"I almost die for food, and let me have it!"
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
How do we lose weight and keep it off? This is a big, big topic, and one that I'll be covering piece by piece in this blog.
So let me first tell you who I am and why this topic is mine. In my professional life I'm a professor of nutrition and a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University and have spent the last 17 years doing research on weight loss and how to make it work for real people in the real world. On a personal level, I was an overweight kid, had a mother who loved us with food, and was 55 pounds overweight in my 30's after a difficult pregnancy. Researching weight has been my way to bring all the pieces of my life together. Like many people who struggle with control over what they eat, I've gained and lost, and gained and lost again, so I know the struggle up close. But I also know how to win on a personal level - I've been weight stable for the last 15 years, and with the help of things I've learned in my research program have achieved this without giving up the wonderful pleasures of food, comfort food and all the rest.
I also love food - I was a chef in a French bistro and worked as a private chef as well, before becoming a researcher - and think that good food, comfort food and all the rest are legitimate, normal pleasures which should not be made hostage to weight control - indeed I believe that we can't win our personal battle with weight unless we enjoy what we eat and stay satisfied. I'm also the author of the just-published The Instinct Diet, which has been endorsed by more leading obesity scientists than any diet book ever-including researchers who've never before been able to agree on the same recommendations.
People who struggle with their weight report that the main reasons they give up on a diet are because they miss eating foods they love, they are hungry all or most of the time, and then hit a plateau and can't get any further. So the central challenge in weight control is this: how do we cut calories while staying satisfied and eating things we enjoy? If we can do this, there is no reason we can't gain permanent control over our weight!
So let's start with hunger control. I know that most everyone thinks that they have other problems as well, but in my experience really good hunger control 24/7 makes it much easier to deal with just about every other issue (such as emotional eating and craving, which I will cover in a future blog). In psychiatric terms of peeling the onion, hunger control is the outside layer - you can't uncover other stuff until you get rid of it. And the good news here is that the diet wars of past years really are over. Really! Research studies are showing quite conclusively that there isn't just one way to deal with hunger, there are at least 4 ways to put together a meal or snack to get satisfied on fewer calories. Eating the right foods isn't the only way to control hunger (more on this later), but all of the following items are great for hunger control, and if you include 2 or more of these in each meal and each snack you will probably notice a rapid improvement in how satisfied you feel:
• High fiber foods (such as high fiber cereals, legumes, green vegetables);
• High protein foods (such as lean proteins like chicken breast, white fish, tofu);
• High volume foods (such as green salads and vegetable or bean soups);
• Low glycemic index carbs (such as legumes, again, and also wheat berries, barley, low carb breads, and non-starchy fruits).
What if you don't like these things? Practice (especially when you are hungry) and some good recipes are the key to growing enjoyment. Here is my favorite after-dinner cure for both hunger and late-night munchies. Think of it as the best diet medicine rather than an indulgent dessert, and enjoy!
Chocolate Cereal Dessert
½ cup very high fiber cereal such as Original Fiber One, All Bran Extra Fiber or Trader Joe's High Fiber Cereal
1 square (10 grams) chocolate of your choice
1% milk to serve, about 1/3 cup
Optional: 2 drops mint essence, or a handful of frozen raspberries
Place the chocolate on top of the cereal and microwave until the chocolate just melts, about 30 seconds. Mix the cereal and chocolate together really well. Add the milk and serve (preferably while you put your feet up and relax).
Dr. Susan Roberts is professor of nutrition and professor of psychiatry at Tufts University and author of The Instinct Diet.
