Dr Ritamarie
So what if cravings aren't a sign of low willpower, but more of a sign that the body isn't getting the right signals earlier in the day? Maybe it's not enough protein or not enough fiber, maybe not enough sleep or too much stress, or maybe too many glucose swings or meals that filled the stomach, but never really told the brain that we're nourished. We're safe. We can stop looking for food now. That's the piece that so many people miss.
Your clients, your patients, they need to be told appetite isn't just about what you eat. It's about the message your meals send to your brain. It's about when you eat. It's about how you eat, and it's also the order that the food is eaten.
It's about whether you're rushed or calm while you're eating. That sends a signal. Whether the blood sugar is stable or on a roller coaster ride. Many people experience that day after day after day. It matters whether the microbiome is fed, your muscles are active, whether your brain trusts the nourishment is coming in consistently and isn't just like okay, when's the next nourishment coming?
Today we're going to talk about everything that we've been talking about in previous episodes concerning GLP-1 and leptin and ghrelin and insulin, and all those appetite hormones we've been talking about, and translate it into a practical day of eating in rhythm, because food's not just calories, food is information. When we send the right information at the right time, appetite becomes sensible. It starts to really make sense.
This is the last episode in our GLP-1 and Appetite series. In our prior episodes, we talked a lot about how to naturally support GLP-1 signaling, why GLP-1 may not be working the way it should, and why fullness in the stomach does not always equate to satiety in the brain.
Then we widened the lens and looked at a bigger endocrinology picture of appetite, including ghrelin and leptin and insulin and cortisol, CCK, peptide YY, dopamine, sleep, stress, muscle, and the microbiome.
Today we're going to make it practical, because once you understand what appetite is communicating, the next question becomes: how do we design the meals and daily rhythms to communicate clearly? How do we build a day that tells the body you're nourished, your blood sugar's stable, protein is available, the microbiome is fed. Your nervous system is safe, and energy is going to be coming in consistently. There's no emergency. There's no conversation that ends with I need food now.
This is the conversation we're having today, and before we dive in, I just want to remind you about our free practitioner guide called Beyond Protocols: A Practitioner's Guide to Root Cause Pattern Recognition.
This episode is actually a perfect example of why protocols aren't enough, that two people can have the exact same cravings and timings, but one needs more protein earlier in the day, and another needs blood sugar stabilization, and another needs sleep restoration, and another needs gut repair, and another needs nervous system support around meals. The pattern determines the plan, not the symptoms. You can download the guide from the link in the show notes.
Let's talk now about how do you help people to build a day that supports satiety. The first shift is this, don't start with calories. Start with signals. Calories tell us how much energy a food contains, but calories don't tell us what the food is actually saying, the messages it's giving to the body. They don't tell us whether the meal stimulates satiety hormones, stabilizes glucose, or feeds the microbiome.
They don't tell us whether the meal supports muscle metabolism or reduces cravings later in the day. Just calories, just energy. Calories don't say anything about whether the person feels nourished or is left feeling like they need more, the concept of empty calories.
Instead of asking only how many calories is in this meal, ask what is the signal that this meal is providing to the hormones, to the brain. Is it sending a protein signal, a fiber signal, a mineral signal, phytonutrient signal, a glucostability signal, or a microbiome signal, or a nervous system satiety signal, or does this meal support a muscle signal?
That's where the conversation changes. It's not just about macros and calories. A meal is not just fuel. The meal is instruction, information, and a hormonal event.
If we want to restore appetite regulation, we need to build meals that send the right messages. The first practical principle is front load satiety. Front load satiety, what does that mean? It means we don't wait until the end of the day to give the body the protein, fiber, minerals, and nourishment it needed all day long.
Many people under-eat all day thinking they're going to lose weight that way, but then they overeat later.
Maybe they skip breakfast and have coffee and call it breakfast, or maybe just have fruit by itself, then a light salad with very little protein. Then they graze but never really nourish themselves. Sound familiar? Then the evening comes and suddenly the body gets really loud. The cravings show up. Nighttime eating shows up, and the desire for something sweet or salty or crunchy rears its ugly head, and the person thinks, “What's wrong with me?”
