Your mindset plays an even more pivotal role in dieting than you might think. A recent study indicates that merely thinking of food as calorie-rich or low-fat affects how full you feel, by regulating a hormone called ghrelin that’s responsible for controlling appetite.
Photo by Simon Gotz.
LiveScience reports that in this Yale study, when 46 participants drank a shake labelled “indulgent”, their ghrelin hormone levels dropped much more quickly than when they drank the same shake labelled “healthy”. This greater ghrelin change from drinking the “indulgent” shake made them feel fuller faster and may also have sped their metabolism up.
This suggests that rather than looking at (or labelling) diet or health food as low-calorie or low-fat, we might be better off thinking of it as filling and delicious. If you’re really struggling to lose weight, pretending that salad is packed with forbidden calories may be another diet Jedi mind trick to try.
To Feel Full Faster, Pretend You’re Eating Junk [LiveScience]
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