Author: Diane Carbonell

Do you ever get tired of seeing the superfood lists that keep popping up on your social media newsfeed or on news websites? I admit that I am sometimes tempted to hide those posts because they seem to show the same foods over and over.

Take avocados for example. Those green nubby things are on almost every superfood list I see.

For a long time, I hated (or thought I hated) avocados. So when I saw them on a superfood list, I rolled my eyes with a silent, “Yuck,” to myself. Fortunately, I matured and decided it might be a good idea to actually finally try them and see what the fuss was all about. To my surprise, they were actually pretty good. I liked them in guacamole, on salads, and in smoothies, but not in brownies. That one was just a little too far out there for me.

But do they really deserve to be on almost every single superfood list? After all, other superfoods are good too. Like almonds, chia seeds, and blueberries.

Turns out, avocados really might be the new “super” superfood. They are more than just a green food to mush up and serve with Mexican food. They are actually extremely healthy for you, good for weight loss, and versatile to boot.

In doing some research, I found out that avocados are actually a berry and not a vegetable as you might assume. I would understand if you thought they were a vegetable because they are green. Not that it matters in terms of nutrition, but it is always good to have your facts straight.

Nutritional Superstar

When I was losing weight, I learned that eating foods packed with healthy nutrients made me feel better and were good for my weight loss. Avocados certainly fit that category. The World’s Best Foods website says, “There are very few Daily Recommended Intake (DRI) vitamins or minerals not found in avocados.”

Of particular interest to me as someone interested in weight loss is the low sugar and high fiber makeup of these healthy fruits. Half an avocado has almost 6 g of fiber and less than a gram of sugar. As someone who loves sugary foods, eating something with low sugar helps me control my cravings for brownies or other junky foods.

The nutrients in avocados help control your blood sugar and the fats have been shown to be beneficial for your heart’s health. When you eat avocados with lower fat, yet healthy foods such as salads, your body is better able to absorb important carotenoids. Carotenoids, in case you didn’t know, are plant pigments your body uses for immune function and disease prevention.

I know it is complicated, but it does help you see why avocados surely belong on the list of “super” superfoods.

The Calories and Fats Work for You

Calories are a concern when trying to lose weight.

The avocado has calories just like any other food, but the calories can work for weight loss.

·      A whole avocado without the seed has 322 calories and 29.5 g of fat.

·      A single cup of avocado slices has 234 calories and 21.4 g of fat.

·      Avocados have 13.5 g of fiber in a whole avocado and 9.8 g in a cup of slices.

If you are like me, you probably will not eat an entire avocado. Half an avocado has about 161 calories, which is a fraction of your overall calories for the day. The fat in the avocado is mostly healthy monounsaturated fat, which helps keep you full.  It’s a win-win all around.  

Thinking Beyond Guacamole

Guacamole is the most obvious use for avocados, but there are numerous options beyond guacamole. We like them in fruit smoothies, on a green salad, in homemade salad dressings, and as a way to add creaminess to soups. I tried grilling them once but that did not work out very well. I probably did something wrong that you wouldn’t do.

Avocados really do belong on the superfoods list. I promise not to roll my eyes the next time I see this familiar food on the inevitable superfoods posts that will surely scroll across my news feed today or tomorrow.

A few years ago, I was at a health food expo in North Carolina where I was scheduled to speak on weight loss and healthy living. As I toured the exhibitor’s booths, I struck up a conversation with a woman who advocated eating fermented foods every day as part of a healthy diet. I was curious about fermented foods because I had never really thought about what they were and what role they played in health.

After I returned home, I did some research on fermentation and realized that fermented foods were not only good for me from a health perspective but also had the potential to be an ally for people who want to lose weight. My family kind of rolled their eyes when I told them what I had learned; they are sometimes skeptical about trying new healthy foods I discover. Think chia seeds and spirulina and you can probably guess what kind of reaction I got.

What is fermentation anyway?

You probably consume fermented foods on a regular basis and don’t even realize it. I know I did. The fermentation process has been used for centuries as a way to preserve food. It generally does not require extreme heat or refrigeration, although you can refrigerate vegetables after fermenting them to help them last longer.

Why does fermentation help with weight loss?

The jury is still out on how beneficial fermentation is for weight loss, but the theory is that fermentation of food preserves the enzymes and probiotics that are in the food. These enzymes and probiotics can increase your energy levels and keep your digestive system balanced. Eating food that is fermented can also decrease your desire for sugary foods that are high in carbohydrates. And everyone knows that eating less sugar is a great way to reduce the number of calories you consume. A 2011 study in the academic journal Nutrition Research reported that people who regularly ate kimchi (a Korean fermented food) weighed less and had lower blood pressure than people who did not eat kimchi regularly.

What foods are fermented?

There are many foods that are fermented. Some are good for weight loss and others…well, not so much. Fermented foods that are good for weight loss include yogurt, some cheeses, yeast breads made with whole grains, kefir, sauerkraut, and wine (in moderation). If you are trying to lose weight you probably should skip loading up on fermented foods such as beer, miso, pickles, and tempeh.

