Eat Your Fill

     The latest edition of the Nutrition Action Health Letter arrived in the mail this past week.  The cover story was entitled "Don't Be Dense" and outlined the research of Barbara Rolls, PhD.  Dr. Rolls is the Professor of Nutrition at Penn State and has developed a new kind of diet, one that does not emphasize deprivation but rather focuses on satiety.  Her latest findings are in print with her book, "The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet."  She bases her theory on the fact that people feel full due to the amount of food they eat, not on the amount of calories they consume.  We all eat about the same volume on a daily basis regardless of the energy density of the food.  So the trick is to eat foods with a lower energy density that also contain fewer calories.
     Here is one example as outlined in the article:

A small piece of fried chicken, a few fries, and about a cup of cola have 500 calories.   So do a bowl of mixed melons, chicken and seasonal tomatoes, rice pilaf, baby arugula salad, and two cups of unsweetened tea.

So which meal is likely to leave you feeling less hungry?  That's a no brainer.  So the trick to feeling full after a meal is to eat more, but to eat foods that are lower in energy density, i.e. lower in calories.  Dr. Rolls states that we benefit from eating foods with high water content, like veggies and fruits.  They fill you up without adding on lots of calories.  Avoiding high energy density foods like those containing butter, oils, eggs and sugar will permit us to actually eat more and still lose weight with the added bonus of not feeling hungry in between meals.

     So I guess mom knew what she was talking about when she encouraged us to eat our vegetables!