10 bad eating habits you might not even know about
Miscellaneous / / November 11, 2021
1. Skip breakfast
Skipping breakfast is unlikely to affect your health, unlike regular fasting in the morning. Late first meal can increaseM. Witbracht, N. L. Keim, Sh. Forester, A. Widaman, K. Laugero. Female breakfast skippers display a disrupted cortisol rhythm and elevated blood pressure / Physiology & Behavior cortisol levels (this will make you irritable) and increase your risk ofMigraine attack triggers / The Migraine Trust headaches, especially in people with migraines. Not the best state for a productive work or a relaxing weekend.
In addition, there is a possibility that over time this habit will lead toA. Nas, N. Mirza, F. Hägele, J. Kahlhöfer, J. Keller, R. Rising, T. A Kufer, A. Bosy-Westphal. Impact of breakfast skipping compared with dinner skipping on regulation of energy balance and metabolic risk / The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition to metabolic disorders, in particular will affect the body's ability to regulate blood sugar levels. In the long term, this can lead to diabetes or obesity.
If after waking up you do not feel hungry at all, just drink a glass of water or hot tea. And take breakfast, such as porridge, scrambled eggs or cottage cheese with you to work. Try to add vegetables, fruits or berries to your first meal to maximize the nutrient saturation of your body. It is important to meet one condition: eat breakfast as soon as possible, and not delay until lunch.
2. Snack frequently
An abundance of snacks in the diet can leadThe Science of Snacking / Harward T. H. Chan to increase the daily calorie intake or, on the contrary, dull the feeling of hunger and force you to give up a full lunch or dinner: because of this, the body will not receive enough nutrients substances. Therefore, it is better not to snack during the day, but to distribute the daily calorie intake between the main meals.
That being said, snacking isn't necessarily evil. They will save you on the road or in any other situation when there is no way to eat well. However, it is important to choose the right foods. For example, fast carbohydrates like a candy bar, cookies or a packet of chips will immediately give you strength and energy, but the effect will not last long - the body will soon want to eat again. It is better to opt for complex carbohydrates or proteins, such as a protein or cereal bar, nuts, kefir, yogurt, hummus with carrots or cucumber. Fruit and dried fruit are also good options. While they're fast carbs, they do contain healthy fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
3. Look in the fridge at night and eat dinner before bed
The urge to have a snack at night may occurThe Truth About Midnight Snacking / The Huffington Post due to poor nutrition during the day or non-compliance with the regime: going to bed late provokes an increase in cortisol levels - this leads to a feeling of hunger. But frequent night visits to the refrigerator and late dinners are not good for your health. On the contrary, they can cause a number of digestive problems, including acid reflux.
In addition, food eaten in the evening is likely to becomeLate-Night Snacks: Worse Than You Think / Northwestern University into adipose tissue, and the next morning, instead of cheerfulness, a person will feel tired - after all, at night the body was forced to digest what was received and spend excess energy, and not rest. In this case, it is almost impossible to wake up on the first ring of the alarm clock.
To stop inappropriate visits to the refrigerator, you can eat dinner 2-3 hours before bed and choose foods that will provide long-term satiety, such as meat, legumes, seafood, vegetables, tofu. If hunger still makes itself felt, you can drink a glass of kefir or unsweetened yogurt or eat a few walnuts. These products will not only saturate, but also contribute toTop 10 Foods That Help You Sleep / American Sleep Association improve sleep.
It is not easy to give up bad eating habits. But it's real! To make things easier, the national project “Demography"And Rospotrebnadzor created the portal"Healthy eating». It contains expert articles, diet tips and reviews of foods with useful properties - you can quickly find information on a topic of interest using the search bar.
Also on the portal there is a section "Healthy recipes»: It contains many ideas for tasty and healthy meals for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They can be sorted by ingredient, cooking time and calorie content.
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4. Drink little water
Water is neededWater: How much should you drink every day? / Mayo Clinic the body in order to fully function, including digesting food. Each person has their own fluid rate: it is possible to determine how much you need to drink during the day for good health only by experience.
However, sometimes it is not easy to do this. It happens that the brain confusesCan You Really Mistake Thirst for Hunger? / Medium thirst and hunger: instead of a signal that it is time to drink a glass of water, offers to eat something.
To avoid these situations, try taking a couple of sips of water first every time you feel like eating. And try to replace it with sugary drinks, strong tea and coffee. If you don't like the taste of water, add a little mint, pieces of cucumber, or juicy fruits like lemon or orange to it.
5. Always eat to the end
This habit could have appeared in childhood, if you were not let go from the table until you swallow every last crumb. But this approach cannot be called useful: due to overeating, discomfort can arise in the abdomen, and the digestive system will have to work harder. In addition, excess serving size will increase your calorie intake, which can lead to excess weight.
If you already feel like you're full, it's best to put the leftovers in the refrigerator and return to them at your next meal. And if the situation happened in a cafe or restaurant, you can ask the waiter to pack the dish in a container - and you will take it home with you.
