Heavy vs. Light foods

As I promised, I've done some research on heavy and light foods.
This makes a huge difference in my menu choices, because it affects how the dinner guests feel after the meal is over.
I'm sure you've had that feeling of regret when you're just finished eating a big, greasy burger.
This is how I don't want to make my guests feel after they are finished with my meal.
I want them to feel satisfied, yet not regret a bit of what they ate.
In order to do this, I needed to do some research, to find out what kinds of foods will make my meal heavy, and light.
Since I am doing 3 courses in my meal, I will need to limit the amount of food in each course, so my guests aren't full after simply the first course.

So what is a heavy food?
A heavy food is a type of food that could be rich in carbs or starches such as a baked potato or lasagna
Heavy foods also typically have a high fat content, or contain thick sauces or heavy in sugar.

Heavy foods are usually extremely dense, which gives you that full feeling so quickly!
Okay so now you get what ingredients cause that feeling but... what happens in the stomach as a result of those foods, that make you feel full.

Well it's all about brain signals. Anybody could keep eating until their stomach literally bursts, but since we have special mechanisms to signal the brain, we are able to tell when we are full.

The stomach is able to expand, so when it's full, it takes up more room in your body than when its empty. Once stretched out, attached stretched nerves send signals up to the brain that the stomach is stretched out, and you should stop eating. When you've eaten enough, hormones travel from your gastrointestinal tract (including stomach, small and large intestines) to the brain. There are certain foods that expand and fill up the stomach more quickly, and these are the foods that I should stay away from in creating my meal, because i'm doing 3 courses total in the meal.

Gastrointestinal Tracct

Highly dense foods fill up the stomach more quickly. Why is this?
Well, the stomach starches from glycogen. Starchy foods such as potatoes, breads, and pastas contain lots of starch. The starches as stored and used as energy, and are made up of two kinds of sugar molecules called amylopectin, and amylose.
Amylose are chemical chains of glucose, and high-amylose foods (listed above), are also generally low-glycemic. This means that they take more time to digest in the body, making you feel more full after eating them.


Well,
Let me give you an example... chocolate.

Chocolate, although delectable, is very highly dense, so amounts in my meal will need to be limited. I would only use chocolate in my dessert, but I need to keep in mind that my dinner guests will have just had 2 other courses of food in their stomach.
Since chocolate is so filling, I will need to have other components of the dessert to be lighter, to balance out the meal. This means I should not add too much sugar, fattening elements, or fatty cremes so as not to make the dessert too 'heavy'.

For my main course,
Major ingredient options would be cheeses, and breads.
I especially want to avoid this in the main course of my meal, because it is right in between my two courses. My guest will still be (potentially) hungry from the light appetizer, but the main course cannot be too heavy, or the person will not have room in their stomach for dessert.

I need to structure my main course off of avoiding these highly dense foods.
Likewise, I need to structure my dessert ideas based off of avoiding the dense, or highly rich foods.

You can probably easily guess the light foods.
Remember, those are the ones that you're not usually fully satisfied after?

These are foods like various vegetables like carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, peppers etc.
These foods are not as filling as the starch-filled heavy foods, but they are equally important in any meal. They give that vital sense of balance, so my dinner guest is not filled up immediately following the appetizer.

For a main course, a light, yet filling ingredient would be some sort of light meat incorporated into the dish. This could range from a fish, to chicken. I could incorporate this into my dish, to add that sense of balance to the dish.

For an appetizer, a soup or salad would be entirely appropriate, and is used at most if not all restaraunts, simply due to the light, satisfying elements.

I must keep that in mind when shortly, I must decide my final dishes for the 3 course meal!

The heavy and light foods have various elements of nutrition, that I must keep in mind when choosing my final dishes, bearing in mind the possible accomidations a dinner guest may need with the final menu (i.e. lactose free, nut allergies, etc.)

Next blog, I will be procuring various nutrition elements I will add to my menu.

Ciao!

Kate xx