Small and Healthy
Nutrition experts agree that eating four to six small, nutritious meals per day is your best bet for health and good nutrition. Learn schedule your mini-meals, what foods to include and what portions to eat. It's easier than you think and may change the way you think about healthy food.
Why Small Meals?
Many people find it difficult to make time for the traditional three meals per day. Skipping meals can lead to low blood sugar and excessive hunger, both of which contribute to poor food choices and overeating. According to Willow Jarosh, M.S., R.D., eating small, nutritious snacks throughout the day will provide you with consistent energy and help control your appetite. With a little pre-planning, you can have healthy, preportioned choices at hand all day long.
What To Eat
Ideally, a small meal will give you a mix of protein, complex carbohydrates and a small amount of fat. This combination slows digestion and helps regulate blood sugar so you don't have a boost in energy, then a crash later.
Try to avoid highly processed (pre-packaged) foods or anything containing enriched flour or high fructose corn syrup. Great combinations are cheese, fruit and nuts, hummus and vegetables, peanut butter and whole grain bread, salad with beans or fruit and nuts, soup with whole grain breads, yogurt and fruit, tuna fish and apple or melon.
Portion Control
The key to eating four to six small meals per day is portion control. Because you will be eating every two to three hours, your portions will be much smaller than a regular meal. For example, try 10 to 12 whole grain crackers and 1 ounce of cheese with six grapes. Or a 6-ounce yogurt with one slice of whole grain bread. Try an 8-ounce mug of soup and one slice of whole grain bread with 1 tablespoon of natural peanut butter or a 6-ounce tin of tuna, 1 tablespoon of mayo and 2 ounces of fruit.
Mix It Up
Once you get the hang of this, the options are nearly endless. The important thing is to choose fresh foods that you enjoy and eat a wide variety of foods. No matter how a good a meal plan is, if you feel bored by the foods you're eating, you probably won't stick with it. As nutritionists like to say to children, "Eat a rainbow."
Tags: whole grain, grain bread, whole grain bread, blood sugar, eating four, eating four small, four small