Often though, nothing's wrong with them, the body's simply asking for what it failed to receive earlier. The evening craving may have started at breakfast. One of the most powerful strategies is to create a strong first meal, and that doesn't mean it's first thing in the morning. It could be intermittent fasting a little bit later, but whatever that first meal is needs to be strong. Not necessarily big, but a meal that sends satiety signals that contains adequate protein, contains adequate fiber, is bursting with minerals and healthy fats in the right amount and has a lot of plant diversity.
Dr Ritamarie (07:06)
For a plant-based person, that could look like a protein-rich green smoothie with clean protein powder or chia seeds or flax seeds or greens, berries, berries if tolerated, and only if tolerated. It could be lentil tofu or fava bean tofu with sauteed greens and avocado. It doesn't have to be your conventional breakfast food.
It could be a savory bowl with tempeh vegetables, herbs, and a tahini lemon dressing, or it could be a chia flax pudding with plant protein, berries, pumpkin seeds, and cinnamon. The point is not the exact recipe, although a lot of people do need recipes. The point is the message that it's sending. The body needs to hear early in the day that protein and nutrients are available, fiber is available, minerals are available, the blood sugar is nice and steady.
It's those ups and downs all day that keep the insulin and the leptin erratic and then create the cravings.
One shift of a healthy first meal of the day can change the entire appetite pattern. There's a link in the show notes to my book: Hormone Hacking Breakfast Menus that contains sample menus for the first meal of the day that keeps everything satiety-based and hormone balanced.
Dr Ritamarie (08:17)
The second principle is protein first. Protein is one of the strongest satiety signals we have. It supports GLP-1 and peptide YY and CCK, and it helps to reduce ghrelin, the appetite hormone. It supports muscle, muscle building, and muscle repair. It satiates the appetite. It stabilizes the appetite. It provides all those amino acids that we need for neurotransmitters, appetite, mood balance, detoxification, immune function, and tissue repair.
Many people eat too little protein earlier in the day. It doesn't mean you have to eat a steak and eggs for breakfast. They eat protein in a way that's way too diluted to create a strong satiety signal.
A handful of nuts sprinkled on a salad isn't the same as a protein-rich meal. Whether it's plant or animal protein, you still can have a protein-rich meal. A tablespoon of hummus provides some protein, but not a significant amount. It's not the same as eating a major serving of hummus or a meaningful legume serving or lentil tofu or a bowl of lentils with the greens and the vegetables and the salads.
Smoothies made mostly with fruit are blood sugar balancing nightmares for most people. It's not the same as a smoothie that's designed for satiety with lots of greens and maybe some seeds and avocado and things like that.
Dr Ritamarie (09:46)
For many people, especially those with cravings later in the day, unstable glucose and low muscle mass, or perimenopausal and postmenopausal metabolic changes, protein needs to be more intentional.
For plant-based eaters, we need to be even more strategic with this. Healthful options are lentil tofu, fava bean tofu for those who don't tolerate soy, organic tofu, if tolerated, tempeh, and you can get non-soy tempeh and edamame, usually that's soy.
Legumes, hemp hearts, pumpkin seeds, and carefully selected protein powders. Don't forget about your greens. Greens have lots of protein when you eat them in abundant amounts. No, not the little half cup serving on the plate. That’s not a lot.
Kale is 42% protein, as is broccoli, somewhere in the 40s percentage protein, if you eat larger amounts. Teach people to do that.
What we really need to be doing is asking, did this meal send a clear protein signal? Did it provide enough amino acids to support satiety and muscle? It's amazing how satiated you can feel on a low number of calories, but with the proper amount of protein. Did it help a person feel satiated for hours and reduce the urge to snack later on? Did it stabilize the appetite, the blood sugar for the next part of the day?
Protein first doesn't mean protein only. In fact, protein only is not a good idea. It means that protein should be supported as a course signal around which the meal is built. Don't forget those vegetable sources of protein.
The third principle is fiber with every meal. The carnivore approach to eating a big steak with every meal, but that's not going to give you fiber. Fiber is information that feeds the microbiome and the microbiome is what produces short chain fatty acids, which keeps a healed lining of the digestive tract.
Short chain fatty acids communicate not only with the intestinal cells to make them robust, but the L-cells that control GLP-1 release. GLP-1, as we've talked about, helps with appetite and satiation and sending those signals. When we include fiber, we're not just trying to fill the stomach and move things along the intestine, we're feeding a signaling network.
