How to satisfy your appetite

You may have read last week's blog and thought, well that is all well and good but how do we actually manage it? Well, I did say I would be covering it in stages!!! If you are new to this blog then you really need to read the last couple of weeks for this one to make sense.

You need to focus on the foods that satisfy your appetite for longest time yet provide the least amount of calories. Scientists have discovered that certain foods keep you feeling fuller for longer but without the burden of execessive calories.

Satiety or the fullness feeling is a complicated issue and not one that I am going to try and explain here! Email me if you would like more information. Briefly, Dr Susanne Holt and associates carried out research at the University of Sydney to assess how filling foods were. These results were first published in the Eurpoean Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1995. She had a group of volunteers who were fed 'hidden' foods to minimise any emotional feelings and told the scientists what their hunger level was at that point. They were then taken to a buffet and allowed to eat whatever they wanted. This was of course all noted.

Each food was rated according to how much other food was eaten later. As they go with GI, white bread was used as the base marker. They ranked 38 different foods. with a score over 100 meaning satsifying and less than 100 meaning less satisfying. In general, the more filling a foodstuff was the greater 'nibbling' detterant it was!

The experiment showed that foods with a high fat content almost instantly produced cravings for more of the same kind of food, croissants being a classic example! They found the most filling food to be potatoes! Now, if you know me at all you will probably know what I am going to say next!! NOTHING is black and white in relation to nutrition so just bear with me!

As with all studies, there were results that were not particularly wanted! Bananas and muesli, considered to be healthy foods, actually proved to be no more filling than white bread!. Fatty foods such as chocolate and jelly beans were not as filling as first though, although this is actually a good thing!! Amazingly, jelly beans beat muesli and yoghurt and came out almost the same as white pasta in terms of a satiety index!!! See what I mean about confusing!!!

Lets cut out the blurb and just give you the information that you want to know, how to lose weight. Go for foods with a satiety index greater than 100, examples include eggs, wholemeal bread, potatoes, white fish and apples. If you need further info then feel free to email me.

It is all well and good knowing all this information but you actually have to choose the more filling foods. Recent research shows that whole grains can help you to lose weight. An Autralian study carried out in 2007 showed that people who ate a diet rich in whole grains were more likely to have a lower body weight and smaller wasit circumference than those who ate fewer whole grain foods.

Research shows that people tend to eat the same amoutn regardless of the foodstuff. So, go for food that will stretch the receptors in your stomach and quell your appetite. Fibre rich fruit ad vegetables, beans, fish and whole grains do a fantastic job of filling you and don't even think that they are bland!! There are some amazing recipes out there and I will be adding some of my own in future blogs and those of chefs who I love!!!

Fill up with fibre!
Fibre rich foods are generally bulky. They digest quite slowly and so keep you feeling fuller for longer. It expands in the gut and acts like a sponge. Fibre holds onto water as it passes through your body so this helps to explain why fruit and vegetables fill you up so quickly when compared to crisps and cheese! So, try to include lentils, beans pasta, porridge and all manner of fruit and veg!

A study of over 3000 adults in America showed that people eating the msot fibre gained the least amount of weight over a 10 year period.

Fruit will fill you far more than fruit juice. Eating lots of apples will keep you feeling full for a long time without taking in that many calories. They make your stomach feel full because they take up so much space! A glass of apple juice may provide you with the same calories or even less but would not fill you up. A glass of apple juice provides approximatly 120 calories, you would have to eat 2.5 apples for that amount of calories, starting to make sense???

If you are trying to change your diet then remember to do it gradually. Try changing one or maybe two SMALL things per week and stick with them until they become part of your lifestyle. So introduce fibre by adding a handful of beans or pulses to your stews, think about the amount of fat you use and try to use an alternative away from saturated fats!

High fat foods are twice as calorie dense when compared to protein and carbohydrate so they make you feel full but not for a while afterwards and normally you will already have overeaten by then! Think about it! We rely on the stretch receptors in our stomachs to tell us when we are full. It is easy to eat a lot of doughnuts because they are much less filling than bread and only one third as filling as oranges!

Protein rich foods are more filling than carbohydrate or fat. Protein slows the digestion process down and increases your feeling of fullness. It also helps to turn off the appetite signals, think of last weeks blog or go and have a re read!.

I go into this in more depth in the monthly newsletter, if you have not yet subsribed then just click on the link on the home page on the website and you will have the newsletter delivered to you. If you have any queries, feedback or opinion then please feel free to email me.

Have a fantastic week, enjoy the bank holiday and remember there are no classes at Upham on 02-05-09 due to wedding. Hope to see you soon!!