Breakfast and the Hunger Hormone
One piece of advice that all dieters receive is simply this: don’t skip breakfast. The idea is that skipping breakfast will make you crave junk food, and bypass eating the healthy stuff.
Well, new research presented at the Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego explains why this may be the case. And it has everything to do with the activation of ghrelin, the “hunger hormone.”
Before we get to the newest study, let’s learn a little more about this “hunger hormone.”
Ghrelin is a hormone located in the stomach that sends hunger signals to the brain. When ghrelin levels are too high, the brain wants food – even if we are full. And when ghrelin levels are high, the food we crave is high in calories – especially foods that are loaded with fat.
Here is where it gets interesting: ghrelin helps you feel good. In fact it helps you feel REALLY GOOD by activating some of the same regions of brain that are also activated by cocaine! So let’s just say it is highly motivational.
Ghrelin and high calorie cravings
In a study on micei, Dr. Jeffrey Zigman and his team found that mice injected with ghrelin chose to be in a room previously anchored with a high calorie treat versus a room anchored with a low calorie treat. The mice not injected with ghrelin had no preference for either room.
For clarity, the mice with elevated levels of ghrelin just “felt better,” in the high calorie room, “The mice’s behavior had nothing to do with eating,” Zigman said. “Their behavior was linked to obtaining the more pleasurable thing.”
In a second test, Zigman tested how long mice would continue to poke their noses into a hole in order to receive a pellet of high-fat food. The non-ghrelin group gave up far faster than the mice injected with ghrelin.
A new way to increase ghrelin levels and your cravings for fatty foods…
Skip breakfast. In the studyii referred to earlier in this article, researchers recruited healthy (not obese) adults to test this theory.
Here were the conditions:
1. Subjects came into the lab on three separate mornings.
2. Each time, subjects would be asked to view pictures of either high calorie foods (chocolate, cake and pizza) or low calorie foods (salads, vegetables and fish).
3. Then, using a keypad, the subjects rated how appealing they found each food picture.
4. There were, however, three different conditions:
o Condition one: subjects came into the lab 90 minutes after eating breakfast and were injected with a saltwater solution 40 minutes before viewing the pictures.
o Condition two: subjects came to the lab 90 minutes after eating breakfast and were injected with ghrelin 40 minutes before viewing the pictures.
o Condition three: subjects came to the lab after skipping breakfast and were injected with the saltwater solution 40 minutes before viewing the pictures.
When injected, neither the researchers nor the subjects were aware of whether they were injected with salt water or ghrelin.
The results: Skipping breakfast is just like injecting ghrelin
The group that skipped breakfast (c) AND the group that ate breakfast and had the ghrelin injection (b) both preferred the high calorie foods.
The group that ate breakfast AND had the salt water injection (a) preferred the low calorie foods.
So don’t skip breakfast if weight loss is your goal!!
The best breakfast for reducing ghrelin (and your cravings)…
In a study, iiipublished in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers determined that protein is the best way to lower post meal ghrelin levels.
The ingestion of fats had little to no effect on post meal ghrelin levels, meaning that eating fat for breakfast is not going to help you make better decisions later in the day.
The ingestion of carbohydrates had an initial ghrelin lowering effect. But in a short period of time after eating carbohydrates, the ghrelin levels not only rebounded, but after only two hours, they rose to an even higher level than before. So eating lots of carbohydrates might also be counterproductive.
So, if you want to control your cravings for high calorie, fatty foods throughout the day, it might be wise to include a lot of protein along with a limited amount of carbohydrates and fats. I am not sure of the types of carbohydrates and fats used in the study, so it might be that carbohydrates high in fiber have a different effect – I just don’t know.
And you definitely require a certain amount of good fat in your diet, so please don’t overdo this.
A ghrelin pill?
