We all love our food of course?... and the yummier it is the more we want to eat right? But how does the SIZE of a meal affect how much weight we can potentially put on just by eating too much or too fast?... 

Plus we also wanted to know how are people who’ve been forced to work from home due to the COVID pandemic coping with their food intake? We recently caught up with our resident Dietician Caitlyn Henderson to try and get some answers to those very questions…  

 Prefer to read? Full transcript here

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TRANSCRIPT:

BRIAN:
Caitlyn, we just realised recently you're an APD, aren't you?

CAITLYN:
Yes I am! - The credit is Practising Dietitian.

BRIAN:
Hey, that sounds much better than just saying Dietitian/Nutritionist, you know, credited just says it all.

CAITLYN:
Yes that's right - we've got to do about 30 hours a year of CPD or continuing professional development, which we log in reports. So we're always learning and always trying to improve our skills.

BRIAN:
Well, that's fantastic... Now, on our continuing mission for me to lose a bit more weight, we've been doing a little bit of research regarding meal sized portions, portion sizes generally, and chewing.

I learned something recently about chewing each mouthful 20 to 30 times, putting the fork down in between and enjoying the meal. So what's that got to do with weight loss?

CAITLYN:
A couple of things. I suppose the chewing is a really interesting one. There's a few good articles on the amount of times we chew and how much food we actually all consume too many times.

Having a rest between mouthfuls of food, we tend to eat less food at the meal & we're less likely to over eat. So I guess it comes down to tuning into your fullness. Basically taking the time to listen to what your body is telling you when you're eating rather than just finishing everything that's on the plate.

BRIAN:
Well what I’m doing is chewing say a piece of chicken or something, maybe 35-30 times or so or if it's just peas or a little soft veggie it will be less of course. The point is to take a small mouthful and chew and then move on. Anyway it seems to work for me 😊

KAYE:
Now Caitlyn… one of the things we want to talk to you about is that the past year, of course, has been kind of tricky for all of us with all the COVID stuff,  and I wondered whether there has been any dramatic impact that you've seen with your clients with mental health during this time and whether we need to actually be thinking about the link between food and mental health?

CAITLYN:
Yes, there's definitely been a few challenges pop up in my clinics with some patients who have been impacted by COVID  and they're either working from home or their hours have changed or they might have unfortunately lost their jobs. So all of those things are big changes in our life and can have an impact on our mental health. Some of them positive, but some of them not so much, and one thing I have seen… a lot of people that are working from home have a lot more access to the fridge or the pantry and that can be problematic for people who are suffering with a bit of ‘non hungry’ eating.

So boredom, hunger, or basically things that aren't physical hunger that are causing you to eat more than you normally would can be problematic.

However, that can also be really helpful because if you like healthy fresh food then you've got an entire fridge full of nourishing foods then you can prepare a really nourishing meal quite easily.

KAYE:
So there's pros and cons for the changes and impacts that COVID has had. So are there particular foods that people should be putting in their fridge to have that lovely stack of healthy supplies?

CAITLYN:
Yeah, so the best thing to do is just to try to keep as many whole foods in the house as possible, so that comes down to fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, even things like dairy products such as yoghurts, cheeses, hard boiled eggs as well, so fresh wholefoods and then keeping your quantities in check will be the main things to stock.  

KAYE:
Well thanks again Caitlyn, we're still learning from all your very helpful tips. I've learned so much today and I'm sure we can learn more in future, but thank you very much.

CAITLYN:
No worries. Thank you for having me.

Check out the Healthy Lifestyles Australia website

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