Appetite

How Long Before Your Appetite Switches Off?

When you are eating your food, you’ve probably heard this advice before, you should know that it’s always better to try to eat your food slowly and chew your food thoroughly.  Why is it though, that this sage dieting and weightloss advice has been given for decades now? Well, it’s not just so that you can savor every moment of your eating and enjoy the savory nuances that your delish cooking has to offer, although that is definitely a side benefit of chewing your food thoroughly and making it last.

The reason behind this advice in dieting and weight loss is that your brain actually switches the appetite switch to “off” after about ten minutes of eating.  This means that if you prolong your eating by chewing more thoroughly and consciously slowing down when swallowing, especially if you happen to be a naturally faster eater, you will eat less because your appetite will have switched to “off” and you will have consumed less food by that point and feel satisfied so that you don’t feel you have to shove more calorie laden food down your gullet to reach that point of satiation.

It’s literally been proven that the appetite signals shut off in tests that do a brain scan when people are eating. The centers that control the appetite go dormant after about ten minutes, signaling the stomach and the rest of the body that you’ve had plenty to eat and you should stop now. It’s your body’s own natural weight control mechanism, if you want to look at it that way.

You can also help your own natural appetite control by taking things like Hoodia diet aids which help to shut down this part of the appetite control center as well, and you can make sure that you are consuming water in between each bite to not only help expand the stomach so that it feels fuller, but also to help prolong the eating experience so that your appeitte can shut itself off. These have always been great ways to restrict calories in the diet, and you don’t even feel deprived which is the best part about it.

Sugar Substitutes Curb Hunger?

In a turn of information that I thought was the real truth, that artificial sweeteners are actually bad for your appetite and even worse for your sugar cravings, newer studies are suggesting – and I do mean merely suggesting – that artificial sweeteners may actually help to curb one’s appetite.  It was found the when carbonated water laced with artificial sweeteners, it was not said which one it was in particular, it looked like it made the stomach release a lot more of a certain chemical in the body which is closely related to the curbing of hunger and satiety.

Artificial sweeteners like aspartame have long been criticized for actually helping to increase cravings for sugar, and of course also they are criticized heavily for their suspected link to causing cancers of different sorts in the human body.  They have been shown many times to have links to cancer development in animals that have been tested, but supposedly this link has never been conclusively proven in the human body from their consumption.  So, what does this supposed new finding mean to the average diet soda drinker?

Well, it’s not exactly clear yet, since what I read indicated that the study suggested it was only a hunger suppressant when it was paired with carbohydrates. I don’t see how that’s possible if it’s just soda water and aspartame or splenda or something like that, because then there would not be any carbs to speak of in the drink.  Plus, I thought about when I drink diet soda.  I’m not sure if it really makes me feel fuller, but I can tell you that soda seems to make me feel fuller faster. I had always thought that was just because it was the carbonation and fizz though, and had nothing to do with the sugar substitute.

I still think that the reason it helps fill me up is the carbonation though, since it seems like I could eat something with artificial sweetener in it and be starving an hour later.  I guess we’ll see if there is anything to this study, but honestly, I wouldn’t increase my intake of sugar substitutes unless it’s something healthier like stevia, just for the sake of decreasing the appetite, there are far too many other potential health implications, and much better ways to suppress your hunger naturally to bother with this one!

Stress Levels and Eating

Your levels of stress and stress hormones, the most notable and widely known of these “stress hormones” or chemicals being one called cortisol, definitely play a role in your appetite, there’s no doubt about that. However, research on how it impacts the appetite of different individuals varies.

While one person, like myself, will resort to eating more of the wrong food choices as a sort of comfort to help ward stress off (oh how wrong I am though), I choose to stuff my face a lot more during the day, and because I’m so preoccupied about other things other than what I’m eating or how my health is, I am much more likely to make the most wrong food choices I can.

Case in point, I had Five Guys Burgers and Fries one day for lunch when I was uber stressed ot the max.  While I may go to the end of the spectrum where my caloric intake goes through the roof when I’m stressed out, some people are the polar opposite, and they lose their appetite, or they almost “forget” to eat.  I know people like this too. On of my good girlfriends is like this. You can tell when she’s mega stressed because she drops pant sizes in a matter of a weeks.  It just depends on your body and how you personally handle being under a lot of stress.

