Whether you are on a weight loss mission or you are fasting and want to resist the urge to eat by suppressing your appetite for food, you should know that there are some foods that you can add to your diet in order to achieve this. Some of these foods are foods that we see and eat often for their taste but they have other functions we may have not noticed; others, many people don’t like to eat because of their taste.
The objective of fasting (not for religious reasons) and weight-loss plan is to make you eat less and burn more calories than you consume, therefore, you cannot afford to eat large quantities of foods.
So what now happens when you get hungry?
When your body needs food, it produces a hormone called ghrelin that causes hunger — it signal hunger to the brain when it gets secreted. You start having some elevated level of appetite — this you can suppress by eating some of the foods listed in this article.
Foods That Help To Curb Hunger & Appetite for Foods
When you add these foods to what you eat in the right manner, you won’t get hungry like you usually would.
1. One piece of Apple can do the magic
Of course you know the saying that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. This is very true and one of the ways it is true is that eating an apple before or after a meal helps keep you full faster and for a longer period.
It has been reported that the pectin in a piece of apple can keep you full for 1-2 hours. So, why don’t you just eat apple before and after your food. It tastes great and even contributes to whitening of teeth amongst other benefits.
2. High-Water, High-Fiber Foods help curb hunger
These type of foods that are high in water and fibers give us the feeling of being full and prevent us from eating too much. Example of such foods is the vegetable family — they fill the stomach, and helps digestion. These foods, even when you eat large volumes of them, are usually low in caloric density. Therefore, they help you shed weight without feeling like you’re on a restrictive diet.
Often when we want to lose weight, what we do is to eat less foods. But what if you could cut calories, yet still eat plenty of food, and not be feel hungry? This is the dream of any dieter and these type of foods should be incorporated into your diet.
These vegetables, for example Lentils, Lima beans, Spinach, etc., will help you through your diet plan and not make you give up when it matters most. You are often full, less hungry and cutting on your calorie intake. These high fibre foods also help prevent constipation and relieve it in case we have it.
Barbara Rolls, PhD, and some of her colleagues at Pennsylvania State University have done extensive research on the “volumetric” theory of eating more low-calorie, high-volume foods.
They have this to report; ”We have found in numerous studies that when you allow people to eat as much as they want of foods that are high in volume yet low in density (calories), they eat less at the meal or during the day.”
3. Lean Protein Helps To Reduce Hunger Too
If you are wondering about what lean protein is, here is a quick description; many proteins are high in saturated fats that contribute to cardiovascular disease, so it is better to consume lean proteins. These lean proteins are described as a 1-ounce serving that has 2 to 3 grams of fat.
There is evidence of the ability of lean protein from foods such as lean meat, fish, poultry (chicken, turkey, for example), soybeans, and eggs, to help with fullness and weight loss. The white meat from chicken and turkey are especially good sources of lean protein. Fish provides lean protein together with omega-3 fatty acids that lower cholesterol and inhibit inflammation.
Wayne Campbell, PhD, a professor of Nutrition at Purdue University said “You are most likely to feel fuller after eating protein than other nutrients, including fiber, and one of the theories behind why higher-protein diets work well with weight loss is because it helps you not feel hungry.”
It may also interest you to know that even though you can add lean protein at any meal you want to take, research has shown that adding it to your breakfast may be better than other meals in the day. A research that was conducted on this theory revealed that when people eat foods like eggs that rich in protein for breakfast, they tend to eat less during the day compared o when they eat foods that are rich in carbohydrates.
With this knowledge in your head, you can actually start your weight loss diet by including these foods in your meal. If you are going to fast for religious or health reasons (fasting has a lot of health benefits), you can also ad these foods to those that you eat in the morning as they make you full without adding calories to your body. It is not surprising that breakfast is regarded as the most important meal of the day.
