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Janet Starr Hull PhD, CN

Alternative Health and Holistic Nutrition

Grazing Can Help You Lose Weight

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A herd of cows grazing in a green, open field.
Grazing is the healthiest way to eat – for humans, too.

Most of us assume that snacking throughout the day will cause weight gain, but actually, this is the healthiest way to eat.

Horses, cows, and tortoises (just to name a few awesome animals) graze throughout the day, and they only fatten up when given a pile of human food.

Eat Less More Often

When you snack on healthy foods throughout the day, you eat less at one time, and this is better for your body and for your digestion.

Your stomach is about the size of your hand, and when you pack it full of too much food at one time, it stretches to accommodate its fill. Many times, this results in acid reflux because your stomach acids can’t get through the food, so they escape out your esophagus.

Eating too much food at one time also wastes that food. Your body only has 30 t0 45 minutes to “assimilate”  what you have eaten – it has to break it apart (into mush), remove the vitamins and nutrients from the mush, and send that to the liver.

The nutrients are then picked up by your blood and circulated throughout your body. This is like a “moving cafeteria”, and your organs and tissues remove the nutrients that they need from the blood as it passes through them.

By eating smaller portions throughout the day, your body can pick and choose as needed for energy, and it never goes without nourishment. Just don’t  flood it with more than it can handle at one time.

A fat girl holding a plate of food and holding her painful side.
It’s healthier to eat smaller portions at every meal.

Hypoglycemia

If you go too long between meals, or snacks, your blood sugar can get out of balance. Typically, this is called hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. If your blood sugar drops, it may be too low to give your body energy.

This can make you sleepy, lethargic, and very grumpy.

You may have felt the effects of low blood sugar when you’ve gotten really hungry or exercised hard without eating enough. This happens to nearly everyone from time to time.

A glass of clear water with lemon slices.
Hunger make just be thirst. Drink plenty of water with fruit or natural oils added. You’ll be less hungry and you’ll drink more water throughout the day.

It’s easy to correct.

  1. Eat healthy foods;
  2. Get regular exercise;
  3. Eat a small, healthy snack when you get hungry (graze);
  4. Do not over-eat at one sitting (cut meal portions in half; eat half now, and finish the other half an hour or two later);
  5. Drink lots of water because sometimes, hunger is actually dehydration.

So, try to eat less at each meal and save the rest for later.

 

 

 

 

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