Why should I eat in this order?

[BenFTW]

On the MWL program Dr. McDougall says to eat a cold salad first, then a vegetable thats heated up, and then the starch. Does it help with nutrient absorption or something?

In my head i picture the greens being at the bottom and the starches on top in my stomache and so the nutrients of the veggies go to your system faster and better. It might just be silly of me to think that but again, what is the reasoning behind eating in this order?

[Melinda]

The reason he suggests eating in that order is a person on MWL is understood to be wanting to lose weight easily. For people who have more difficulty losing weight, filling up on salad and veggies first leaves less room in the stomach for more calorie dense grains.

[SactoBob]

Ben,
I believe that this is because one of the main goals of the MWL plan is obviously to lose weight quickly. If you are not familiar with Jeff Novick's concepts of calorie density, you might want to check his posts or even buy his DVD.

In the scheme of things, the starch is higher in calories density than the greens and vegetables. The more you start out with the lower calorie density foods, the better off you will be. You could look at some of Jeff's posts where he describes experiments where people are allowed to eat ad lib. When they start out the meal with low calorie density foods, they consume fewer calories overall.

[BenFTW]

Ben,
I believe that this is because one of the main goals of the MWL plan is obviously to lose weight quickly. If you are not familiar with Jeff Novick's concepts of calorie density, you might want to check his posts or even buy his DVD.

In the scheme of things, the starch is higher in calories density than the greens and vegetables. The more you start out with the lower calorie density foods, the better off you will be. You could look at some of Jeff's posts where he describes experiments where people are allowed to eat ad lib. When they start out the meal with low calorie density foods, they consume fewer calories overall.

Oh... thank you. I watched the vids of Jeff Novick before but didnt correlate it with the order of eating. Gotcha! Thank you. Guess its always good to go back and review.

[BenFTW]

The reason he suggests eating in that order is a person on MWL is understood to be wanting to lose weight easily. For people who have more difficulty losing weight, filling up on salad and veggies first leaves less room in the stomach for more calorie dense grains.

Thank you.

[HealthyMe2010]

It can also be looked at from the perspective of ease of digestion.

Salads digest quickly compared with other vegetables and starches - starch being the slowest to digest. Just my guess