Saving food and making up for it later
The Wheel of Five is a Dutch resource that provides information about healthy nutrition. The advice is to eat according to the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA). Such as 25 grams of unsalted nuts per day. But can you also save that RDA? For example, is it just as healthy to consume 175 grams of nuts once a week?
The essence of the Wheel of Five focuses on two levels, namely: getting enough energy and nutrients. Following the guidelines of the Wheel of Five reduces the risk of contracting the ten most common chronic diseases in the Netherlands. So a little extra insight on this subject wouldn’t hurt.
Energy balance
It is important that there is a balance between the food that provides you with energy and the amount of energy that your body uses. We call this the energy balance. For example, if you eat 2000 kilocalories daily, and your body needs 2000 kilocalories daily (for: breathing, digestion, exercise, etc.), your body weight will remain unchanged. If you eat less you will lose weight, if you eat more you will gain weight.
Many people do not realize that small differences in the energy balance have a big effect on the course of body weight. For example, if you eat one cookie of 100 kilocalories extra every day for one year (in total: 2100 kilocalories instead of 2000 kilocalories), you will gain an average of five kilograms.
Save energy intake
Two possible scenarios for saving foods are: you want to lose weight (conscious choice) or you regularly forget to eat certain foods (unconscious choice). In both cases, less energy comes in for a few days by omitting one or more foods (for example: the unsalted nuts). If you eat the number of nuts from all days together on the last day of the week (seven times the RDA), your energy balance will remain unchanged. After all, the number of kilocalories you consume remains the same.
The danger lies in your other diet. It can be very difficult on this “catch-up day” to eat enough foods from the other compartments of the Wheel of Five. Moreover, the trick is not to eat other (unhealthy) foods on the days that you “save” foods to compensate for your feeling of hunger. If you do, you will gain weight.
Irregular energy intake unhealthy
In the long run, it is unhealthy to eat different amounts at different times. The more irregular your energy intake, the more likely you are to have:
- Increased waist circumference (indicates fat in the abdominal cavity; around the organs).
- A higher Body Mass Index (BMI).
- An intake of unhealthy nutrients.
- Insulin resistance (your body responds less well to insulin, causing your blood sugar to rise).
- Developing the metabolic syndrome.
Three or more of the following symptoms are present in the metabolic syndrome:
- Fat in the abdominal cavity.
- Raised blood pressure.
- Increased blood sugar.
- Increased blood fat level.
- Decreased HDL cholesterol levels.
Much research is still being conducted into the effect of this unhealthy lifestyle on the development of the above risk factors. An irregular energy intake probably leads to unhealthier food choices and an altered hormone function compared to a regular energy intake.
Vitamin deficiencies?
If you omit one or more foods from the Wheel of Five for a number of days, you will receive fewer nutrients for a number of days. Provided you eat a varied diet, there will not be shortages of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. Your body has a stock of all nutrients. As for the vitamins, for example, this supply will last you five days (Vitamin B1) to years (Vitamin B12 and Vitamin E) before symptoms of deficiency appear.
Large dose of nutrients
If you include a “catch-up day” at the end of the week, your body will get a good dose of nutrients in one sitting. In theory, suppose you are a 35-year-old woman and need 56 grams of protein per day. You forgot to drink two glasses of milk a day all week. Because you want to make up for this, you drink fourteen glasses of milk on Sunday. This provides you (among other things) with 119 grams of protein in one go. You have then consumed 63 grams of protein more than your body needs. You may think that the extra protein will give you a healthy boost, but in reality this protein surplus will contribute to the storage of new body fat.
It is also not good to get a large supply of vitamins and minerals in one go. The maximum safe upper limit of vitamins and minerals is five times the RDA. A surplus of most water-soluble vitamins (for example: the B vitamins) you pee out. There is therefore no question of a quick “compensation” for the weekly intake. You can only store a surplus of fat-soluble vitamins (for example: vitamin D and vitamin E) in your body to a limited extent. The rest you pee out or excrete through the bile. A one-off or short-term exceeding of this upper limit does not present an immediate danger, but it is harmful if this exceedance continues for a longer period of time.
Advice
It is not advisable to consciously or unconsciously “save” one or more foods from a section of the Wheel of Five for a few days and then “catch up”. While it may not affect your body weight and nutrient deficiencies are not likely to occur, it does not provide any additional health benefits.
An irregular energy intake is even unhealthy. On a “catch-up day” the intake of other healthy foods is compromised and your body can’t do anything extra with a one-time hefty dose of a nutrient.
The general advice remains: eat every day according to the recommended amounts from each compartment of the Wheel of Five. Keep varying. In addition, ensure a regular diet. By creating regularity, you have less urge to eat unhealthy foods. This makes it easier to stay within the framework of the Wheel of Five. This provides the most health benefits.
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