Nutritional Pearls: Planning Meals in Advance
Joe is a 36-year-old technician at a local hospital. Joe is obese, and is beginning to become concerned about his health. He asks if there are any simple changes he can make to his lifestyle to help him lose weight.
When asked, he explains that he normally does not eat breakfast and gets his lunches from either the hospital cafeteria or one of the fast food restaurants nearby at least 3 to 4 times a week.
How would you advise him?
What is the correct answer?
(Answer and discussion on next page)
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Answer: Planning meals ahead of time encourages healthier choices.
When patients ask for help losing weight, one of the first things to do is to ask for a breakdown of their diets—especially what they eat for breakfast and lunch. Unfortunately, the vast majority of individuals do not take their lunch to work, but instead go out and buy their lunch. They might go to the cafeteria in their building, the fast food place down the block, or even a sit-down restaurant. The point is that they don't know what they're going to have for lunch—and too often that means choosing their lunch by looking at a menu or through the counter glass, and choosing the first thing that looks good. Odds are that is unlikely to be the healthiest choice.
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The Research
These days many businesses are looking for ways to help their employees be healthier—and not just by offering discounts for gym memberships. Researchers at the Center for Urban Health Policy in the Einstein Healthcare Network, located in Pennsylvania, partnered with the health and wellness department of their network to find ways to help people make healthier choices at lunchtime.1
For the pilot study, staff and faculty at a large urban hospital in Philadelphia, who were accustomed to eating their lunch in the employee cafeteria, were monitored. The 26 participants were all overweight or obese, willing to eat at least 3 times per week in the hospital cafeteria, and agreed to allow researchers to collect data about their lunch purchases from the cafeteria.
Participants were asked to use an online ordering tool to select their meals at least 45 minutes before picking up their lunch in the cafeteria. Note: The online tool had a nutritional breakdown for each food item; this information was not available in the cafeteria.
After an initial 4 to 8 weeks of monitoring the participants’ usual purchases at the cafeteria, the researchers used the next 4 weeks as a full intervention period. They provided the participants with mindful eating training strategies, including tips to help avoid emotional eating and how to be more present and less distracted at lunchtime (ie, avoid television or other media while eating). They also received price discounts toward lunch purchases.
Finally, the last 4 weeks were considered a reduced intervention phase, where researchers encouraged participants to continue using the system without the price discount coupons.
The Results
At the conclusion of the study, the researchers compared the participants’ usual average caloric intake with the selections they made using the advance ordering tool.
The participants averaged 70 fewer calories when using the coupons in the full intervention period and 115 fewer calories without the coupons after meal planning became part of the routine. Overall, participants reduced their fat intake by as much as 5 grams of fat.
What’s the “Take Home”?
Simply making lunch choices in advance of mealtime led participants to choose foods with fewer calories and less fat than they would otherwise. Note: The participants were not given instruction in nutrition and that the mindfulness training has nothing to do with being mindful of caloric intake.
In this study, the participants lost about 1 pound each—not a significant amount, but that was not the intention. Advance planning can be very beneficial for those patients who are consciously trying to lose weight.
1. Stites SD, Singletary SB, Menasha A, et al. Pre-ordering lunch at work: results of the what to eat for lunch study. Appetite. 2014;84:88-97.