Dan's Plan

(do not feed this guy after midnight)

In the classic 1984 movie Gremlins, there are three basic rules that are are explained for keeping a Mogwai (pictured above) as a pet.

1. Don’t get him wet

2. Keep him away from bright lights

3. Don’t feed him after midnight

As you know from the movie, feeding after midnight can have disastrous consequences. In a new study out of Northwestern University, it looks like staying up late and eating after 8:00 PM can also go a long way to derail your effort to achieve and sustain your ideal weight.

Sleep duration, or the number of hours you sleep each night, has been linked to obesity. That is to say that people who get less sleep on average, are more likely to be overweight or obese. However, less is known about how the timing of your sleep might affect your weight. Different people keep different schedules due to work or other responsibilities and some people just feel that they are naturally a “morning person” or a “night person.” The goal of the study that we’re talking about today was to see how sleep schedules affect dietary patterns and BMI.

(Figure 1 from Baron et al., 2011)

The study looked at the sleep and eating habits of 52 people (25 females) over a week. They characterized half of the people as “normal sleepers” who tended to go to sleep around 12:30 AM and wake up around 8:00 AM (see the figure above for average sleep, wake, and meal times). The other half of the participants were characterized as late sleepers who tended to go to sleep around 3:45 AM and wake up around 10:45 AM (note the total hours of sleep time are pretty similar). Take a look at the figure and see which group would you most likely fall into.

(Table 3 from Baron et al., 2011)

The authors found that compared to “normal sleepers,” “late sleepers” consumed significantly more calories at dinner, ate more fast food, drank more pop (soda for you folks not from the Midwest), and ate fewer servings of fruits and vegetables (see table above). When subjected to fancy statistical models, the data showed that higher numbers of calories consumed after 8:00 PM were predictive of higher BMI’s, even after controlling for sleep timing and sleep duration. Thus, it appears as though there is an independent risk for weight gain associated with eating after 8:00 PM. But, why did this affect the types of things consumed? Perhaps fast food is more available and fruits and vegetables less available in the evenings? Or was there a potential interaction between sleep and decision making? In any case, there are interesting future questions to be asked, but in the interim, the authors suggest that regulating the timing of your eating and sleeping could improve the effectiveness of your efforts to achieve or sustain your ideal weight.

Today is Friday the 13th, a day that some consider to be unlucky. One of my favorite quotes regarding luck is the title of this post – “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” A similar take on the same idea is, “chance favors the prepared mind.” For me, these quotes represent the idea that a person can bias the likelihood that good stuff will happen if they are “prepared” or if they have a solid foundation in place. With regard to food and cooking, that solid foundation is your pantry.

The pantry is so important because a well-stocked pantry is your toolbox for manipulating, complementing, and transforming your fresh meat and fresh produce into complete dishes and meals. Below are just a few pantry staples that we like for their nutritional value, relatively long shelf lives, and versatility:

- olive oil (extra virgin for salads and dressings, light for most cooking)

- coconut oil (great for high temp cooking and baking)

- coconut milk and Thai red curry paste (for curries and other sauces)

- dried herbs and spices of all kinds

- a head or two of garlic

- tomato paste (thicken soups and sauces, base for pizza sauce)

- canned tomatoes (used in a number of sauces, marinara, chili, etc.)

- tuna fish (great for a quick snack, all kinds of salad options)

- anchovies (used in sauces and olive tapenades

- jerky (great snack, used like bacon bits in omelets and other dishes)

- good quality vinegars (red wine, white wine, balsamic – great for dressings, sauces, etc.)

- nuts (good for snacking, desserts, crust for meats)

- unsweetened dried fruits and berries (great for snacking or as an addition to almost any dish)

- coffee and tea (beverages of choice, finely ground coffee is a great addition to a dry rub for red meat)

- club soda (good for stains, but stocked for NorCal margaritas)

- protein powder (great for a meal on the go or for beefing up the protein content of a dish or baked good)

With these pantry staples in-house, you can take just about any type of meat or vegetables that are in season or on sale and whip up a delicious salad and/or entree. 

What other pantry staples do you love?

Ok, so this is how it goes down. Word starts circulating around the office or on the floor that so-and-so brought in some extra brownies or cupcakes that he/she made for a child’s birthday or bake sale, or that there is leftover Halloween candy or Christmas cookies in the breakroom. Or perhaps the approach is even more direct and a co-worker offers you a treat saying, “yeah, I just didn’t want to keep all of these at home because we would eat them up.” This is textbook dumping of unhealthy food at work.

In all fairnes, I am used to assuming that the dumper’s intentions are mostly good. It is likely the case that he/she figures that people at work will enjoy the treats and that he/she shouldn’t keep all of that at home because it will be rapidly consumed and (here is the important part) they know that the food in question is unhealthy. So that leads me to my next thought, which is, WTF?! You don’t want to eat all of this yourself so you give it to us?

Now, if you recognize yourself as a workplace dumper, it might be the case that you work with a bunch of folks who can eat anything they want and don’t care about consuming a ton of sugar. Or, you might dislike the people that you work with and either consciously or subconsciously want to fatten them up a bit. However, if these are not the case, and if you care about the health of your co-workers as you care about the health of yourself and your family, then you might consider rallying for a no dumping policy at your workplace. Your co-workers might even thank you for it.