Eating high protein breakfast sustains your diet

A new study out of Purdue University finds that eating a high protein breakfast - participants had eggs and Canadian bacon - leads to a sustained feeling of fullness throughout the day. Feeling satiated can lead to eating less at subsequent meals or going for a longer time without getting hungry again, making weight loss easier. Another study found that having two eggs for breakfast helped overweight adults lose more weight than those who ate a bagel with the same number of calories. Again, it's likely due to that feeling of satiety. Fiber and protein, because they take longer to digest, are the two nutrients that promote longer lasting feelings of fullness.
While having an egg or lean meat at breakfast can be a good high protein choice, low fat dairy can serve the same purpose. A high fiber cereal or oatmeal with skim milk or yogurt are also satiating breakfasts.
While I'm on this topic, I came across a new product, called Lightfull, which promotes itself as a satiating snack. It's a yogurt-like drink that has 5 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein for only 90 calories. The company sent me some samples so I gave it a try and you know what, it was pretty true to its claims. I had one for breakfast with half an English muffin and really didn't feel hungry again until after noon. Normally, I need a mid-morning snack to tide me over til lunch. I'm going to give some samples to my weight loss patients and see how it works for them too. Check it out and see if it works for you.

"Default" Dinner For the Inevitable Busy Day

Last night around 6:30 it hit me that I needed to make dinner. I had such a busy day with work, dropping off the kids at school, more work, a short work-out for me, more work, picking up the kids and t-ball practice -- that I completely forgot that the kids needed to eat something (And, oh yes, I needed to eat too). My husband was coming home late from work, so I could not ask him to get dinner started for me. At this point, it would have been easy to go to a drive through window and just pick something up. I did not, however, give in to my children's pleas for McDonald's, instead, I went home and made one of my "default" dinners. My "default" dinners are not alway completely healthy but last night the one I chose did not include chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese -- it was just as easy, but much healthier. During dinner I started thinking about the nutritional value of our meal -- remember, I am a dietitian, so I cannot help it -- and decided to run a nutritional analysis on my "default" dinner. So, here is the dinner and the results of the analysis --
-- Sam's Club frozen chicken breasts without skin (I add soy sauce and my kids eat it with ketchup) -- microwave for less than 10 minutes
--Canned black beans (we sprinkle reduced fat feta cheese on top) -- microwave for less than 2 minutes
--Uncle Ben's whole grain 90 sec pouch (we add spray butter and soy sauce) -- microwave for 90 seconds
--Canned green beans -- microwave for less than 2 minutes
--Whole wheat bread slice (with spray butter)
--Skim Milk
The analysis showed a very low-fat meal, less than 10% a good amount of carbohydrates and an excellent amount of protein at 115% DV. Additionally, we ate 34% of the recommended amount of fiber, over 50% of the recommended amounts of most vitamins and 20%-50% of all minerals. The down-side was that folate, vit C and the omega-3 fats were low -- but remember this was just one meal. These nutrients could be made up in other meals. I would love to hear about any of your quick and healthy "default" meal tips.