Assessing Eating Habits

The easiest way to think about nutrition is to take into consideration the simple fact that we all need to provide our bodies with an adequate energy supply and substances that are crucial to its survival. However, when most health care providers discuss nutrition with their patients, they discuss general eating habits. It's important to ask yourself some simple questions when thinking about your own eating habits:

• Why do I eat?
• What do I eat?
• When do I eat?
• How much do I eat?

If you are able to answer these questions with great detail, then you are way ahead of the game. If you have simple answers to the simple questions, then you are right on track. The most basic answers to the previous four questions are "because I'm hungry," "food," "when I'm hungry," enough to make me full." But when we really look at these answers, often they do not tell the whole truth about what we actually do in our daily lives. For instance, take the question "when do I eat?" A common answer is "when I'm hungry", which is true. But if we were to ask the question "do I eat when I am not hungry?" the answer for most of us would be yes. And herein lies one of the major problems encountered by those trying to maintain their health through exercise and proper nutrition.

The body is very efficient when it comes to storing up energy for a time when food, the body's main energy source, is not readily available. The food energy that you do not use through maintaining your body and physical activity is converted into stored glucose (glycogen) and fat. An easy way to think about this is to consider when humans relied entirely on hunting and gathering for food. Back then it was very important to be able to store some of the energy that they consumed for a time when they were unable to obtain a meal. But now it is rare, especially in Western civilization, to have a time when food is not readily available. The problem is that our society has changed to the point where food is nearly always ready to consume, but the body's efficient mechanism for storing excess energy has not changed. In fact, most of us do not hunt our food. And the only gathering that we do is typically driving a car to the supermarket to go shopping for food and pulling up to the fast-food window to order a quick meal. Hence, we expend a much lower amount of energy than our very distant ancestors did. In addition, our food now is much higher in calories.

Much of our society needs far less energy than we consume. And thus, obesity is on the rise in this country. In fact, nearly half the American population is considered overweight or obese. And as we now know, there is a very close link between obesity and the development of type 2 diabetes.

So what is the solution to this problem? At this point you probably know that the simple answer is finding the balance between energy consumption (eating) and energy expenditure (exercising). So, to maintain your body weight, the amount of energy that you consume must be equal to that used in the body. If you consume excess energy, you will store it and gain weight. If you consume less energy than you use, the result is weight loss.

This concept of weight loss through decreased food consumption is simple, but to make it work for you, you must understand your individual health situation and set realistic goals. This chapter gives you tools to understand the basics of nutrition and create proper eating habits. However, it is paramount that you schedule a visit with a registered dietitian with skills in nutrition for those with diabetes. Without the aid of your entire health care team, which includes a dietitian, it will be difficult for you to succeed. Your dietitian will help you answer the four previous questions in greater detail. A dietitian will also work with your other health care providers to create the best individualized nutritional plan for your lifestyle. During your visit with a dietitian, she will build a plan for eating well based on your individual goals. She will also take into account any other medical problems that you may have, such as high cholesterol or heart or kidney disease.