The Nutrition Question That Can Change Everything by Joan Kent, PhD
The Nutrition Question That Can Change Everything
by Joan Kent, PhD
This brief post covers a seemingly minor point that sounds like nothing but does a lot.
If you’d like to move a major step closer to a lifetime of healthful eating, you can do that in a single step.
The key is to ask one question before you eat anything — pre-workout, post-workout, breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack.
The question is simply this: “Will eating this stabilize me or destabilize me?”
In this context, stability refers to two things — blood glucose and brain chemistry.
Stabilizing Glucose
Stabilizing glucose refers to keeping things in a normal range with gentle and gradual “ups” after meals or snacks, and gentle and gradual dips when hunger is about to occur.
“Gradual” is the operative word.
Stable glucose levels don’t rise to a sharp peak, as they might after, say, a sugary pre-workout “breakfast”, and then plummet right after that.
They might plummet in those who are susceptible. Those folks are called carb sensitive because they secrete extra insulin when they eat certain carbs.
Sugar would be one of the key triggers of that extra insulin, but it’s not the only one. Junk like white flour — and even fruit — can trigger too much insulin, as well.
Stabilizing Brain Chemistry
Stabilizing brain chemistry involves several chemicals that change with the food we eat.
The 4 chemicals are dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and beta-endorphin (which most people call endorphins).
When those chemicals are at optimal levels, they prevent cravings and keep us feeling pretty good.
But some people have lower baseline levels of one (or more) of the 4 chemicals. That makes them feel a bit worse (sometimes a lot worse) than someone whose brain levels are even.
It also makes them more sensitive to the effects of junky foods like sugar.
When they eat those junky foods, they get an exaggerated reaction of those brain chemicals — either through an extra-high release or through extra-high production. Or both.
The exaggerated reaction might feel great for a little while.
It’s also where addiction comes in, making someone who has experienced it want more junk that will give them that great feeling — and take away the blah feeling they could have day to day.
As you can probably tell, that’s almost guaranteed to cause a repeat of the whole cycle.
Which Foods Will Help?
Stabilizing foods are wholesome fats (such as nuts) and protein foods — or even protein powder.
If you can make a habit of eating something from each of those categories every time you eat, you’ll help stabilize glucose and brain chem.
At first, you may not like having to go to a little extra trouble in this way, but — in the long run — you’ll feel great, perform better in your workouts, and get the health benefits and mental clarity you’ll deserve for changing your eating habits with this simple step.