While stress and grief or heartbreak might rank closely on the emotions scale, however, I am completely opposite with my eating patterns with these two emotions.  When I am either grieving or I’m heartbroken (this hasn’t happened in a while, thanks to me being married to a great guy now), or maybe even heartbroken about a family member or friend who has really let me down, I tend to subconsciously starve myself.

I have experienced this a few times, and it’s very unusual for me, because my appetite is usually extremely healthy, in fact I almost always want to eat everything but the kitchen table most of the time.  However, when I’m grieving or have had a big disappointment, I tend to lose my appetite, big time.  You have to figure out what emotions lead you to eat and not eat, and try to harness them better and figure out why they do this to you to be able to master your eating habits.  I think if you can do this, you can more artfully manipulate your body and your health.

New Year, New Appetite?

With the new year, you know you are going to be seeing tons and tons of ads for diet pills and supplements.  Some of them which will help put a dent in the holiday weight you gained, some of which won’t do a darned thing for you. Well, realistically, no pill will “do it for you”, a large part of weight loss is up to you and what you choose to put in your mouth, however, a good appetite suppressant supplement will definitely kick your appetite into a lower gear, especially after it’s been heightened from all the holiday sugar and butter you’ve inevitably eaten!

You see, when we indulge in sweets and fats a lot, especially when it tends to be a month long trend as it is for many people around the holidays, your body develops a taste for the heavier foods like that, and it actually acts as a sort of drug in the body. You crave the foods that are bad for you, and you have to sort of “detox” to get those cravings out and help your body get back on track to not only shrinking your stomach so you eat less, but also to chemically craving the right foods.

The right foods taste somewhat bland and boring to a person who has been indulging their every wish with chocolate, salty snacks and fats, so it’s important to kick that first.  One way to do that is with a good all around appetite suppressing supplement that not only suppresses the appetite, but also facilitates cravings for foods that are not as flavorful and fatty, for natural sugars like fruits and veggies.

A good diet supplement that I really like is the hoodia plant-derived supplements.  Hoodia is the best, nonstimulant appetite suppressant I have ever used, and it helps me to regain my footing when it comes to shrinking that stomach and that appetite back down, and consequently shrinking my fat cells back down so I can fit into my jeans.

What works for you?  We’re open to suggestions if you’d like to post them here. Any natural tricks, tips or advice on reducing the appetite naturally are also greatly appreciated by all our readers (and me!)

Is DNA to Blame for Over Eating?

We all know that some of us naturally have smaller appetites than others.  I know my own for instance, tend to ebb and flow, especially depending on the day.  I think that my appetite has a lot to do with my hormones that day.  For instance, when I’m PMS’ing, about one week before my period, my appetite is so out of control that I feel like no amount of food will satisfy me, and I feel like I’m constantly stuffing my face, and it’s also really not the best stuff I’m stuffing it with.  But then, when my period actually comes and I’m on it (hormones drifting away), I feel like I could go hours without eating, or with eating very little, which is very unlike my normally voracious self.

Some people think that appetite has to do with your DNA. I happen to agree that this is part of your appetite, but a lot of it is also your upbringing, your particular eating habits and the foods you eat since the food you eat actually dictates your appetite in part iself, and also your moods (which is directly connected to your hormones).

All of it is interconnected. And now, there is evidence that there may be groups of people who are missing particular chunks of DNA which are a sort of appetite suppressant. In other words, these chunks of DNA are the switches which turn off our appetites when our bodies know that we’ve had enough to eat.

This is obviously an important function, and appetite is a huge function that is performed largely by the brain center called the hypothalamus.  The children who have been found to be lacking these particular chunks of DNA which we are talking about tend to get very obese early on in life because their appetite is literally always “on” and they have no off button. So they end up eating inordinate amounts of food all the time.

And although we all know that kids have naturally higher energy levels and also burn calories at a higher rate because their metabolisms are still naturally higher, these children don’t stand a fighting chance because they are consuming so many calories that their body could not possibly burn them off to keep them at a normal, healthy weight.  Also, obesity leads to sitting a lot, because larger people have a harder time performing activities since it’s harder on the body and heart, so you have a recipe for obesity disaster in these kids that are lacking this DNA.

The whole problem is that the elimination of this DNA creates a communication problem between the brain and the hormone leptin, which controls hunger and induces satiety so you stop eating. Without the particular chromosomes these kids are lacking, the brain cannot communicate with the leptin, and that is why these kids cannot shut off their appetites, and why they get obese.