The Glycemic Index Diet for Dummies (92 page)

Feeling fuller for longer with the right balance at breakfast

Do you ev
er feel ravenous 30 minutes after eating breakfast? If so, you're not alone. I often hear this complaint from my clients. The hunger you're experiencing has more to do with what you're eating than with normal hunger cues. Many people eat the wrong combination of foods in the morning, which can stimulate their appetite in a strong way. This is where your low-glycemic choices come in handy. When you eat a high-glycemic food for breakfast with little else, that food creates a spike in your blood sugar. Eventually your blood sugar comes crashing down, leaving you feeling famished. Eating low-glycemic foods for breakfast helps prevent this fast spike and keeps you feeling satisfied for longer.

The best way to avoid stimulating your appetite and guarantee you'll feel fuller for longer is to combine low-glycemic foods with protein and/or fat, both of which (like low-glycemic foods) release energy more slowly. So, for example, instead of eating puffed rice cereal with a little milk, opt for oatmeal with walnuts and milk. Puffed rice is a higher-glycemic grain, and although milk has fat and protein, usually little of it is used on cereal. These factors lead you to feel hungry very quickly, whereas the lower-glycemic oatmeal plus the protein and fat in the nuts keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time.

If you're a breakfast-skipper, you may find that you don't feel hungry in the morning at all, but when you start to incorporate breakfast, suddenly your hunger kicks into gear. Don't worry. That's a good sign! Your body
should
feel hungry in the morning (and frequently throughout the day) to signal that it's time to eat. Hunger signals that feel like a gradual hunger rather than an extreme famished feeling are a sign of a good metabolism. Many individuals have fallen out of touch with what hunger and fullness feel like, which can make losing weight and maintaining any weight loss more of a challenge because they aren't used to eating at the appropriate times.

Going on the Run with Grab-and-Go Starters

Some mornings you
may not have time to prepare anything for breakfast. Other mornings you may find it hard to eat very much. Regardless of the circumstances, eating something small for breakfast is better than eating nothing at all so your body can replenish its blood sugar stores.

A good strategy is to have a quick grab-and-go starter and then enjoy a midmorning snack a little later. (This strategy works especially well if you find that eating one large breakfast in the morning can actually make you feel sick.) Spreading out your breakfast not only keeps you from feeling like you've eaten too much but also provides you with some blood sugar and helps keep your metabolism running strong.

Here are a few quick low-glycemic grab-and-go starter ideas:

Two slices of whole-wheat toast with 2 teaspoons peanut butter or almond butter

Two slices of whole-wheat toast with 1 ounce of melted mozzarella (a lower-calorie/fat cheese)

One hard-boiled egg and two slices of whole-wheat toast

1 cup lowfat yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup fresh berries

1/2 cup cottage cheese and a piece of fruit

Chowing Down on Cereals

What could be a more classic breakfas
t option than cereal? Most cold cereals tend to have a higher glycemic load, but some have glycemic loads that are in the low to medium range. If you're a cold cereal fan, consider trying one of these options (just remember to watch your portion size):

Cheerios

Fiber One

Kashi GoLean

Kellogg's All-Bran