Dr Ritamarie (12:08)
Soluble fiber, fermentable fiber, resistant starch, and diverse plant fibers all matter in controlling the satiation signals. They can come from vegetables, greens, flax, chia, and psyllium. Berries have fiber, not protein. Lentils, beans, artichokes, asparagus, onions, leeks, garlic, green banana flour, and a lot of other intact proteins have plant-based protein sources that have fiber in them.
Okay, this is important. Fiber adds to satiation, as well. Here's a key thing, because a lot of people are not very tolerant of fiber. Fiber tolerance does matter. Some people can add things like beans and lentils, chia, flax, and some resistant starch, no problem. Others need to go slowly, because they get bloated. Their gut isn't used to it.
If somebody feels bloated or constipated or gut inflamed, or they are dealing with dysbiosis, lots of large amounts of fiber all at once are not going to help. They may backfire. It doesn't mean that fiber is bad, obviously. It means that the gut terrain needs attention.
Everything we hear from people about how they tolerate certain foods, or don't tolerate certain foods, is information that helps us to try to identify what's out of balance in their body and where do we need to address.
When people don't tolerate fiber, it generally means their gut terrain needs attention. It's not in balance. We need to ask, can this person tolerate fiber now? Are they moving their bowels easily? Do they bloat after they eat legumes? Do they tolerate resistant starch foods? Do they need smaller amounts more consistently rather than trying to give them 35 grams of fiber a day? That's recommended.
Do they need motility support to keep things moving? When you get bloated, a lot of times, things aren't moving. Do they have microbiome imbalances that need a plan?
The point is not that everybody should be eating 35 grams of fiber, and if they're not, just dump it on them right away. No, they have to build up to them. It has to be the right fiber, the right pace for the right person.
The fourth principle I want to talk about is food order. The order that you eat food during a meal matters. When people eat protein, vegetables, fiber, and healthy fats before the starchy carbohydrates, they have better glucose response and better satiety, partly because the stomach empties more slowly, partly because the glucose stays stable and enters the bloodstream gradually, and partly because the satiety signals are stimulated earlier in the meal.
People get the signal that they're full. A lot of times people say that they don't get the signal that they're full until it's too late. It's like, “I just ate that big meal. I still feel hungry. I'm going to keep eating,” and then afterwards, 10, 15, 20 minutes later, they feel it, and they're overfull.
It's teaching them to tune in so that they hear the satiation signal, and they get the satiation signal earlier on, as well as, eating the fats and proteins earlier on and the fiber earlier on helps.
Dr Ritamarie (15:15)
Here's the practical eating sequence. Pause, pause, pause. The parasympathetic pause. Pause and breathe, and then begin with vegetables, fiber, or bitter greens, then do the protein, then the starchier portion if there is a starchier portion included. That could be a salad before the meal, vegetable soup before a main dish, a few bites of tofu, tempeh, or lentils before a starchier meal, or some veggies with a dip made with some of those foods that can make a really nice protein-rich dip.
A chia flax drink can be done before a meal to start the process. Building a meal, so the first bites are protein and plants as opposed to the breads and the crackers and the chips and fruit and things like that that are usually served before a meal.
When people are suffering from glucose spikes and cravings and insulin resistance and afternoon crashes, this can be a game changer, just changing the order of the foods they eat is pretty simple.
We can keep some of the same foods and change the sequence. Obviously, we're going to remove the processed foods and the empty calories, but it's a beautiful example of how physiology can work with us instead of fighting us.
Dr Ritamarie (16:32)
The fifth principle may actually sound a little weird. It's to build the plate for communication. What does that mean? Well, a satiety-supported plate is not just a pile of food. It's a set of messages that we're sending to the system, that the brain is getting, that the hormones are getting.
Here's a simple structure: Protein, fiber-rich plants, a source of healthy fat, polyphenols and herbs, which are usually in those fiber-rich plants. Mineral-rich foods, which are very often those greens and the mineral-rich plant foods, and then optional resistance starch, if they tolerate it.
That could look like lentil tofu. I love lentil tofu, so I keep saying that, with bitter greens, broccoli sprouts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, herbs, and tahini.
Tempeh. I love tempeh. I've learned to love tempeh and found some non-soy tempehs. I've never had tempeh in the house, because my husband and son are allergic to soy, but I found a source of a black-eyed pea tempeh, and it's got some great seasonings, and it goes great with a big salad and a bowl of vegetables or fermented vegetables. Sometimes I like to put pomegranate seeds in a lemon herb dressing on a salad and chop those things up and put them in a big salad. There's a lot of ways to do this.
