Satisfy Your Cravings DURING Meals, Study Suggests
Delaying satisfaction can lead to less effective weight-loss
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wisdom and wellness. I’m Wise & Well’s editor, Robert Roy Britt. Below you’ll find several informative and actionable stories by our team of journalists, topical experts and practicing professionals. First, a little tidbit to chew on…
One of the problems with dieting is that the cravings tend to hang around, even return with a vengeance. New research suggests rather than cutting the crap, so to speak, try incorporating your pleasure food with your otherwise healthy meals.
“Cravings are a big problem for many people,” says Manabu T. Nakamura, PhD, a nutrition professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “If they have a lot of cravings, it is very difficult to lose weight. Even when they are able to control their cravings and lose weight, if the cravings come back, they regain the weight.”
Nakamura and a colleague ran experiments on people ages 18 to 75 who had hypertension, diabetes or other underlying health conditions that would benefit from weight loss. Those who incorporated craved foods into a balanced meal plan lost more weight than a control group, during a year-long program, and they reported their cravings remained modest for the following year.
“If you are eating and snacking randomly, it’s very hard to control,” Nakamura said. “Some dietary programs exclude certain foods. Our plan used an ‘inclusion strategy,’ in which people incorporated small portions of craved foods within a well-balanced meal.”
You can read more about Nakamura’s research in the journal Physiology & Behavior. The study was funded by the university along with a grant from the US Department of Agriculture.
Here’s a related morsel of science: Previous research found that eating dessert before dinner resulted in people consuming fewer calories. Now let’s not stray too far from healthy eating. But all this brings up an important point: Many nutritionists I’ve spoken with advise eating healthy foods 80% of the time and cutting yourself a little slack the other 20%. Moderation — even in food consumption — can help us stick to a healthy eating pattern rather than falling prey to the addictive, super-unhealthy stuff that dominates American diets now.
Now, this week’s feature stories:
Can You Change Your Personality? Science Says Yes
“I am who I am.” “It’s too late to change.” Yeah, we’ve all heard or thought these things. And there’s a grain of truth to them. But mostly, it’s just a cop-out for “I don’t wanna change” or “change is too hard.” We can absolutely adopt new personalities—and especially as we get older—as this writer has learned in her own life and through the extensive science she’ll tell you about. By Kathleen Murphy
Why You Should Push Perfectionism Aside
For anyone who thinks good isn’t good enough, this psychiatrist offers the perfect deep dive into what makes some people seek perfection, why it’s never achieved, and the many ways in which it not only jeopardizes mental well-being but thwarts actual productivity and success. Among 18 helpful tips and observations, my favorite: Perfectionism is only part of you. By
John Kruse MD, PhD
How to Fight Age-Related Muscle Loss to Improve the Quality of Your Life
One of the biggest challenges of aging isn’t a big dreaded disease with a scary name. It’s simple muscle loss and the lack of capability that comes with getting older. It sneaks up gradually in middle age, then the degradation accelerates. But it’s not a given. This 83-year-old doctor is practically begging you to start taking care of your body now, and to continue doing so, so you can simply function normally. And he explains how. By Stephen Schimpff MD, MACP
Waiting Really is the Hardest Part
I can’t wait... How often have you said or thought that? Even if I await a wonderful thing ahead, it sometimes fills me with dread. I can’t be sure how it will actually play out, and the possibilities start swirling in my head. Negative notions inevitably dominate and... OK, this is getting silly. Let’s learn from a psychologist how to avoid this needless rumination. By Gail Post, Ph.D.
Recapturing the Lost Art of Boredom
I was sitting around, getting bored, and my mind began to wander. And I got to wondering about how in decades past, when we got bored, we had to invent stuff to do. Now, everybody just flips through their phone. What are the consequences of that? I pawed through the research and spoke with a scientist whose primary job is to study boredom, and what I learned is that boredom is an emotion, like any other, and what we do with it makes all the difference. By Robert Roy Britt
The Dirty Truth About Your Laundry Machine
We count on the washing machine to get stuff clean. Sometimes it does. But for all the advancements in technology, these have to be among the most archaic devices, working very much as they did when people first landed on the moon. What I never thought of is whether the laundry gets debugged. You’d think bacteria and viruses would not survive in there, especially on a hot cycle. Don’t count on it, research suggests. By Annie Foley
Why is My Fly Open All the Time?
Admit it, as you get older, little mental slips get you to wondering. Is dementia around the corner? My curiosity, and my zipper issue, spurred me to look into it, and the answers are more encouraging than you might think. Let’s start with this often-forgotten fact: Most older people never get dementia. Among the other realities of this awful brain disease we should all remember: The onset often involves physical health and behavioral choices we make decades prior. By Robert Roy Britt
How Much Do Genes Even Affect Your Disease Risk?
I don’t know who started the rumor that chronic ailments like cancer and heart disease are largely inherited. But we’re learning that in many cases, genes themselves don’t play the outsized role we thought. Often, it’s how genes—and usually a lot of different ones—interact with your environment and your lifestyle that matter most, new research confirms. That’s good news, in that most of us have more control over our medical destiny than we’ve been led to believe. By Arun Durvasula
I hope we’ve helped make your tomorrow a little better than today.
Cheers,
Rob