Double Portion… A blessing in Bible but not when you are eating…..!

 

Double Portion… A blessing in Bible but not when you are eating…..!

In Bible its said that, when someone receives ‘double portion’ he receives as much as twice from GOD what others have been given…..! But its not a great idea at your dining table.

What I mean to say is; our PORTION SIZE of food (that is the amount of food we are having in one meal) is very-very important, if we want to be in shape for life long…..!

Instead of being too selective about which cereal/vegetable/pulse/fruit to eat, it’s more important to focus on the quantity we eat in one meal.

Ideally, we should have a palm size meal. Palm size meal means, only that much food which can accommodate in your palm. A palm size meal would be roughly couple of chapati plus a bowl of lentil plus a bowl of veggies. Its for a 80 kg weighing male. If you are shorter or female it could be even lower.

But why portion size is so important? It’s simple...! Balance of Calorie needs of our body and our appetite. A palm size healthy meal would contain 300-500 calories. One should only consume this much in one meal. It helps us immensely to be within our calorie limits during the day otherwise we normally overeat and stuff ourselves with extra unwanted calories. Also, size of our stomach nearly equals our palm, but it can be expanded 50x. If we eat bigger size meals, slowly our stomach will enlarge and gradually our appetite will increase irrespective of our bodily needs. And with this, we tend to overeat having higher than required calorie every day. This habit slowly and gradually makes us fat.

But a very pertinent question is why to have smaller portion meals when my hunger asks for more? Because our hunger is misleading….! Hunger and satiety are governed by two hormones i.e. Ghrelin and leptin. We feel hungry even after having smaller meals and tend to overeat because it takes 20 minutes for leptin to give signal of satiety to the brain. By the time signal reaches we already usually eat more than required by our body. We stuff ourselves with extra food by the time we feel satiated and, overeating is further compelled by our taste-buds. Notice after some time of having meals many people feel heavy. Or if a break comes in between while eating many a times, we feel our hunger got killed. Its not killing of hunger, its your brain got time during which to signal of satiety reaches it.

So to overcome the habit of over eating and eating bigger than required meal (which is a prime cause of obesity) next time eat slowly and stop eating after palm size even if you are feeling hungry for 10-20 minutes.