Do store-bought fermented foods work?

Unfortunately not all fermented foods are created equal.

Many commercially fermented foods, like pickles, are pasteurized during the manufacturing process, which kills beneficial enzymes and probiotics. Bummer, I know. Like many people, I am too busy to ferment a lot of foods myself, so I take advantage of store-bought foods that are fermented naturally, such as organic yogurt and cheeses, natural sauerkraut, and organic kefir.

If you’re like me you may need to rely primarily on store-bought fermented foods. Maybe someday I will ferment some vegetables in a mason jar and see how it goes. But in the meantime, adding fermented foods into your daily eating plan is easy to do. If you already eat yogurt, you are doing a good thing. Just make sure it is organic and has live active yogurt cultures in it. You can find kefir in health food stores, and some specialty stores sell freshly fermented vegetables.

Before I lost weight, my husband and I would sit on the couch after the children were asleep and work our way through a bag of chips followed by a bowl or two of ice cream. And then, to even things up, we’d have a few more chips. I woke up in the morning feeling tired, bloated, and ravenous.

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have recently published research showing that mice allowed to eat for only eight hours a day were actually healthier than others that ate around the clock–no matter what the contents of their diet. If proven in humans, this could mean that when we eat contributes as much to the U.S. obesity epidemic as what we eat.

If you’re having difficulty breaking your nighttime eating habit, I want you to know it can be done. Here are nine techniques I used to break the hold that nighttime snacking had on me.

Break out your calculator.

The first thing to do is break out your calculator and figure out how much you typically eat at night. I know, it can be scary.

I literally gasped to myself when I calculated I was consuming an average of 800 to 1,000 calories after dinner. If your total is more than 100 or 200 calories, you are probably eating too many calories after dinner.

Plan your evening–including the food.

The second thing to do is plan your evening. I know you plan your day. Why not do the same for the evening? Structure your activities so you stay away from the pantry and out of the kitchen.

Shut down the kitchen.

Sweep or mop those floors, put the dishes away, turn off the lights, and close the door. It seems simple, but once the kitchen was sparkling clean and everything was shut down, it helped me remember that I was done eating for the night.

Develop new skills.

Watching television or surfing the Internet is fun and entertaining, but sometimes it wasn’t enough to distract me from food. So I learned new skills that involved my hands. When I was knitting, sewing, or scrapbooking, I couldn’t eat without messing up my creations.

Give up and go to bed.

This did not happen very often, but there were nights when the cravings for sweets were hard to resist. Instead of giving in, I gave up and went to bed. After all, I couldn’t eat while I was sleeping. When I woke up in the morning the cravings were gone, and I was refreshed.

Always have a hot drink on hand.

Hot drinks helped me avoid nighttime snacking. Sometimes I would have herbal tea, and other times I chose decaf coffee or green tea. The hot drink seemed to fill me up and take away the urge to eat.

Remind yourself of your goals.

If you’re feeling bored and wanting to eat, tell yourself that part of your plan is to cut down or stop nighttime snacking. Sometimes I would have a little internal dialogue with myself that got me back on track.

Have healthy snacks available.

There were times when I was legitimately hungry after dinner. Sometimes it was because I was so busy tending to the kids that I did not eat much, and other times I still had calories left from earlier in the day. It is okay to eat at night if you have something healthy. Think carrot sticks or low calorie cheese instead of cookies and chips.

Brush your teeth.

Brushing your teeth leaves a minty feel in your mouth that doesn’t go very well with food. I often brushed my teeth directly after cleaning the kitchen. Having a clean mouth helped me skip the nighttime snack and improved my oral health. It was a win-win situation.

In the 1960s and 1970s, plates and cups were smaller, coffee was generally served in teacups rather than huge mugs, and restaurant portions were miniscule compared to some of the meals served today.

The portion sizes changed but our human metabolism did not.

Think about it. A small order of French fries back in the 1970s was about 2.4 ounces. Today, a typical serving of fries has 6.7 ounces and almost three times the calories. Ditto that for meat servings, never-ending pasta bowls, huge drink cups, and servings of cake as big as your head. Well, not really as big as your head but you get the idea.

When I was losing weight, I used four techniques to retrain my brain to avoid looking at a food and assuming it was the right sized portion.

1. Know the Facts

This seems so incredibly simple, but it worked perfectly. When I was 300 pounds, I ate whatever amount felt right. If a restaurant server brought me a large plate piled high with nachos, I ate all the food on the plate. If a friend gave me a big piece of fried chicken or a juicy burger, I ate it.

What I did differently to retrain my brain was become familiar with the correction portion sizes of the foods I most often ate. This did not take very long so don’t worry you might have to memorize a list of 200 food items.

Every time I picked up a boxed food to eat or made something from a recipe, I determined what the recommended serving size was. Here is a chart from WebMD that will help you visualize the correct portions of foods you commonly eat.

I was surprised at how tiny 1/2 cup of oatmeal looked and said that 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips was a portion. I usually ate two or three times that amount.

