5 Reasons to Eat Small Meals More Frequently!
Want
a simple rule that is designed to improve your body image, give you energy,
balance your metabolism, and fit in with your blood type? No, its not another diet to consider. It’s a well
researched winning rule, easy to follow: eat smaller amounts throughout the
day.
Even
if you received a diet from our office, you will want to apply the following:
eat smaller amounts throughout the day!
The
reasons for eating five smaller meals a day is based on experience, science,
and a lot of common sense.
The
First Reason for
eating a smaller amount has to do with the fact that the most energy consuming
function your body probably ever does is digesting food. Even more than
exercise, respiration, circulation, thinking, etc. You can walk for a much
longer period of time, conserve more energy and travel farther if you
"pace yourself." The same holds true for the energy demands of
digestion.
Why
does it take so much energy to digest food? The first step has to do with
creating acid in the stomach. In order to digest food, the stomach has to have
a chemical makeup that is very acidic. But, to be compatible with life, your
body must stay alkaline, a different chemical composition. Maintaining the
chemical balance between the stomach acid and the body alkalinity takes alot of chemical energy. In addition, energy is required to
produce huge amounts of digestive enzymes for carbohydrates, proteins, and
fats. Since each and every enzyme must be made by your body from scratch, it
takes a lot of chemical energy to make these proteins.
If
you pace yourself, you can eat a small amount without stressing your energy
supply. Just as the electric company can supply plenty of power for everyone as
long as we don’t turn on all of our appliances at once. The "brown
outs" of summer we sometimes experience occurs when too many people turn
on their air conditioner. Eating small meals conserves energy.
Give
your energy generator a chance to keep up with digestion by not overwhelming it
when you eat a large meal. Avoid overwhelming your body with too much to do at
one time. If you don’t digest your food – indigestion, yeast
overgrowth, gas, inflammation, food reactions, etc. are the result.
The
Second Reason for
eating smaller amounts more frequently has to do with fact that if you take in
too many calories from ingested food, you have to do something with them. Your
body has to process the food into energy for immediate use or for storage. If
you don’t burn up the calories, guess where the extra metabolic products
go? Fat. Fat is the bank your body uses when it can’t use all the
calories you consume. So if you can eat a fewer number calories at a time, your
body has a chance to use more of them up without having extra leftover to store
on your hips, thighs, and waistline.
The
Third Reason for
eating smaller meals is to provide a steady amount of sugar. Eating frequent
smaller meals prevents the ups and downs of your blood sugar level so you end
up craving less sugar. As mentioned earlier, you can overwhelm your digestive
capacity. You can also overwhelm your body’s ability to handle sugar in
the blood.
Since
the body will not (or should not) allow the blood sugar level to get too high,
insulin and other hormones are secreted to lower the blood sugar. Often times,
the insulin response is too strong and within a short period of time insulin
has driven the blood sugar level down. As a result of the now low blood sugar,
you get a powerful craving for sugar or other carbohydrates. You then usually
overeat, and the cycle of up and down, yo-yo blood sugar results. Eating a
small meal again will virtually stop this cycle.
The
Fourth Reason to eat
smaller meals is based on the immune response to ingested food. It turns out
that a small amount of food enters the blood without first going through the
normal digestive pathway through the liver. As a result, this food is seen by
the body not as nourishment but as a threat and you will stimulate an immune
reaction. Normally, a small immune reaction is not even noticed, but if a large
amount of food (or if a food is eaten over and over again), the immune reaction
can cause symptoms. Over time, disease develops.
If
I came to your home and entered uninvited through an open window, you would
react much differently than if I entered through the front door after properly
introducing myself. The same holds true for food that enters your body
undigested. It is not nourishing. It is just an intruder.
By
eating smaller amount, the size of the reaction that occurs is small and inconsequential.
A large meal, and thus a large assault of the immune system, could cause many
symptoms of an activated immune system including fatigue, joint aches, flu-like
symptoms, headaches, etc.
The
Fifth Reason is so
simple, that I hate to even mention it - you’ll feel better!
One
way that you can make it easier on your system is to use a digestive enzyme. We
have several excellent products that make your body work a little less harder (so you have more energy for activities other than
digestion!). Digestive enzymes reduce undigested food levels and the chance of
stimulating an immune reaction, and help you get more energy out of your food.
Call our Nutritional Pharmacy at 714-565-1036 for help in choosing the right
digestive support or if you have any questions about your supplements.
If
you’d like more information about diets, recipes, digestion, etc. We are
proud to now offer individual consultations with our own nutritionist.
Patty is very knowledgeable. She’s been hand selected to help you with
practical suggestions in improving the dietary and digestive components of our
programs. Her hour-long personal analysis will provide you a clear picture of
how to achieve better health by complementing your nutritional support and
detoxification regimen. Call the front office now at 714-565-1032 to schedule a
visit with Patty.