Don’t expect ghrelin to show up in your local health food hotspot any time soon. Other studies indicate that artificially reducing ghrelin is also associated with a rise in feelings of depression. Would losing weight be worth risking depression? Sadly, when people were surveyed on this question back in 2008, the majority of people said it would be worth the risk.
So would you take a pill that would help you lose weight even if you knew it would probably make you feel bad?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Think Twice Before Going Under the Knife to Lose Weight
Weight loss surgery, which includes gastric banding and the more invasive gastric bypass, may seem like a quick fix, but it is NOT a safe solution because of the many negative long-term health consequences inherent with either of these surgical options.
Over 40 percent of weight loss surgeries result in major complications within six months, including black-outs, malnutrition, infection, kidney stones, bowel and gallbladder problems, liver failure, and, worst, an increased risk of death.
In case you skimmed the last paragraph let me state that again in different words.
Nearly HALF of those having the surgery have MAJOR complications.
In fact, whereas all surgeries have inherent risks, bariatric surgeries seem to have a much higher ratio of complications. In fact, you are far more likely to suffer an adverse event from these types of surgeries than not.
According to LapBand.com, one American clinical study that included a 3-year follow-up reported that a staggering 88 percent of gastric banding patients experienced one or more adverse events, ranging from mild to severe.
Gastric banding consists of surgically inserting a band around the top section of your stomach, and cinching it into a small pouch. Common complications from gastric banding included:
• Gastroesophageal reflux, 34 percent
• Band slippage and/or pouch dilation, 24 percent, (which means you'll need another surgery)
• Stomach obstruction, 14 percent
• Esophageal dilation and reduced esophageal function, 11 percent
• Difficulty swallowing, 9 percent
• Leaking or twisted access port into the stomach, 9 percent
• Band eroding into the stomach, 1.3 percent, which requires band removal
The complications are often so debilitating that patients opt to have the bands removed completely. In the study noted above, 25 percent of the patients ended up getting the lap band permanently removed, two-thirds of them due the adverse events suffered.
This is another important point that you need to understand before the surgery. ONE IN FOUR of the patients who had the surgery had the bands removed.
Whereas gastric banding is at least reversible, gastric bypass is not. In this procedure, a section of your small intestine is typically removed entirely, and your stomach is reconnected further down your intestine, bypassing the duodenum.
Your duodenum -- that first section of your small intestine -- is responsible for the majority of nutrient absorption. Hence malnutrition is a common concern after this type of surgery.
So with half of the patients having major complications, and one-fourth of the people actually having the band removed, logic would dictate that this is simply not an acceptable alternative to obesity. Especially since it in no way, shape or form even begins to address the underlying cause of the problem.
My guess is that sometime in the future this medical procedure will be prohibited from ever being done and any physician who performs it will have his license reprimanded or revoked.
Bariatric Surgery Condemns You to a Lifetime of “Food Jail”
Even if you were to be one of the fortunate few who makes it through bariatric surgery without significant side effects, you are not home-free from there.
Remember, the surgery has significantly modified portions of your digestive system in ways that nature never intended. As a result, you can kiss your old ways of eating goodbye.
Now, I am all for making changes toward a healthier diet, but some of the guidelines expected after bariatric surgery such as gastric bypass are incredibly restrictive.
According to the Barrington Bariatric Center, not only will you need to exist on a diet of solely pureed food for at least two weeks, but even in “Stage 2” of your transitional post-surgery diet you may only be able to eat 2 ounces of ground chicken breast before feeling full.
A Completely Unnatural, and Unhealthy, Way of Eating
Because gastric bypass involves stapling your stomach into a pouch that’s only a half-ounce in size, it literally cannot hold much. This means you’ll often be eating meals that are sorely lacking in nutritional requirements.
A small opening is also created to allow food to empty slowly from the pouch. Because the opening is so small (made this way deliberately to keep the small amount of food you’ve eaten in your stomach longer, making you feel “full”), food must be chewed very thoroughly or it won’t be able to fit through the opening, leading to vomiting.
