Food - The Best and Worst Breakfasts for Your Health

Yahoo Health had a nice article, The Best and Worst Breakfasts for your health.

As we all know, eating breakfast is important for jump-starting your metabolism. When you skip breakfast, your body doesn't have the fuel it needs to be at its peak until your next meal. People who are not used to skipping breakfast tend to munch-out until lunch adding not only calories but unhealthy calories.

On the other hand, eating breakfast foods which are dripping in grease or full of fats are not benefitial either as they will contribute to heart disease and/or diabetes.

In this article, a study was performed to reveal the risks of eating different types of breakfast. They analyzed healthy participants before and after they ate breakfast sandwiches loaded with egg and cheese (the sandwich contained about 900 calories and 50 grams of fat). Two hours after they ate the breakfast sandwiches, their blood flow showed significant reduction to the heart - that's from one sandwich. Imagine if they ate that type of greasy food all the time. The blood's inability to reach the organs eventually leads to organ failure (including heart attacks).

Food - Oprah - Hidden Fat Traps on Restaurant Menus

Oprah's website has a great article this week on Hidden Fat Traps on Restaurant Menus. Learn to decode those advertising-slick words.

Salads - Ordering the dressing on the side can actually make you use more than the chef would drizzle over the top. Avoid empty calorie toppings such as crunchy noodles, croutons, sunflower seeds, and walnuts.

Avoid "crispy" because it indicates food fried in oil. "Crusted" means the item was covered in butter or oil and covered with breadcrumbs. "Sizzling" contains lots of oil.

Stay away from Miso soup which is high in sodium and Tempura which is deep fried.

Some vegetable puree soups contain lots of cream or sour cream, actually making them fattening.

Just because dessert has fruit on it, doesn't make it healthy. This article pointed out a chocolate cake slice which had less calories than a bigger slice of pear tart. Disappointing!

Food - Ending Your Sugar Cravings

One of my biggest weaknesses - and most people's - is sugar. It's an endless craving that happens all the time and any time - in coffee, for breakfast, for snack, for dessert, for afternoon snack, before dinner, for dinner dessert, etc. In time, it becomes habit, an addiction, and it's difficult to stop. I've read articles that compare soda with cocaine addictions. Sugar definitely affects the brain. So now what?

Once sugar or caffeine becomes an addiction, there could be withdrawl symptoms when trying to quit cold turkey. Your body has become used to these flavors/chemicals. When you take them away, your body freaks out. But, never fear, they eventually go away!

First, in order to break the sugar addiction, one must stop the every day habit completely and you must want to stop.

Second, be cautious of substitutes. Aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet, etc) can have undesirable side-effects and will not teach you to avoid sugar. Sometimes we use more sugar substitute than we should because we can't reach the level of sweetness we crave. So instead of one packet in our coffee, we use two or three.

Third, improve your diet. If you feel satisfied (and full), you are less likely to turn to sweets.

Fourth, stop buying sweets/sodas. If you don't have access to them, you won't eat/drink them. It will take time to get over the cravings, but it will be worth it to your health and your body.

Have a craving attack in the middle of the day? Try going for a short walk. Get your mind off the craving.

Maybe you simply have an urge to chew - try some sugar-free gum.

References: Sugar Addiction by L. Wilson, MD. WebMd - 13 Ways to Fight Sugar Cravings Nourished Health - End the 3pm Slump Cravings Dr. Mark Hyman - How to Rewire Your Brain to End Food Cravings