Bean and vegetable soup with green spices and avocado or a smoothie that has protein. I've found some good, really clean protein powders that I can put in a smoothie, or just make a shake kind of drink with that and have that before a meal. It's very satiating. A smoothie with protein and greens with chia, flax, and berries, if it's tolerated. I don't tolerate blending berries. I tolerate eating the berries with cinnamon, and then some kind of healthy fat. My favorite is avocado, but hemp seeds, too, are good.
Each part of the meal then has a role. Protein signals satiety and obviously supports muscle growth. Fiber feeds the microbiome and also keeps things moving. Resistant starch supports the microbial metabolites, and polyphenols reduce oxidative stress, which is common, and support metabolic signaling and blood sugar balance. The healthy fats help with absorption and CCK, cholecystokinin, signaling.
Dr Ritamarie (18:53)
Minerals are needed for insulin signaling and energy metabolism and the nervous system and its function. Herbs and bitters support digestion and metabolic responsiveness.
This is why food isn't just calories, it's messages that are getting into the brain, getting into the endocrine system, getting into the gut. When the meal is built well, the message is clear.
The sixth principle is to avoid what I call the full but not satisfied meal. This is very common.
Someone eats a large volume of food, but the meal is low in protein, low in minerals, low in fiber, low in fats, low in fermentable fibers, or too processed, any one or all of those. Their stomach feels full, but their brain is going, no, no, no, we don't have it, so they keep looking. They want dessert, want something crunchy, want a second dinner, want to graze. This happens a lot. It's that full but not satisfied feeling.
They are full of foods that don't send an “I'm nourished” signal to the brain. This is when we need to ask was the meal just large or was it actually nourishing? Most of the time, the people we see, we're going to be finding that it's large but not nourishing. Did it just stretch the stomach? The stomach receptors feel full, but it does not give the satiety signal to the brain. The hypothalamus is still like something's missing here. We are missing things.
We have to look at protein, minerals, feeding the microbiome, and keeping the glucose stable. These are all things that the meals should do in order to keep people satiated and their cells nourished. That last piece matters.
Did it satisfy taste and texture? A lot of times when we eat, and we don't satisfy the taste, the tongue, the taste buds, and the texture. It's just like goop, and it fills up and maybe it is nourishing, but there's something missing.
It’s a technically healthy meal, but it does not satisfy. That may leave people searching for more. That's why I'm such a big fan of teaching people how to make really flavorful, nice textured, crunchy or creamy or warm meals that are satisfying and nourishing with nice herbs and nice aromatics, spices, things like that.
Dr Ritamarie (21:16)
The last thing is about colorful and beautiful meals. Filling that plate with colorful foods stimulates the appetite and stimulates satiety. Pleasure is not the enemy of metabolic health when we do it right. It's part of sustainable nourishment. The goal is not bland restriction, just eat some celery sticks all day long. No, but if you eat celery sticks with a nice tasty dip with herbs and spices and fats, good fats, that can be satisfying.
Don't try to get people eating foods that are bland and you know, blah blah blah, or the same things over and over. Teach them how to make foods that are beautiful, that taste good, and that stimulate the taste buds.
The seventh principle is to move after meals. You've heard this over and over again. It doesn't have to be intense. A 5, 10, 15, 20 minute walk after meals can be incredibly powerful for glucose regulation to start to utilize those calories.
When the muscles contract, they help clear the glucose from the bloodstream, and they improve the insulin sensitivity. Those things are responsible for not feeling satiated after a meal. They change that curve of glucose. They keep it more blunted and more even, so we don't get those high peaks of glucose and then those low drops. That means better satiety actually moving forward even hours later. It's one of the simplest ways to teach the body what to do with the fuel that just came in.
Movement after meals tells the body to use this energy, store it appropriately, and keep the glucose stable. Don't let the curve swing wildly. These are good messages, and they're especially useful after the largest or starchiest meal of the day.
For people who can't walk after every meal, they're busy, they're out to dinner with people, start with just one meal. Pick one meal after which you can walk. It could be just around the block, or it could be just around the house.
My mother-in-law used to walk around her house, because the weather wasn't always good, and she wanted to get her steps in. Five minutes is better than nothing. More is great, but five minutes is better than nothing. It's not about perfection, it's about sending a signal to the body consistently.
