When trying to eat healthier people often make some simple mistakes according to dietitian Tamara Duker Freuman, MS, RD, CDN . Watch what foods and drinks you should avoid when trying to lose weight and make healthier food choices. Following is a transcript of the video.
Tamara Duker: I think the first rule for anyone, if you want to be healthier, is to stop drinking your sugar. Anyone who wants to clean up their diet then they need to get rid of the sweetened beverages because it's just not compatible with maintaining a healthy weight and maintaining overall health.
People will do, like a, juice during the day because they think it's healthy or sweetened iced tea that are claiming they're high in antioxidants and probiotics and things like that. But frankly, it's just added sugar in a really concentrated form.
One of the biggest traps people fall into when they want to eat well and make good choices for themselves is that 3 or 4 o'clock dip in blood sugar when they're starving. And that doesn't happen spontaneously at 4 o'clock. That starts at breakfast. And what happens is that people wake up and they try to skimp on breakfast and be really good for their lunch. At 3 o'clock it all goes out the window becuase your blood sugar gets super low and you get super hungry, and what do you crab? Sugar, carby, sweet indulgent foods.
You can't say no to the bread basket. You overeat portions of things like pasta and rice. And that's really the cycle that can perpetuate being overweight and having a hard time getting a handle on your diet. And so what I really focus on with my clients is getting that first half of the day right. Making sure that you are eating a satiating breakfast, a satiating balanced lunch, so that by the time 4 o'clock rolls around and dinner rolls around you may be peckish and a little bit hungry. But you're not going to tear someone's head off because once you are that hungry all bets are off, and you can't make good choices for yourself.
Editor's Note: This video was originally published on May 12, 2016.