Since I began my health and wellness journey years ago, I have always been a learner. What does that mean? That means that I always want to know more! So I am constantly reading articles, listening to podcasts and testing recipes in an effort to educate myself and ultimately, my clients, on how they can start making changes today and start feeling better tomorrow.
So the insitgation for this post was a podcast I was listening to called 'The Genius Life,' and the 'Glucose Goddess was clearly explaining about glucose spikes and how it stresses the body and blah blah blah...now to me it was not blah blah blah, but what I thought YOU would love is one of her tips about the ORDER of what you should eat and WHY it might matter.
Picture this, it is 1989 and a much younger Jill is sitting down to dinner with her family. Her mom has plated a protein, veggie and startch on the plate and on the side is a salad with iceberg lettuce and cucumbers. We always started with the salad. I ate my salad and then moved onto the dinner. Let's be honest, a salad with iceberg lettuce, cucumber and drenched in Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing was not the most nutritious salad to start a meal, but it was 1989 and we did not know what we did not know.
What we DO know now is that a study completed in 2004 found that starting with a small first-course salad before the rest of their meal, participants consumed 7% fewer calories, and when they had a large salad beforehand, they consumed 12% fewer calories. Sounds good, right?
So, how can we upgrade our iceberg lettuce salad to something that can add even more bang to your buck?
-Lettuce Recommendations:
Radicchio
Spinach
Arugula
Leaf lettuce
Kale
Endive
Chard
Butter Lettuce
Romaine
- What you can add on top?
Cucumber
Celery
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Carrots
Peppers
Leftover roasted veggies
Onion
This list could go on and on and on.
Eating the salad first starts to create movement in the digestive process and will help you start to trigger those full factors faster (say that 3x fast!).
BONUS: for making it this far in the article, drizzle a vinegar over your salad.
Vinegar options include:
Champagne
White wine
Rice
Apple Cider
According to the Glucose Goddess, when you start your meal with a dose of vinegar (1 tbsp) you can level out the intensity of your glucose spike. Why is that important? you can help to avoid the post-meal glucose CRASH.