When you look at CGMs, and when you look at glucose curves, it's amazing how much better they look when people move after a meal.
Dr Ritamarie (23:43)
The eighth principle is to create a parasympathetic meal ritual. This may be one of the most underrated appetite interventions, because most of us are sitting there shoveling the food in, watching TV, or at our computers and working, and that's not parasympathetic. That's sympathetic. That is not going to facilitate proper digestion.
Teach people to pause before eating. We're teaching them to move after eating and pause before eating. Take three slow breaths, look at the food, appreciate the food, smell the food, give gratitude for the food, and then chew it, chew it, chew it, chew it, chew it. Don't just take a couple of bites and swallow it. All of that is going to improve the satiation signal and can also slow down the eating process and have you eat less.
Put the fork down between bites. Let the body know food's coming. That activates the cephalic phase of digestion, the brain digestion connection. It prepares the body properly for digestive secretions, the stomach acids, the enzymes, all of that works better when we're in a parasympathetic state.
The satiety signals can arrive when you're eating slowly when you're eating slowly. Do you ever just watch people who are naturally thin? Watch how they eat. Watch how little they eat, but watch how they eat. It's just amazing to watch, and they put their fork down and then they stop, and there's still food on their plate right. I'm not a proponent of wasting food, but boy that gave me an idea. Okay, I put too much on my plate, and I eat it so fast that I don't get the signal soon enough.
When you're rushing, when you're scrolling, when you're driving, cortisol's in control, and cortisol slows down, turns off the digestion in preparation for guess what? Fight-flight.
That's where we need to start to teach people how to activate their digestion and satiety. Instead of we're busy, and we're stressed, and we're not safe, we give the signal that everything's good. We can digest this food. We can utilize this food. We can use it to make our bodies perform better.
Sometimes for some people, this one change makes meals more satisfying, the digestion's better, and they have a really good satiation signal afterwards. Instead of trying to force the body to digest the food, calm down and just let it happen. Restore the signals, the conditions, that allow the body to respond.
The ninth principle has nothing to do with digestion directly, but it protects. It’s sleep. You can't out meal-plan sleep deprivation. Poor sleep increases hunger. Ghrelin increases. It decreases the signal that says you're full.
Ghrelin increases and leptin decreases, and you get cravings. Try it yourself sometime. After a poor night of sleep, just pay attention to your appetite. Whenever that happens to me, I have a poor night of sleep. I'm hungry all the next day, and I just want to keep shoveling food in.
Insulin resistance is known to be worse the day after a bad night of sleep. It also raises inflammation when we don't have the power overnight to get rid of all the toxins and the endotoxins and the digestive or the detox build up overnight, because we don't get that detox. It's hard to make good decisions the next day, because our decision making and our higher level, our prefrontal cortex isn't working as well. It changes the next day's glucose response. Believe me, it just makes you more hungry.
Teach people how to get a good night's sleep and not eat right before bed, that's one thing to start, but that's the subject of a whole other talk.
Dr Ritamarie (27:38)
Just so you know, a satiety supportive day is going to begin with a night of good sleep before. Finish meals early enough to sleep well.
Don't stay up late eating. Don't stay up late watching the news. That's going to put them in a sympathetic dominant state. Get out early in the morning to start the circadian cycle and get some consistent sleep and wake times. That's going to control satiety. That's going to control the way the body uses the food so much better. It's very essential.
When somebody says I can't stop snacking at night, ask them about their sleep. When somebody says, I crave sugar every afternoon, ask them about their sleep. When somebody says my appetite's out of control, ask them about their sleep. Sleep isn't separate from appetite. They're very closely intertwined. Sleep is part of appetite regulation.
The tenth and final principle is don't undereat your way into cravings. What's that mean?
People are doing it all the time. They're trying to be good all day. It's easier to be good all day, quote unquote “good,” because you're busy. It's easy if you go, “Okay, I'll eat later.” They restrict. They skip meals. They eat tiny portions and don't get enough protein, don't get enough fiber, don't get enough fat. When they get to the night, and work ends, and they sit down, the biology wins. It's like I need food. I haven't gotten it. Instead of craving or reaching for those nourishing foods at night, you're going to reach for the craving foods.
