RD Q&A vol. 38

Good morning and Happy Friday!

Here’s another round of RD Q&A. If you have a question you’d love answered, please leave it as a comment below or email it to me at nicole at preventionrd dot com. I’d love to include your question in the next round (and do these posts more frequently!). If you’re wondering about something… someone else probably is, too! Don’t be shy and as always, I’m happy to post your question anonymously.

A Lily picture from a recent cookbook photo shoot and then here we go!

Melinda: My wonderful sitter is turning 21 next month. She is a Type I diabetic. I would like to get her alcohol to make a fun drink but am wondering if there are better liquors than others.

Prevention RD: Alcohol and diabetes can be tricky, but it’s very sweet of you to help her ring in her 21st with someone special! Unflavored hard alcohols do not contain carbohydrate or sugar (tequila, vodka, gin, whiskey, rum, etc.), however the fun flavored versions of these hard alcohols may contain quite a bit of added sugar. Perhaps more importantly is what will the drink be mixed with — soda, juice, and tonic are very high in carbohydrate. I would suggest finding a low sugar, no sugar added, or diet version of these mixers to go with. A little carbohydrate in the drink (and/or food to go along with) is a wise option for a diabetic who will be drinking as alcohol can cause blood sugar to go up and/or down rather quickly and dangerously (she should have her glucometer handy, just in case!). Thinking back to the drinks I enjoyed at 21, I would suggest a cranberry and vodka made with reduced sugar or sugar-free/no sugar added cranberry juice or a drink with reduced sugar orange juice — a tequila sunrise or screwdriver, perhaps. It’s probably not the Sex on the Beach or Pina Colada she’d love, but still tasty! I hope that helps 🙂

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Sara F.: It seems as though I normally eat my high calorie meal at breakfast. Right now its 1/2 of a banana, 4 tbs of almond butter (if I am being honest 😉 ), and an whole wheat English muffin which normally gets me around 537 calories. I have heard the phrase eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen and dinner like a pauper. How would you recommended evening out your daily calorie intake? Is it better to eat the most calories during breakfast and evening the rest out throughout the day? Or is that just an old wives’ tale?

Prevention RD: I love this question. It makes me think of all the diabetics I see that I encourage a snack before bed to. Their eyes nearly bug out of their head in disbelief that that is actually good for them. It’s like I’ve told them what they wanted to hear for so many years, but spent all those years trying not to do! My answer for you, however, is that it really depends what works for you. Nutrition is so individualized and in truth, the body looks at averages. Bottom line is that it’s important to distribute your calories throughout the day in a way that helps you best adhere to the appropriate number of calories. For instance, some people may be able to have a high-calorie breakfast, a lighter a lunch, but by dinner time, are starving and intake too many calories compensating for the light lunch. Some people are straight-up not hungry at breakfast and if I suggested to them it’s best to eat a larger breakfast and scale their meals down in caloric content throughout the day, it simply wouldn’t work for them and they’d give up. So, I say it’s a myth…however, I do think it’s ideal to distribute calories fairly evenly throughout the day to avoid becoming over-hungry at other times and risk over-eating or choosing the wrong foods. I hope that helps!

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Brandi: I just stumbled upon your website via Pinterest and can not wait to explore it further! I’m a RN who works midnights and have constantly struggled with my weight! I have a very active 2 year old and am currently making it to the gym on average about 3 times a week. I’ve plateaued. I’m wondering how is the best schedule to eat when working midnights. Most days that I work on I’m up early with my son. So I have breakfast and lunch with him, we take a nap and then up to have dinner. Then I’m eating again at work between 10:30 to midnight (depending on how busy we are) and then I might eat again around 3 or not at all before I go to bed in the am around 8-9am. I don’t know if it’s just in my diet or sleep or where exactly. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Prevention RD: Firstly, it sounds like you’re not sleeping enough. I know with your son and working nights it may not be possible to get more sleep, but it’s important to understand that inadequate sleep is associated with higher body weight and difficulty losing weight. Plus, the more hours you’re awake, the more time you have to eat. If you’re having your first meal around 7/8am, a second meal at noon-ish, dinner around 6, a meal at 10:30pm/midnight, and then perhaps something around 3am, that’s between 4 and 5 meals/snacks per day. Just looking at the timing, I would stick with your 10:30/midnight and 3pm meals because those are when you’re up and moving. I would try http://secured.onlinegambling2014.com and have a very small snack before going to bed around 8am in place of breakfast. When you get up around lunchtime, I would also limit that to a snack and then have a dinner meal (basically, your breakfast) when you get up for the day. That would be my suggestion on timing — what do you think?

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I hope no one is in a post-Halloween sugar slump. I enjoyed 2 pieces and hit the gym this morning. 🙂 Have a good weekend, everyone!

Be well,