My go-to lunch has been Fage Total 0% Greek Yogurt topped with plenty of fruit, seeds, nuts, a drizzle of honey or syrup, and nut butter for years. Why? It's quick to throw together when I'm starving, for one. But I also became accustomed to the sweetness. I started to crave peanut butter like an addiction, and something in my brain would trigger it was time to indulge right around 12 p.m.
LeVeque looked at the bowl and explained that the nuts are a fat source (with fiber from the seeds), but there are key parts of this bowl that lead to — you guessed it — a blood sugar spike. "The strawberries? Not our biggest issue. It's the drizzle," she told me. "The density of carbohydrates there is going to drive your blood sugar up and make you crave more sugar." There's nothing wrong with having a sweet tooth, but this cycle was causing me to have energy crashes a few hours after lunch, something I really wanted to escape.
Since I also love salads, LeVeque recommended a base of olive oil-massaged kale or spinach and plenty of veggies. In order to get me to the recommended 130 grams of protein a day, she suggested red meat (which is the most nutrient-dense per ounce when it comes to B vitamins, iron minerals, and omega threes), salmon, or tuna.
Truth be told, when I used to eat my yogurt bowl at noon, I was craving a snack by 3 p.m. But once I made this change, I was full all the way until 6 or 7 p.m. LeVeque explained why: "You're just under-fed in the morning. It feels exhausting to me if I'm being totally honest with you. You're getting to dinner and it's like survival a little bit. I'd rather you feel the opposite way."
