In our fast paced lives, the dinner table is the only time many of us really have an opportunity to sit down, relax and enjoy our meals. For many of us, breakfast and lunch are “grab-and-go” meals, but dinner is the meal that allows us to kick back and unwind.
But there are s few things we must be mindful of when it comes to that final meal of the day. There are some common mistakes that people unconsciously make when it comes to dinnertime, and the Huffington Post Healthy Living section has six great things to be mindful of during dinner.
We’ll share three with you, but make sure you check out the entire post as well!
1. Making dinner the biggest meal
“Think of when you need the calories,” says Cheskin, adding that it’s most certainly earlier in the day when you’re expending more energy. The USDA counsels that dinner should add up to about 450 and 625 calories, based on a diet of 1,800 to 2,300 daily calories for women and 2,000 to 2,500 calories for men. But some nutritionists and experts think it can be much less than that – as little as 20 to 25 percent of daily calories.
“Nutritionally, dinner should be a light, well-portioned meal that is under 500 calories,” says Lanz. “Unfortunately, most Americans use dinner as their main source of food for the entire day and over indulge.”
2. Grazing in front of the TV
Many diners don’t make their mistake at the dinner table, but on the couch: Post-dinner snacking or snacking in place of eating a complete meal can be perilous if accompanied by mindless activities like watching TV or surfing the web.
Cheskin says this is the biggest problem he sees in clinic. “[It's] the mindless eating while attached to a screen of some sort. I like to get people to separate the eating from other activities.”
3. Grabbing that dessert
Routinely finishing with a sugary dessert is a way to add excess calories for tradition’s sake, not for satiety. What’s more, that spike in blood sugar could keep you wired — or even wake you up in the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment