Very hungry? How to reduce the appetite hormone

Somewhere in the brain is hidden neural circuitry that controls appetite. The appetite can feel like something stronger than one’s own will. It can lead us to an unbalanced diet or make us feel an irresistible attraction to foods that we know should not be consumed in excess. However, there are natural ways to regulate the ghrelin, heThe hormone involved in the sensation of appetite is ghrelin.

10 Natural Strategies to Reduce Appetite

When the appetite feels exaggerated and there is a progressive or accelerated increase in weight it may be convenient to take some practical and everyday measures that help regulate it

1. Eat slowly

The nerve signal that sends the message to the brain that the stomach and intestines are full travels slowly and arrives late. It is advisable to chew well and entertain yourself eating without haste. This encourages nerve stimuli and chemicals that suppress appetite to do their job.

2. Limit variety

The diversity of recipes that make up the daily menus and the amount of food on the table should only be enough for the diet to be balanced. We must especially limit the presence of highly palatable foods (such as those rich in fat) and those concentrated in calories (sweets, soft drinks…).

3. Respect the schedules

It is just as negative to eat too few meals a day as too many. Eating only at scheduled times and limiting snacking greatly helps to regulate the desire to eat. It is recommended to take between three and five daily doses.

4. Exercise

It is not true that it only serves to whet the appetite: it is actually more manageable after a session of activity. On the other hand, the anxiety produced by a sedentary lifestyle is more intractable and a greater cause of overweight than appetite related to energy needs.

5. Eat foods rich in fiber

Vegetables and fruits fill you up because their fiber fills the stomach and intestines. A balanced intake of soluble fibers (legumes, apples, aubergines, sweet potatoes, plums…) and insolubles (whole wheat and rice, nuts…) is recommended.

6. Resort to satiating plants

The garcinia cambogia, indicated for weight control, helps reduce cholesterol and burn fat. The Cactus Hoodia gordonii it has helped the African population to endure famines due to droughts.

7. Sleep well

Sleeping a few hours or interrupting dreams increases the production of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and decreases that of leptin, one of the chemical messengers of satiety. It is proven that among overweight people sleep disturbances abound.

8. Control the glycemic load of food

Some scientists investigate other ways of influencing appetite and its consequences. One of them is control glycemic load of food, that is, its ability to rapidly raise blood sugar levels.

The faster the rise, the more intense the feeling of satietybut then a descent no way accompanied by a ravenous hunger. Consequently, people who eat foods with a high glycemic load (sweets, white bread, potatoes… ) tend to snack abundantly before the next meal.

The solution is that foods with a low load dominatesuch as legumes, vegetables and whole grains.

9. Lose weight to control hunger

Other theoretically simple strategy but which has proven difficult in practice is reduce weight. That is, instead of starving to lose weight, it is about lose weight so as not to starve.

Barbara RollsProfessor of Nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, proposes the volumetric diet. The idea is very simple: consume only foods that are high in volume and low in calories.

The goal is to fill the stomach and provoke the reaction of the digestive nervous network before an excessive amount of calories has been ingested. The Barbara Rolls diet does not make you go hungry, because eat until you are satisfied.

Therefore, from their point of view, it is a mistake to recommend small portions that ghrelin levels increasethat is, from hunger.

The problem is not the large portions but the excess calories. A large salad satisfies and provides fewer calories than a cookie that leaves you feeling empty and hungry.

There are feelings of appetite and satiety for each of the four basic tastes. You have to satisfy them without the diet becoming unbalanced.

But the most interesting thing about the Barbara Rolls diet is that recommends eating as much variety as possible of foods, flavors and textures, because we need to satisfy our needs for each of them.

there is a “specific sensory satiety”according to Rolls: from a generous meal dominated by the taste of salt, we still want dessert to get our necessary dose of sweet.

Not taking it into account, for example, in a diet that recommends abstinence sweet or carbohydrates, causes a great appetite precisely for forbidden foods and flavors.

10. Pay attention to hunger traps

However, the satisfaction of the senses should not be an alibi to rush into certain traps.

A person can make up the pleasure you don’t get in other aspects of your life –the affections or professional achievement, for example– with an extra dose of gastric pleasure. stress or boredom they also trigger the appetite.

And in today’s society, food producers excite the hunger of consumers. Brian Wansink, an expert in eating psychology, has studied how the food industry whets our appetite:

The containersplates, glasses, cups or large spoons They get us to consume between 20 and 30% more.This art of wheting the appetite even takes into account the shape of the glasses: we drink more in a wide one than in a narrow one.Offering a variety of shapes and colors. It is known that you eat with your eyes. before a good and attractive assortment we are capable of ingesting twice as much as if we were placed before only one or two foods. lightningthe Ambiental music or the company are other factors that condition food decisions. Every day we have to make countless decisions of this type and most respond to unconscious reasons.What appears on the label It is designed to whet the appetite. The images, the name, the supposed properties in relation to health or the use of words like succulent or delicious can make the mouth water and consume a product that was not really needed.

Books on appetite regulation

The volumetric diet; Martin Junz. Hispanic European Ed.The new glycemic diet; Patrick Holford. Ed.RobinbookThe Shangri-La Diet; Seth Roberts Ed. Urano