Although I'll tell you a little bit of a side story about my son, he would say to me, I'm trying to get my weight under, I'm trying to be good, but I get hungry late at night sometimes, and he said, “You know what I figured out? I take like a pound of broccoli, and I steam it. I steam the pound of broccoli.” Whatever it was, four cups of broccoli, I think it was about 100 calories. He says, “I eat that, and it's only a hundred calories, but I am so satiated.” Why is that? Because of the nourishment. I'm not saying that everybody has to eat a pound of broccoli when they get cravings at night, but boy, it would take the edge off those cravings.
You could start with that, a big bowl of broccoli, but I learned that from my son when he was in his early twenties.
Dr Ritamarie (29:59)
In summary, the body doesn't like chronic undernourishment. The body likes to be nourished. If it doesn't receive enough earlier in the day, the hunger is going to increase, and the food seeking behavior is going to increase. For me, I'll sometimes just rush through the day and eat a little salad, have a little smoothie, eat a little yogurt or fermented vegetables. By the time the night comes, I'm starving, but I find that if I make that meal have enough protein and fat, it takes the edge off of that appetite.
My meals always have enough fiber, and I think that fiber is a cornerstone of every meal. Many of my meals have plenty of fiber, but not enough fat and protein. When I can learn to balance those, it makes all the difference in the world. My meals are nourishing, but sometimes I need more protein.
For some people, they need more fiber, because they're reaching for things that are processed. They need more minerals, better meal structure, stable glucose, and better sleep. All of these things are important. Then staying calm, that parasympathetic pause before each meal, all of that's going to help us build muscle and have more consistency.
Again, appetite is just communication. It's just a signal from the body saying I need something here. Now, that said, I could say a little bit about appetite that is related to emotions. We've often learned to calm and soothe our emotions with food. Oftentimes when you can get control and eat enough during the day and have that balance during the day and have parasympathetic pauses built in, meditation, mindfulness practices, that helps because then the emotions aren't driving it.
Let's end with a practical takeaway. A satiety supporting day may begin with hydration, morning light, and movement. That makes a huge difference. It’s not necessarily a hard workout, it could be just a light walk, light run, stretching, yoga, a signal to say the day is beginning. The day is beginning, and the muscles have to start working.
Dr Ritamarie (32:17)
Then the first meal can include some sort of protein, fiber, greens, phytonutrients. I like to include a probiotic source in that first meal. You can download my hormone hacking breakfasts from the link in the show notes.
Sometimes, I have a protein-rich green smoothie with chia, flax, berries, greens, cinnamon, and enough protein to matter. Bowls are very satisfying. Breakfast bowls, very satisfying. Savory meals with tofu, tempeh, and greens, or your choice of protein source with lots of herbs, but always lots of those plant-based phytonutrients.
That says to the body, we're nourished. We have our amino acids and our fiber, and we have all the components to put together a healthy body and keep you running strong.
Lunch and the next meal, all your meals follow that same principle. Start with a pause, eat your vegetables or fiber first. Include protein, herbs, bitters, polyphenols, and minerals, and do that with every meal.
I remember when my kids were little, we had neighbors over, and I had a lot of work, my husband was out of town. I was taking care of the neighbors' kids as well as my own. I said to them, “Why don't we just have banana ice cream for dinner?” Which was just basically some bananas put through a juicer with some sauce on top of it, a nut-based carob sauce or chocolate sauce. I don't remember which it was. I served that for them, and it was very nourishing, but not complete. The kids were like, my God, your mother's so fun. She lets us have ice cream for dinner. My son at the time was probably seven or eight years old, he said, “Mom, that was great. Thank you. Can I have broccoli for dessert?”
Even then he knew that we needed more of those phytochemicals, and the minerals, and the greens, and all that to make the meal complete. That was just a natural instinct and having grown up with me feeding them that way.
Resistant starch can be helpful. Green banana flour, cooked and cooled potatoes, if tolerated with blood sugar and gut, and if it's appropriate for that person, then a walk, just a short walk afterwards.
Dr Ritamarie (34:32)
The goal is not to arrive at your evening depleted, but to be satisfied and maybe just have a light meal when it comes to dinner, so we don't disrupt sleep. Protein, vegetables, fiber, herbs, healthy fats, and I like to include a probiotic source like yogurt, kimchi, kefir or something like that.
At the end of the day, we want the body to say, “Wow, the day is complete. We've been nourished. We're safe. We don't have to keep searching for more.”
