| Nutrition
Month takes a fresh look at food
by Carrie Weiglein, M.S., MUSC Dietetic Intern March is National Nutrition Month with this year’s theme being “Take a Fresh Look at Nutrition.” The “non-diet” approach to weight maintenance and weight loss is one different way to look at nutrition. The main objective of the non-diet approach is to help make healthy behavioral changes that will help you increase physical activity and avoid high fat and high sugar foods. These changes will help you to lose weight without feeling hungry or deprived. The non-diet approach deals with the actual eating behavior rather than the actual foods consumed. The eating behaviors can then be modified by learning to distinguish between hunger, thirst, emotions, and habits. Distinguishing between hunger and appetite is key to the non-diet approach. Hunger is a physiological need for food while appetite is a physiological desire for food. Appetite always accompanies hunger; however, hunger does not always accompany appetite. To learn the distinction is to listen to your body before consuming food. This process takes some time and practice, and does not happen over night. However, with some perseverance you should begin to see a difference in the way you think about exercise and nutrition. The six ideas that the non-diet approach emphasizes include: increased cardiovascular exercise; decreased fat consumption; decreased refined or simple carbohydrate consumption (such as sugar); increased natural carbohydrate consumption (such as breads, fruits, and vegetables); increased water consumption; and increased control of impulsive eating behaviors. The non-diet approach is not just another program for losing weight; it is a new way of thinking. |