Hey guys! This is Heather from HeathyEatingStartsHere.com. So today I wanted to talk about comfort food
and where you draw the line between comfort food and food carving?
So, I think it’s fantastic to enjoy your food and everyone has comfort foods. My mom
really likes spaghetti, I really like fruit. You know anything that – that makes you
feel good and that you get energy from and maybe you get calm down from so maybe a comfort
food for you is something that the end of a long day of work you feel just really peaceful
and happy afterwards.
So, that’s fine! But where it becomes a problem is if your comfort food is something
that’s unhealthy so like French fries or if your comfort food is becoming an addiction
for you so you can’t control yourself in eating it or if you’re eating something
that’s kind of masking an issue that’s really the underlying problem.
So, a few years ago I was in a job that I really didn’t enjoy and I - I got into these
gummy bears, their this fruit flavours gummy bears and they were so good and I got pretty
addicted to them because I just, I didn’t wanted to deal with the stress that I was
facing at work and so gummy bears were like my outlet.
And that’s not healthy! Number one because their gummy bears but number two because I’m
really not dealing with the problem so eventually I did have to face the music and in my case
the right choice for me was to leave that job.
I’m not saying that the answer to a food addiction is to quit a job but for me that’s
– that’s what I had to do and since then I have been feeling just better and better
and healthier and healthier and now if someone put in front of me a big bowl of gummy bears
I didn’t even want to eat them because I know that if I did in about an hour I wouldn’t
be able to keep my eyes open, I’d be falling asleep.
So I find that as you learn more and more how your body reacts to foods it becomes easier
and easier to eat a healthy diet because you see how much more energy and how much more
productive your life could be if you eat healthy foods.
So there are some ways to overcome food cravings and I’m gonna take a look at two of the
most common cravings that people have and what you can do to overcome them.
So first one is fatty foods and I’m thinking mostly of things like potato chips, French
fries, onion rings, that kind of stuff. Now not only are these things deep fried in fats,
those are unhealthy fats that turned to trans-fat and we know that those are really really bad
for you.
But these types of food because they have fats that’s a very calorie dense, they have
lot more calories per gram than other foods so you can pack in a ton of calories really
easily without feeling it in your stomach. Your stomach will not be full and you’ll
still be able to keep eating.
So that’s why you can get through like an entire bag of potato chips, doesn’t fill
your stomach up but it packs in those calories and they also have a lot of salt on them.
So all kinds of deep fried foods they put a lot of salt on there and you know if you
have a plate of French fries and you pour in the salt on and the vinegar and the ketchup
or whatever, the salt in these foods actually stimulates your appetites, it stimulates the
production of acids in your stomach so it encourages you, kinda edge you one on eating
more, more, more.
So those foods are not good for you and so if they are your comfort food what you need
to do is find a healthier alternative because if you can indulge in that craving without
it being too unhealthy then that’s fine then you can feel good about yourself and
has something healthy.
So what I would suggest is for those people make something like home made French fries.
If you take some potatoes or some sweet potatoes, you just need a little bit of oil like one
teaspoon for two heaping or three heaping. It’s plenty for French fries.
Just rubbed it in with your hands and that will get it a lot more spread out. Sprinkled
some salt on, some dried herbs, bake them and you have a delicious and pretty healthy
snack that can help satisfy your cravings.
And even better you can make an avocado dip with some, whatever kind of seasoning you
like. I really like chives and dill and just blend it up with the avocado makes it into
a dip. Dip your fries in there, so good!
It will help satisfy your craving for fatty foods but in a healthy way with healthy fats.
Avocado is a healthy fat.
So the other major craving, sugary foods and that is mine. I have a big sweet tooth. Now
luckily these days it’s more about fruit for me. I love fruit. Fruit is a much better
source of sugar and a much better way to indulge a sweet tooth than candy or cookies or chocolate
or ice cream or any of that stuff because those things have, well they have refined
sugars which drain your body of B vitamins and other nutrients but especially the B vitamins.
And B vitamins is important for energy so not only do you get that sugar high and then
crash but the B vitamins aren’t there to help you give energy for the rest of the day
and not only that but a lot of these foods also have a lot of fats in there so you have
the same problem with the calories where you can eat a lot of calories and not really realizing.
So, for sugary foods what I do is I eat fruit and it is possible to overdosed on fruits
but then again it’s a much better choice than candy and some other things you can do
are make your own healthy cookies at home.
You can even; Phil and I have been experimenting with making our own. We call it carob-late
because we use carob instead of cocoa powder. You can make your own ice cream really really
easily by just freezing some fruits and then pureeing it. You would be so surprise on how
creamy and delicious that is and I have a recipe posted in my site if you wanna check
it out, mango-coconut ice cream, really really good!
I have recipes for some of the other things I mentioned as well. French fries, avocado
dip is on there and I’ve got some gingerbread cookies and some oatmeal cookies posted up
there so go check those up if you want some ideas.
And really the point that I wanted to get cross today is when you have a craving for
food just think to yourself is this really what I need right now or do you need something
else like do you need to go talk to your friends or take some time for yourself or something
else.
Or is it another food that’s gonna make you more energize or give you the nutrition
really that you are looking for.
So it’s ok to slip up now and then and that’s fine and it’s ok to have a treat. You shouldn’t
be so rigid in your healthy eating plan that you don’t enjoy yourself but when I guess
if you have it that’s when it’s not good.
So, just be conscious on what you’re doing and try to look at the long term effects.
The more and more you look at the long term results of how your body reacts to food the
easier it’s gonna be to eat healthier.
So, I wanna know from you guys what do you do to help with your food craving? Let me
know. I’ll be curious and I’m sure other people can benefit from your ideas so post
then down below on the comments and I will see you guys next time.