It's not about rigid rules. We want people to have fun with their food, be satisfied with their food, enjoy their food, but also to get all the nourishment from it. Our bodies love rhythm, our hormones love rhythm, the microbiome loves rhythm. Getting used to having a plethora of these nutrients coming in. Appetite improves when the body knows what to expect.
Don't give every client the same meal plan. Use meals as a diagnostic tool. See how a person responds to the meal timing, to the meal composition. If they're hungry two hours after eating, you've got to ask what's missing. If they crave sugar at 4 p.m., you've got to look at the breakfast and lunch and their sleep and their stress and their glucose curves. If they snack at night, was the day undernourishing or overstimulating or over stressful?
When they feel full and not satisfied, we want to look not just at the emotional piece, because that can be part of it, but the texture, the flavor, the emotional regulation, and the composition of those meals.
When healthy meals create glucose spikes, we want to look at the food order, the muscle mass, the sleep, the stress, carbohydrate tolerance, and exposure to toxins and oxidative stress.
This is called root cause pattern recognition. Craving isn't just a craving. It's data that tells us a little bit about this person's physiology and biochemistry. The body is always communicating, and the more we can listen to it, the better we can guide. That's why I created the Beyond Protocols Guide, which you can find the link to in the show notes. A meal strategy is only effective when it matches the individual person. There is no one size fits all.
Dr Ritamarie (36:47)
I read this from certain people who think we're all the same species: therefore, we all have the exact same needs. I've been in practice long enough and dealt with enough people to know that I can take this perfect meal plan for one person and give it to another, and it doesn't work at all. We really need to be digging, we really need to be discretionary, and we really need to have the basic components for everybody, but different ratios and timing and all.
Being able to recognize what a person needs is important. Do they need sleep support? Do they need glucose support? Do they need strength training? Do they need more aerobics? Do they need more sleep or rest? Do they need more parasympathetic breaks? Parasympathetic pause is one of the most useful things for people.
Download that guide, and that's going to help you to use discretion and go beyond protocols into creating customized plans. Download it from the show notes.
Let's pull it all together here to calm the cravings and restore satiety. Don't start with restriction. Start with helping the body to communicate better. Front load satiety earlier in the day. That doesn't mean they have to eat at 6 a.m. I can't eat super early in the day. I like to eat later in the morning or in the early afternoon. That feels best for me. Great. If that's what works for them, great.
Some people wake up starving, and they need to start the day with food. If they start with foods that are going to give them these big swings like croissants and toast and orange juice and all, then that's going to cause cravings later in the day.
Make sure that all the meals have some protein, all the meals have fiber, all the meals are good for feeding the microbiome. Fiber helps with that but so do phytonutrients, resistant starch, bitters, and polyphenols are all important for feeding that microbiome. Eat it in the order that supports glucose stability and meals that make people feel full.
Avoid meals that make people feel full but not satisfied. Pause before eating. I like to call it the parasympathetic pause and walk after meals, even if it's just a circle around the house or going outside if it's inclement weather, just do it indoors. Do something to get the body moving for five minutes or more after the meal.
It's so important to protect sleep by not eating late at night, by not watching stimulating movies and the news late at night. The goal is not to control the body more, it's to communicate with the body more clearly and have signals throughout the day that help the body to produce the proper amounts of the digestive hormones and appetite hormones like GLP-1 and leptin and all those things. Keep the body consistent, getting nourishment, getting satiation.
Remember that food isn't just calories, it's information, and it's important to have good meal timing and food order, movement, sleep, and stress are all super important. The body is always listening. The question becomes what messages are your meals sending? Are you telling the body that it's nourished and safe, stable and secure? Or, are you telling the body that it's undernourished and needs more?
All of this is important. When you start to incorporate these with people into their lives, you start to hear people say, “Wow, I'm eating less, and now I'm losing weight, and I'm just not craving things late at night.”
Pattern recognition and learning the language of each individual body, so you can help people to put together meal plans and life plans that work well and allow the appetite hormones and the blood sugar and the microbiome and the nervous system all do the work the way they were designed to work. That's what the future of healthcare is, not symptom chasing.
If this helped you to think differently about meals and cravings and satieties, share it with a client or friend or family member who needs a more empowering way to understand appetite. Remember, we are the future of healthcare and until next time, shine on.
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