Grazing

In my last blog, I talked about building your PRAH or your Personal Retirement Account for Health. One of the first  impactful techniques that you can incorporate towards building your PRAH is by introducing the habit of grazinginto your daily life.  Grazing is the term used to describe eating frequent mini meals throughout the day. When you graze, you don’t wait until you are ravenously hungry to eat. By eating small amounts of food frequently throughout the day, your body gets a steady stream of energy. This helps to balance your blood sugar and keep insulin levels stable. Grazing is at the heart of good metabolic programming and has been proven to have many benefits. For example,

●      Grazing is good for the gut. By eating smaller amounts more frequently, the body is always satisfied, neither hungry nor uncomfortably full. A grazer will experience less indigestion, heartburn, bloating and constipation. Their bodies will also be able to absorb more nutrients. Digestive enzymes work more efficiently when less food is presented to the intestines at more frequent intervals. This also gives grazers more time to reload for their next small meal.

●      Grazing helps prevent cancer. Researchers believe that grazing may help prevent cancer by lowering blood insulin levels. Insulin is a growth factor, like a fertilizer, helping cells multiply faster. This is just what you don’t want a pre-cancer or cancer cell to do. Insulin levels rise with age so as we get older, we produce more food for potential tumors. A grazer would produce less insulin than a gorger thereby providing less food for these potential tumors. Harvard researchers have shown that women with the highest blood levels of Insulin growth factor, a pro inflammatory chemical were seven times more likely to develop breast cancer. Other studies have shown the same correlation with other hormonally driven diseases such as colon, ovarian and pancreatic cancers.

●      Grazing leads to healthier hearts. Grazers have lower blood cholesterol, less artery clogging fats after meals, less artery narrowing and less inflammation. They also have more stable blood sugar levels and lower levels of stress hormones. Grazing lowers the risk of after-meal heart attacks because the heart doesn’t have to pump as hard and as fast as it does after we gorge on a big meal.

●      Grazing is good for the brain. Grazing gives the brain a slow and steady supply of nutrients needed for optimal brain function and repair. Grazing on the right foods also promotes better moods as grazers have more stable blood sugar levels and higher levels of dopamine and serotonin, the hormones which make one happy and relaxed.

●      Grazing helps weight control. Grazing on the right foods promotes weight control as it revs up a grazer’s metabolism and turns them into a calorie burner as opposed to a calorie storer. People who eat this way tend to consume fewer calories but are just as satisfied as those who eat larger meals less frequently. “Increased eating frequency is associated with lower obesity risk, but higher energy intake in adults”.  When obesity researchers studied two groups of overweight people who had been given the same food, they found that the group that divided the food into six mini meals lost more body fat than those who ate it as three large meals a day.                                        

Wise grazers eat quality food with the right balance of carbs, protein and fat, choosing quality over quantity so that they can stay lean. Overgrazing, especially on the wrong foods can make you fat. Remember to get the maximum benefits from grazing, eat slowly and mindfully, eating twice as often but half as much every time.

To learn more about making simple changes that will bring impactful changes to your health contact me on rimabhealth@gmail.com.

References:

●       Bellisle, McDevitt, & Prentice (1997). Meal Frequency & Energy Balance. The British Journal of Nutrition, 77(S1), S57-S70

●       Dashti & Mogensen(2016). Recommending Small, Frequent Meals in the Clinical Care of Adults: A Review of the  Evidence & Important Considerations. Nutrition in Clinical Practice. 32(3), 365-367

●       Wang, et al (2016). Increased Eating Frequency is Associated with Lower Obesity Risk, But Higher Energy Intake in Adults: A Meta- Analysis Web. International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health, 13(6), 603                                                       

Web.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038632.