We eat to satisfy our hunger – this is common knowledge. However, certain foods are actually counterproductive to this natural process, because eating them makes you crave more, instead of making you feel full.
Junk foods and processed meals work this way; they are designed by manufacturers to stimulate your appetite into overdrive, while offering no nutritional benefits. The following four ingredients, often found in processed foods, make you feel hungrier for more:
High Fructose Corn Syrup
High fructose corn syrup interferes greatly with the body’s normal metabolism. Its chemical structure is engineered to make you keep eating more and more of it. It has been found that high fructose corn syrup slows down the secretion of leptin in your body, the hormone that signals to your brain that you are full and that you need to stop eating.
Refined Flour
According to Dr. Louis J. Aronne, refined carbohydrates cause ‘fullness resistance.’ They raise your blood sugar levels quickly, spiking your insulin levels and making them quickly plummet again, which brings your blood sugar back down, and makes you hungry again very quickly. This is why you may feel like eating again a very short time after a bowl of morning cereal, a bagel, or toast. Refined carbs also offer no nutrients, just filler.
Refined Sugar
White sugar works in a very similar way to white flour. It spikes your blood sugar and leads it to crash a very short time later, leading you to crave more sugar. We’ve all heard of ‘sugar highs’ and ‘sugar lows.’ The terms are apt; sugar is akin to an addictive drug. Once you start eating it, it is very difficult to stop.
MSG
In studies performed on mice and rats, MSG was found to triple the amount of insulin created by the pancreas, causing the animals to become obese without any additional food intake. Additionally, a body of research starting from 1969 has shown that MSG causes lesions in the hypothalamus of monkeys. The hypothalamus is the portion of the brain that, along with other functions, regulates weight control.
Studies of blood plasma have found that humans are 20 times more sensitive to MSG than monkeys, and children are 4 times more sensitive to MSG than adults. Plus, MSG is a highly addictive substance, and the more you eat, the greater your chances of obesity.
Research shows that hunger greatly affects one’s decision making process. In experiments performed on fruit flies at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, researchers found that hunger actually altered pathways in the brain. Another study, performed on humans, showed that the test subjects took much greater financial risks when they were hungry, as opposed to the control group, whose appetites were satiated.
So, to keep your mind clear, and your waistline in check, avoid foods that make you hungrier, and stick to whole, nutritious, organic foods that serve the true purpose of food: to provide energy and satisfy your appetite naturally.
-The Alternative Daily
Sources:
http://life.dailyburn.com/diet-and-nutrition/foods-that-make-you-hungry-vs-foods-that-make-you-full/
http://www.bistromd.com/health-tips/curb-your-appetite-by-avoiding-foods-that-make-you-hungrier
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/6-foods-that-make-you-hungrier.html
http://www.vitalearthminerals.com/msg-a-dangerous-excitotoxin/
