Protein may trigger a natural appetite suppressant
You've heard all the hype about protein vs. carbs, and how eating protein-rich foods (in moderation, of course) can actually help you lose weight. But no one ever really talks much about why that is.
You see, there's a hormone in your body known as PYY. When it's released in your guy, this hormone is known to reduce your hunger. And nothing sets off PPY like high protein foods, according to a recently released study out of London.
Now some researcheres are suggestion that training and focusing on the PYY hormone could be a big part of solving our world's obesity problem.
But there's a problem: We're now learning that an obese person has to eat two times as many calories as a normal weight person in order to trigger any signifigant amount of PYY-which seems like a bit of a catch-22. Afterall, if you're obese, you probably don't want to be upping your calorie intake like that.
The problem with most high protein fad diets, of course, is that people think, "Oh, I can eat all the protein foods that I want," and then proceed to eat a bunch of hamburgers or greasy (but protein-rich) foods. Which means people wind up taking in a bunch of saturated fats along with their protein. I actually remember one colleague of mine chowing down on fired bacon and Cheez Whizz! Wow!
In the London study, researchers decided to look at which foods best satisfy hunger. The group studied nine obese men and 10 normal-weight men. Each of the men was instructed to observe a brief fast. Then, each man was given different meals to eat. Each of these meals had the same calorie levels, but some were high-protein, some were high-fat, and some were high-carbohydrates.
All of them men said that the high-protein meal satisfied their hunger the most-and it also triggered the most PYY hormone out of any of the meals.
As an extra experiment, the researchers genetically engineered a mouse causing it not to have the PYY gene. Then, they fed huge amounts of food to these mice, who quickly became obese.
Then they fed the PYY-defective mice a high protein diet. And while normal mice eating high protein foods would have eaten less and lost weight, the PYY-free mice didn't lose at all-until they got PYY treatments.
For healthy source protein I recommend natural organic hormone-free, antibiotic free chicken, beef, lamb or fish. For a safe fish list please refer to the Monterey Aquariam's Seafood Watch list at www.mbay.org. By the way, lean beef has never been shown to have an adverse effect on cholseterol or health. Same goes for eggs, one of nature's nutritional powerhouses. Get the omega-3 eggs from hens fed with flax seed and you may even improve your cholesterol!
I'm not a big fan of a lot of soy, we're the first nation in history to start consuming such large amounts. And why should this be a surprise? Soy is a leading cash crop courtesy of large corporate factory farms, so a lot of what you read about soy is tainted by self-interest. Stick to soy a few times a week; favor fermented forms like miso and tempeh, which are absorbed better by your body than non-fermented forms, or the occasional tofu dish and soy milk in moderation. If you're vegetarian, don't forget eggs, otherwise make sure you're getting enough beans of all types every day!
