more than our blood sugar, we need to do whatever we can – NATURALLY – to keep our insulin levels in check.
Obviously, limiting the amount of sugar (& “cr*p carbs”) we’re taking in is a great starting point, but we need more than that to really optimize our insulin levels.
Time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting, as well as periods of extended fasting, are powerful strategies to help accomplish this goal.
When we consider the bigger picture of our recorded history, we realize that eating throughout the day, day after day, week after week, month after month is NOT necessarily a natural thing! Indeed, we seem “hard-wired” for times of FASTING as well as times of feasting!
So, in an effort to shift to a healthier metabolic approach, instead of focusing on eating LESS by “dieting”, counting calories, counting food points, or limiting portion sizes, I recommend FUELING up with health-enhancing fats, protein, and *some* quality carbs within “eating windows” of your day. And don’t be afraid to FILL up with those healthy fuels in at least one of your meals.
For some, decreasing the snacking & mini-meals and just having “3 square meals” per day is a big step from where they currently are. It’s a great step! From there, you can move into intermittent fasting (and most importantly, diet variation – the topic of an upcoming post) if you’re looking for even greater metabolic benefits.
By the way, the only reason I didn’t make this my #1 recommendation for children is that people tend to get a bit wiggy about children and food. (insert dramatic eye roll) We start throwing around words like “deprivation” if the recommendation is made to limit snacking and “treats”! Puh-lease. It’s no surprise we’ve seen such an astronomical increase in the rates of diabetes and other chronic illness in childhood! Of COURSE children will benefit from getting their insulin under control, too!
Take a look at the video and let me know what you think!
Dr. Colleen Trombley-VanHoogstraat (“Dr Mom Online”) is a long-time personality in Natural Health & Wellness and is in her 24th year of active practice in Michigan, along with her husband Dr. Marc VanHoogstraat. She’s also the proud mom of two fabulous kiddos that she currently home schools – really, she’s more of their Manager at this point in their education!
Her unique perspective of the science of Wellness provides predictable solutions and transformational results for those struggling with chronic health issues, as well as those seeking lifelong health. To discover her simple strategies for creating better health through functional nutrition, movement, mindset, cellular detoxification, hormonal optimization, and metabolic re-setting, jump on board as a regular reader of Dr Mom Online when you plug in your name and email address and follow along on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/drmomonline/