2. Serve Yourself One Portion of Highest Calorie Foods

I did not live on salads while I was losing weight. I ate a varied diet that included high calorie foods like the occasional cupcake or peanut butter.  Instead of eating cupcake after cupcake like I did when I was overweight, I limited my serving to a single cupcake and did not choose the largest one on the plate.

Instead, I filled up my plate with the lower calorie options during dinner or social occasion. I ate more salad than pasta and more vegetables than meat. I left the table feeling satisfied and proud of myself for not eating too much.

3. Slow Down

As a self-admitted speed eater, I had to work hard at slowing down.  It was worth practicing though because when I slowed down, I learned to enjoy the textures, flavors, and mouthfeel of the foods I was eating.

Controlling your portion sizes becomes easier when you take the time to appreciate the foods you are eating. Instead of being focused on finishing, you can focus on the delicious meal and the conversation flowing around you. Plus, research published in the March 2014 issue of the “Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics” supports the fact that eating more slowly helps you consume fewer calories.

4. Use Measuring Devices

If you are used to seeing cake pieces as big as your head, it can be difficult to know for sure what a proper portion size is. I dusted off my food scale and pulled out my trusty measuring cups and spoons when I finally got serious about losing weight.

It might not be exciting or sexy to use a measuring cup to measure cereal, but it does work. Once I had measured and weighed for a couple of weeks, I had a good idea of what a true portion looked like.

I had broken the portion distortion dilemma and knew what a portion of most of my favorite foods really was. I used this knowledge to control my calories and lose a ton of weight.

I did not get to be 300 pounds by eating only sugary foods. They played a major role in my weight issues, however. So much so that during the 10 years I was morbidly obese, my favorite breakfast was brownies.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I am 100 percent certain I ate even more sugar than the average American does. That’s pretty bad, considering that most Americans consume an astonishing 28 teaspoons every day, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

I would have argued that sugar was not making me fat or hungry. (Not that I knew what I was talking about at that point.) Instead of blaming my endless hunger and uncontrollable weight gain on poor food choices, I blamed it on:

-A slow metabolism, which I did not even have

-A thyroid problem, which I did not have either

-Genetics: My genetics were fine

-Bad luck: Luck has nothing to do with weight

-Anything but sugar

Like so many things in my life that I thought were true, this one was not. The truth was that refined sugar was not my friend.

Refined sugars were in my favorite foods, and I’m not just talking about sweets. The cereal I ate, the ketchup I squirted on hamburgers, the dressings I saturated my salad greens with, and even the yogurt I consumed had substantial amounts of added sugars. I never gave them a second thought.

However, as I began my final diet that would help me lose half my body weight, I drastically reduced the amount of added sugars I consumed.

The funny thing is that I did not do it on purpose, but it happened naturally because I stopped eating junk and started eating whole foods.

Over the years, I have read a lot of research on sugar and weight. Like so many things in science, there are conflicting findings. Some studies say all sugars are bad, and others–like one in a January 2013 issue of the “Journal of the American Medical Association”–says that fructose seems to be worse than glucose in terms of increasing hunger.

Dr. Richard Johnson, physician at the University of Colorado and author of “The Fat Switch,” postulates that fructose (found in many processed foods) decreases sensitivity to the appetite-controlling hormone leptin. This decrease in sensitivity makes us hungrier after eating sugar and contributes to weight gain and eventual obesity.

Sugar excites the brain in much the same way that drugs do, according to a study published in “Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.” This would indicate that sugar does indeed have addictive qualities that make you crave it. And because you may feel hungrier after consuming sugar, you are probably going to reach for more high-sugar foods.

I know that happened to me. The more sugar I ate, the hungrier I felt, and the foods I wanted were almost always high-sugar foods. Truthfully, I never craved carrots, but I sure did crave–and eat–carrot cake.

The sugar-hunger cycle is similar to a carousel that keeps going round and round. The only way to get off the sugar cycle and beat the hunger that comes after consuming added sugars is to throw the brakes on the carousel and stop.

I follow simple guidelines to keep my sugar intake down and avoid the cycle of eating sugar and craving more food.

1. I read the entire label of unfamiliar foods to find out if there are any forms of sugar. I look for glucose, dextrose, fructose, and other common forms of sugar.

2. I know the recommended limits. The American Heart Association recommends keeping your added sugar intake to 100 calories a day if you are a woman and 150 calories a day if you are a man. That’s not much.

3. I do not limit fruits and vegetables. Although fruits and some vegetables have naturally occurring sugars, the overall nutritional profile of each makes the sugars in the food balance out.  

4. I don’t justify adding sugar to foods. Honey and other natural sweeteners have some marginal nutritional values, but they are still sugar. I am careful about adding these to foods or drinks.

Give yourself at least 10 days to acclimate to eating less sugar. Be prepared for cravings to creep up when you are tired or around sugary foods. Say “no” to those cravings, and over time you will conquer your sugar craving and stop the cycle of eating a bunch of sugar, feeling hungry, and eating more sugary food.