Technology use may be associated with a lower risk for dementia, study finds
If you have ever followed a calorie-restricting diet, you've probably been enticed by products in the supermarket that promise to "keep you fuller for longer." Of course, we'd all like to believe that there are certain things we can eat to stave off appetite. However, when you consider that this could just be a marketing ploy like any other, it's easy to cast shade over such claims.
Intrigued? Check out this gallery to find out whether certain foods really can suppress appetite.
For people who struggle with obesity or being overweight, keeping food consumption to an acceptable level can be a daily struggle.
One of the ways that people seek to keep their calorie count under control is to opt for foods that claim to "keep you fuller for longer."
This is a claim that we see often in the supermarket, branded across products ranging from cereals to green tea.
If you have ever looked at one of these slogans and thought, "That sounds too good to be true," unfortunately, you are probably right.
While we might like to believe that there are certain ingredients with appetite-suppressing properties, there is very little evidence to suggest this is actually the case.
Take chili, for example. There has been research in the past that showed consuming chili peppers may make us feel less hungry afterwards.
However, the studies that came to this conclusion tended to use large quantities of food and tested their effects on animals, rather than humans.
Indeed, when the appetite-suppressing properties of chili peppers were tested using quantities that more closely resemble normal human consumption, the results were very different.
The experiment, conducted at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, showed that consuming chili has no long-lasting effect on appetite at all.
Another example is coffee. You have probably heard rumors that drinking coffee is a good way to stave off hunger.
Again, however, there are no studies that show how drinking coffee might suppress our appetite physiologically.
You might be thinking, "But what about macronutrients? Surely fiber does actually keep me feeling fuller for longer?"
There has been a lot of research looking at whether certain macronutrients are better at keeping us feeling full. At the moment, however, there is no clear answer.
Eating more protein, for example, has been found to help decrease appetite, but this finding was only made in a very small trial.
According to the experts, the best way to stave off hunger is to make sure you are drinking enough water.
According to Martin Kohlmeier, professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, drinking enough water briefly pauses appetite.
Indeed, research shows that people who drink two glasses of water before eating tend to end up eating less than those who don’t.
Even then, the appetite changes on a physiological level will be small and short lived. It doesn’t make sense from an evolutionary perspective that food would suppress appetite.
As experts are quick to point out, it’s only in recent years that we’ve had excess food in Western society.
Throughout our evolution as a species, food has generally been scarce. Our physiology is therefore designed to drive us to eat.
It therefore makes sense that if there were a food component that suppresses appetite, we would have to completely avoid it.
So you might be wondering whether it is ever possible to suppress your appetite. There is in fact one tip that is perhaps not surprising: eat a balanced diet.
Studies show there are certain nutrients that will drive appetite if our body is deficient in them.
To manage appetite, then, we should make sure to eat a balanced diet so our bodies do not try to compensate for deficiencies.
It may also be possible to suppress appetite psychologically. Indeed, research shows that food has the biggest impact on appetite when we expect that it will make us full.
In practice, this means that we eat less after what we perceive as a big meal, as compared to what we eat after what we see as a small one.
There was one study that found labeling a meal as "filling" influences us to eat less than a meal labeled as "light."
It seems, therefore, that we cannot fight our body’s physiological processes. All we can do is eat a balanced diet in a bid not to stoke up any unnecessary appetite.
Sources: (BBC)
See also: Foods that shouldn't be kept for too long in your pantry
Can certain foods really suppress appetite?
Get to know these mind tricks!
HEALTH Diet
If you have ever followed a calorie-restricting diet, you've probably been enticed by products in the supermarket that promise to "keep you fuller for longer." Of course, we'd all like to believe that there are certain things we can eat to stave off appetite. However, when you consider that this could just be a marketing ploy like any other, it's easy to cast shade over such claims.
Intrigued? Check out this gallery to find out whether certain foods really can suppress appetite.