You’ll also be instructed to eat the protein portion of your meal first, because you very well may get too full to fit in a vegetable or anything else. Even liquids must be restricted for up to 45 minutes before and after a meal, lest they take up what little space you have to consume actual food.
And, as you might suspect, because bariatric surgery patients can consume very little roughage, constipation is often a problem. It is even described as “normal” to have a bowel movement only once every two or three days!
Hair loss and muscle loss are also common after the surgery -- both signs that your body is not receiving proper nutrition. If this, plus constipation and vomiting are not enough to make you think twice, you should also know that certain foods, including tomato sauces, mayonnaise, fruit juice, dressings and others, will lead to “dumping syndrome,” aka cramps, nausea and diarrhea.
By the way, snacking is expressly forbidden after gastric bypass, you’re only allowed three small meals a day, and you may have to write off certain foods entirely because your body just can’t digest them anymore. This includes:
• Red meats
• Membranes of oranges or grapefruit
• Skins of fruits and vegetables
• Fibrous vegetables such as celery and sweet potatoes
• Chili and other spicy foods
If these “guidelines” sound a bit restrictive, it’s because they absolutely are. The procedure severely limits the amount of food you can consume, and the rapid weight loss that follows is essentially the natural effect of forced starvation. You cannot eat more than a tiny amount because it will make you physically sick.
Weight Loss Surgery Still Depends on YOU Modifying Your Behaviors
In the short-term, weight loss surgeries do produce significantly greater weight loss compared to lifestyle modification alone. But unless you address the emotional aspects of your eating, you could very easily stretch your stomach to again be able to accommodate increasing amounts of food, effectively negating the entire surgery.
There will also be changes asked of you both before and after weight loss surgery. Many centers will require that you exercise after the surgery, and prior to the surgery that you stop smoking, drinking soda and eating fast food. Many will also require you to lose weight prior to the surgery!
If you can lose weight for that, you can continue on and reach a healthy goal weight without any type of medical intervention whatsoever. Since success depends on your ability to modify your behavior anyway, why not simply modify your behavior without going through the surgical procedure and taking all those health risks?!
Weight loss surgery, which includes gastric banding and the more invasive gastric bypass, may seem like a quick fix, but it is NOT a safe solution because of the many negative long-term health consequences inherent with either of these surgical options.
Over 40 percent of weight loss surgeries result in major complications within six months, including black-outs, malnutrition, infection, kidney stones, bowel and gallbladder problems, liver failure, and, worst, an increased risk of death.
In case you skimmed the last paragraph let me state that again in different words.
Nearly HALF of those having the surgery have MAJOR complications.
In fact, whereas all surgeries have inherent risks, bariatric surgeries seem to have a much higher ratio of complications. In fact, you are far more likely to suffer an adverse event from these types of surgeries than not.
According to LapBand.com, one American clinical study that included a 3-year follow-up reported that a staggering 88 percent of gastric banding patients experienced one or more adverse events, ranging from mild to severe.
Gastric banding consists of surgically inserting a band around the top section of your stomach, and cinching it into a small pouch. Common complications from gastric banding included:
• Gastroesophageal reflux, 34 percent
• Band slippage and/or pouch dilation, 24 percent, (which means you'll need another surgery)
• Stomach obstruction, 14 percent
• Esophageal dilation and reduced esophageal function, 11 percent
• Difficulty swallowing, 9 percent
• Leaking or twisted access port into the stomach, 9 percent
• Band eroding into the stomach, 1.3 percent, which requires band removal
The complications are often so debilitating that patients opt to have the bands removed completely. In the study noted above, 25 percent of the patients ended up getting the lap band permanently removed, two-thirds of them due the adverse events suffered.
This is another important point that you need to understand before the surgery. ONE IN FOUR of the patients who had the surgery had the bands removed.
Whereas gastric banding is at least reversible, gastric bypass is not. In this procedure, a section of your small intestine is typically removed entirely, and your stomach is reconnected further down your intestine, bypassing the duodenum.
