All Entries Tagged With: "diet"

Goji a go-go: What’s up with superfruits?

You’ve seen the Google ads: Oprah’s Acai diet; the amazing Goji berry cure; the miraculous Mangosteen. Exotic superfruits are all the rage among health fanatics and multi-level marketers are getting in on the action. Is there anything behind the big claims? In this week’s podcast, I take a closer look. http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/superfruits.aspx

Diet Soda: An Oxymoron?

Think of three people you know who drink massive amounts of diet soda. How many of them are thin? Now think of three people you know that are never without a can or regular soda. How many are overweight?

If you think that drinking diet soda will help you get (or stay) thin, you might want to consider research that shows that the more diet soda you drink, the more likely you are to gain weight. No lie.

Artificial sweeteners are the subject of this week’s podcast episode. Check it out: http://nutritiondiva.quickanddirtytips.com/sugar-substitutes.aspx

Does eating late at night make you fat?

Dear Nutrition Diva,

I’ve heard that eating right before you go to bed will cause all of the calories to be stored as fat instead of being burned.  With my schedule, I often end up eating very late–like after rehearsals–and then going more or less straight to bed.  Is this habit going to make me gain weight?

Late-night nosher

Dear LNN,

I’m in the same boat. I don’t want to sing on a full-stomach but then I’m starving when the performance or rehearsal is over. When I’m involved in a production, I often end up eating dinner after ten pm.  Pigging out after rehearsals can definitely make you fat, but it has little to do with timing.

Somehow people have this idea that if they are more active after eating a meal they will somehow “burn up” the calories they just ate–and that if they lie down after eating, the meal will be converted directly to fat.  But think about this for a sec.  If you get up from the dinner table and take a walk, you will be burning calories–but very few will be from the meal you just ate. Most of that meal is still in your stomach being digested and hasn’t been converted to energy yet.

It is true that your hormones have daily and nightly cycles and that your metabolism works slightly differently depending on the time of day/night and how long its been since you had a meal.  But these subtle effects have been VASTLY over-estimated and transformed into a number of crack-pot diet myths.  The number one factor in whether or not you store fat in your body is how many calories you take in (i.e., how much you eat) versus how many calories you burn (i.e., how active you are).  The timing plays a relatively minor role.

That said, late-night eating does often lead to extra poundage. But it’s not because of the time of day. It’s because eating late at night is likely to involve alcohol and socializing…two factors that often lead us to over-eat.  So, you’ve got to be smart about it. When you know you’re going to be eating late, budget your calories accordingly through the day. (No fair eating one dinner at 6pm and ANOTHER at 11pm).

Keep in mind, too, that heavy, greasy meals and lots of alcohol right before bed are not a recipe for restful sleep–and can kick up reflux or GERD symptoms, if you’re susceptible.  But as long as your overall calorie intake is in line with your needs, eating a light meal and a beer or glass of wine to wind down after a rehearsal or performance should be fine.

(Want to know how many calories you can afford to eat each day?  Use this nifty calculator.)