How to Turn Off Your Hunger Button

Over the years different research results have found it is the brain not the stomach that commands weight management. Researchers have found that the brain uses a massaging system that determines when we eat, what we eat, and when we are not hungry. So to keep your weight in check, you have to get control over your brain. Following are some ways to trick your brain into telling you are full.

One way to reduce hunger and trigger the full feeling is to drink more liquid 15 minutes before meals, particularly fiber with water, or fat free milk. Fiber and a liquid together can reduce caloric intake. Liquid by itself can give the full feeling. Liquid digests faster then solids. Once it leaves the stomach the hungry feeling would hit again. With a mixture of liquid and fiber, which digests slower, it would be left behind in the stomach to maintain its full feeling.

Having water and fiber is fine, but it is not nutritious. Instead use a mixture of fiber and vegetables juice, or fiber, milk, and a fortified protein powder. Also drink a soup broth with vegetables. The basic purpose is to reduce the hunger, but at the same time you want to give your body nutrition so you will not grow weak.

It can help to get a good nights sleep. According to research done by the Max Plank Institute of Psychiatry, people who get less than six hours of sleep per night have increased amounts of the hormone ghrelin when they awaken the following day. Ghrelin is sent from the stomach to the brain, telling the brain it needs food when it really does not need it. The brain then tells the body it needs to eat. Then you go to eat when you really do not need to. To cure this, seven hours or more of sleep is needed to reduce the amount of ghrelin produced in the stomach.

Increase your polyphenols. There are two kinds of polyphenols, anthocyanin's and stilbenes. In a study published in American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology & Metabolism it states that polyphenols have been shown to turn off the hunger switch. They all help cells burn energy. Polyphenols are found in red grapes, blueberries, cranberries, and red wine. It is also in green and red tea.

Avoid processed and Junk Food. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and palmitic acid ( the main fats in beef all mixed together) are two ingredients used in processed foods, snack foods, and junk food. According to a study in American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology & Metabolism, palmitic acid and HFCS keep the hormones leptin and insulin from getting to the brain. When leptin and insulin are blocked from the brain, the brain tells you to keep eating. So instead of eating a few chips, one cookie, or one slice of pizza, you eat half the bag of chips, half a dozen of cookies, or a whole pizza. The study also contributes palmitic acid, and HFCS as root causes of obesity and type 2 diabetes. When a group of over weight people were being evaluated, it was learned that the majority of the food they ate was processed foods that contained HFCS and palmitic acid. So when shopping, always check the products for those two bad ingredients. To be safe, avoid process and junk food all together. Choose whole, fresh, unadulterated foods.

Increase your proteins. Proteins contain two elements that also send messages to the brain to turn off the desire for food. They are called tyrosinel, an amino acid, and 5-HTS. They speed up the massages to the brain to turn off the food desire. They end the cravings faster which results in fewer calories being consumed. To get more 5-HTS and tyrosine, a person should cut their carb intake and increase their protein. However, do not increase your proteins by consuming more meat. On the contrary reduce your meat intake because it contains saturated fatty acids.

Just going on diets and doing a lot of exercise is not enough to loss weight. The focus for weight loss has to begin with the brain.
References

Food Intake Growth & Tissue Amino Acids In Rats Fed Amino Acid Analogues. The Journal Of Nutrition, by Jean K. Fews & Alfred E. Harper. October 20, 2011, p. 1180 -1195

Sleep Enhances Nocturnal Plasma Ghrelin Levels In Healthy Subjects, Max Plank Institute of Psychiatry, by Andrea Dzaja, Mira A Dala, Hubertus Himmerich; November 18, 2003

Eating & Sleeping - Their Relationship To Ghrelin & Leptin, American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology & Metabolism; November 1, 2004 287:5

Human Obesity Is Characterized by Defective Fat Storage, American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology & Metabolism; by Maro Bucci, Ronald Borra, July 1, 2011

Na - Dependent Transport of Large Neurtral Amino Acids Occurs At the Abluminal Mambrane of the Blood - Brain Barrier, American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology & Metabolism; by Robyn L. O'Kane & Richard A Hawkins; December 1, 2003