6. Have a belly party
Eating up on holidays, weekends, or vacations is harmful for the same reasons. Unaccustomed to stress, the digestive system is forced to intensively digest too large a volume of substances. This will be especially noticeable if on other days you follow the correct diet and do not exceed the calorie intake. In particular, an overcrowded stomach can cause food to crawlKeeping Your Gut in Check / NIH News in Health up the digestive tract - nausea or even vomiting will appear.
Do not overload your body during the holidays or at the hotel with a buffet will help7 tips for reining in holiday overeating / Mayo Clinic Health System a few rules:
- Don't put a lot of food on the plate at once. It is better to take the supplement later than to immediately absorb the excessive amount of food.
- Listen for signals from your brain and stop if you feel full.
- To notice satiety in time, eat slowly and enjoy the flavors.
- Choose special meals that are not in your regular diet.
- Remind yourself that you can eat most of the food on the table any other day. For example, a New Year's dinner is not the last chance to eat Olivier.
7. Lean on sweet and salty
Too much salt in food can lead toSodium in Your Diet / U. S. Food & Drug Administration to an increase in blood pressure and the development of cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, the salt norm for an adult is very small: WHO recommends Sodium intake for adults and children / World Health Organization no more than 5 grams per day - a little less than a teaspoon.
The negative effects of salt intake are relatedSalt and Sodium / Harward T. H. Chan with sodium contained in it. In normal amounts, this element helps the body maintain water balance, but in excess, it leads to fluid retention and an increase in cell volume. Additionally, excess sodium can interfere with potassium absorption. And this is fraught with metabolic disorders and heart failure.
You can reduce your salt intake by cutting down on snacks, junk food, and other processed foods in your diet. It is also important not to oversalt food during the cooking process.
Love for sweets can lead to weight gain and the development of type 2 diabetes. WHO recommendsWHO calls on countries to reduce sugars intake among adults and children / World Health Organization include in the diet no more than 10% of simple carbohydrates. To reduce the intake of sugar in the body, you can give up the daily consumption of desserts and replace dried fruit sweets: these are also simple carbohydrates, but they contain vitamins and minerals that are useful for health. In addition, it is worth giving up sugary drinks and not adding sugar (including cane sugar) or syrups to tea or coffee.
8. Seize stress
Snacks and fast food can help you get a little distraction from the troubles in life or overwork at work, and sweets also increase serotonin levels. But their consumption will not be caused by hunger, but by emotions: excess calories and, probably, a lot of salt and sugar will enter the body.
To overcomeEat These Foods to Reduce Stress and Anxiety / Cleveland Clinic stress can be done with dark chocolate. It is desirable that the percentage of cocoa in it is very high. To achieve the effect, the lobule does not need to be swallowed quickly, it is better to slowly dissolve it in the mouth. You should also pay attention to bananas, spinach, pumpkin seeds and other foods rich in magnesium - it has a positive effect on the nervous system.
Alternatively, try alternative ways to deal with stress, such as taking a walk in the fresh air or doingStress: 10 Ways to Ease Stress / Cleveland Clinic easy charging. During physical activity, endorphins are released, which help improve mood and well-being.
9. Eat on the go
When attention is not focused on food intake, the body may not realize its volume and then get hungry faster.E. Robinson, P. Aveyard, A. Daley, K. Jolly, A. Lewis, D. Lycett, S. Higgs. Eating attentively: a systematic review and meta ‑ analysis of the effect of food intake memory and awareness on eating / The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. So eating lunch at your desk or eating a sandwich while driving instead of a full breakfast is not a good idea. It's the same story with TV meals and popcorn and chips in the movies. Here, another problem will arise: due to the length of the film or TV series, the time of food consumption may also increase - food will enter the body within an hour, or even more.
All this can have a bad effect on the state of the gastrointestinal tract. When you swallow food quickly, excess air gets in along with it - this leads to bloating or belching.
To avoid such troubles, tryHere's Why We Overeat in Front of the TV (and How to Stop) / Cleveland Clinic allocate time - 10-15 minutes is enough - for a calm, conscious meal. If you want to watch a movie with snacks, do not take a whole pack with you - pour a portion into a plate in advance. Or invite friends - having company can help control the urge to snack. And to completely stop eating in front of the TV, engage your hands with something, such as knitting or an anti-stress toy.
10. Choose foods just because they are "healthy"
Foods from the healthy eating departments are really healthy, but they are not always better than their “harmful” counterparts. For example, gluten-free pasta or bread is necessary for people with celiac disease, that is, gluten intolerance, and this substance will not harm a healthy person. And sweets with fructose are the same sweets, only created for people with diabetes: it makes no sense to replace ordinary chocolates with them.
Of course, it is not necessary to bypass these departments altogether if you like the taste of "healthy" foods. In addition, you can find interesting ingredients there that will help you diversify your diet. For example, plant-based milk, tofu, or cereal without added sugar (including fructose).
Formulating the right diet starts with buying groceries. You can learn to understand which ones should be put in the basket, and which ones are better to leave on the supermarket shelf, in the free "School of Healthy Eating"From Rospotrebnadzor and the national project"Demography». This is a selection of lectures from scientists, PhDs and nutritionists.
Experts tell you what role proteins, fats and carbohydrates play in the body, how to adjust the diet depending on the season, and what popular opinions about foods are just myths. And before watching the lectures, you can take a test and check how well you already understand proper nutrition.
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