sweets | Wellness Secrets of a SuperAger

Snacking is kind of like the weather, everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Well, about over-snacking anyway. Seems like some of us just can’t pass up a sweet or tasty tidbit.

Anyone who works in an office knows the spot: The place where co-workers share sweet treats they brought from home, or leftovers from lunch meetings and birthday celebrations. Food appears out of the blue, and disappears just as quickly.

Photo by Jill Wellington on Pexels.com

But why can some people walk right by the free snacks without stopping, or only go there when they’re hungry, while others can’t resist eating every time they see food there? Some may even go out of their way to pass the food-sharing spot just in case there’s something out.

Neuroscientists like Shelly Flagel, Ph.D. want to find out — and not just because of the long-term harmful effects of too many calories. The same variation between people can happen with drugs like cocaine and heroin. Continue reading →

Everyone enjoys sweet tastes. We are hard-wired that way, but we aren’t hunting and gathering to provide our nourishment any more. There is ample food for the majority of us. We just need to go to the market and pick it out. And, there’s the rub. Food manufacturers have found it very profitable to provide us with an assortment fit for royalty. Unfortunately, many of us respond like kids in a candy store on allowance day. That’s why we have 60 percent of us overweight, 30 percent obese and adult onset diabetes plaguing 15 year olds.

So, what to do? WebMD has some very helpful suggestions in its desserts quiz. “Eat slowly and savor the flavor. …” That is an excellent suggestion. So often, we get carried away in the tastes, that we forget to take our time and enjoy it. The more we learn to savor our food the healthier we will be eating.

A 150 pound man burns 100 calories for each mile he walks.

“Put your fork down between bites so you don’t hurry. The first two bites of any dessert will seem the tastiest.” This is another great idea. We spend so much time hustling and bustling from here to there. We need to be reminded to actually sit down and eat.

WebMD asks the question which has the least calories per serving – a one inch square of fudge or a standard slice of angel food cake with a handful of strawberries, or a slice of lemon meringue pie.

Last but not least, it pays to understand portion control and serving size. In the above query, how many of us would choose the one inch square of fudge which comes in at only 70 calories. The angel food cake with strawberries amounts to 100 calories while the lemon meringue pie tips the scales at a robust 300 calories.

In terms of exercise, a man weighing 150 pounds burns around 100 calories for each mile he walks. So, a brief 3/4 mile walk would consume the fudge calories, while he would have to finish the mile for the strawberries. The 300 calories would need a three mile hike, or about 40 minutes to burn it off.

Buon Appetito!

Tony