Your duodenum -- that first section of your small intestine -- is responsible for the majority of nutrient absorption. Hence malnutrition is a common concern after this type of surgery.
So with half of the patients having major complications, and one-fourth of the people actually having the band removed, logic would dictate that this is simply not an acceptable alternative to obesity. Especially since it in no way, shape or form even begins to address the underlying cause of the problem.
My guess is that sometime in the future this medical procedure will be prohibited from ever being done and any physician who performs it will have his license reprimanded or revoked.
Bariatric Surgery Condemns You to a Lifetime of “Food Jail”
Even if you were to be one of the fortunate few who makes it through bariatric surgery without significant side effects, you are not home-free from there.
Remember, the surgery has significantly modified portions of your digestive system in ways that nature never intended. As a result, you can kiss your old ways of eating goodbye.
Now, I am all for making changes toward a healthier diet, but some of the guidelines expected after bariatric surgery such as gastric bypass are incredibly restrictive.
According to the Barrington Bariatric Center, not only will you need to exist on a diet of solely pureed food for at least two weeks, but even in “Stage 2” of your transitional post-surgery diet you may only be able to eat 2 ounces of ground chicken breast before feeling full.
A Completely Unnatural, and Unhealthy, Way of Eating
Because gastric bypass involves stapling your stomach into a pouch that’s only a half-ounce in size, it literally cannot hold much. This means you’ll often be eating meals that are sorely lacking in nutritional requirements.
A small opening is also created to allow food to empty slowly from the pouch. Because the opening is so small (made this way deliberately to keep the small amount of food you’ve eaten in your stomach longer, making you feel “full”), food must be chewed very thoroughly or it won’t be able to fit through the opening, leading to vomiting.
You’ll also be instructed to eat the protein portion of your meal first, because you very well may get too full to fit in a vegetable or anything else. Even liquids must be restricted for up to 45 minutes before and after a meal, lest they take up what little space you have to consume actual food.
And, as you might suspect, because bariatric surgery patients can consume very little roughage, constipation is often a problem. It is even described as “normal” to have a bowel movement only once every two or three days!
Hair loss and muscle loss are also common after the surgery -- both signs that your body is not receiving proper nutrition. If this, plus constipation and vomiting are not enough to make you think twice, you should also know that certain foods, including tomato sauces, mayonnaise, fruit juice, dressings and others, will lead to “dumping syndrome,” aka cramps, nausea and diarrhea.
By the way, snacking is expressly forbidden after gastric bypass, you’re only allowed three small meals a day, and you may have to write off certain foods entirely because your body just can’t digest them anymore. This includes:
• Red meats
• Membranes of oranges or grapefruit
• Skins of fruits and vegetables
• Fibrous vegetables such as celery and sweet potatoes
• Chili and other spicy foods
If these “guidelines” sound a bit restrictive, it’s because they absolutely are. The procedure severely limits the amount of food you can consume, and the rapid weight loss that follows is essentially the natural effect of forced starvation. You cannot eat more than a tiny amount because it will make you physically sick.
Weight Loss Surgery Still Depends on YOU Modifying Your Behaviors
In the short-term, weight loss surgeries do produce significantly greater weight loss compared to lifestyle modification alone. But unless you address the emotional aspects of your eating, you could very easily stretch your stomach to again be able to accommodate increasing amounts of food, effectively negating the entire surgery.
There will also be changes asked of you both before and after weight loss surgery. Many centers will require that you exercise after the surgery, and prior to the surgery that you stop smoking, drinking soda and eating fast food. Many will also require you to lose weight prior to the surgery!
If you can lose weight for that, you can continue on and reach a healthy goal weight without any type of medical intervention whatsoever. Since success depends on your ability to modify your behavior anyway, why not simply modify your behavior without going through the surgical procedure and taking all those health risks?!
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