April 27, 2007, Newsletter Issue #62: The 'Grazing' Eating Style

Tip of the Week

The grazing eating style is hard to manage, but since so many dieters stick with it, it's apparently manageable. However, before listing little tips and tricks, let's decide whether it's worth the trouble.

The argument over the "grazing versus gorging eating style" is going on for decades but what's in it for you? Should you or should you not go for mini-meals every three hours? Perhaps, you should do this in two cases: if it does work for you and if you didn't try it - just to figure out whether it can help in your dieting battle or not. Because there's no scientific evidence pro or contra.

Previous opinion was that grazing resulted in a higher calorie-burning rate at rest. What's changed?

Recently, the American Institute for Cancer Research tested healthy but obese women for two weeks on each of eating schedules: three square meals or any- number of meals, from 3 to 9. The result was opposite to the expected: three meals-eaters ate less calories per day - the difference that was not observed when lean women were tested the same way.

Important to note was that contrary to the current nutritional idea, women's metabolic rate was not under influence of meal timing. What's more, the rate of calorie burning caused by eating itself was higher after during the 'three meals a day' period.

But there was even more surprises:

1. The "bad" LDL cholesterol was higher during the grazing period.

2. The grazing led to increased insulin levels.

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