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Imagine popping a pill and feeling full. Sound too futuristic? Well it might not be far off.
Hey there, Julia here for DNews. Researchers at the Salk Institute created a fake meal,
while it’s no Three Course Dinner gum, this pill will reportedly leave you feeling as
full as if you just ate a chicken dinner. The pill works by tricking your gut into releasing
the same hormones as a full meal.
While there are lots of different hormones that regulate appetite, Ghrelin is called
‘’the hunger hormone.” When the stomach is empty ghrelin is secreted, when its stretched,
its stopped. Leptin, on the other hand, is the satiety hormone. It uses the same receptor
in the brain as ghrelin. Leptin is released when the level of fat stored in the body reaches
a certain level and tells you to stop eating. Some studies of mice unable to make leptin
resulted in increased appetite and obesity.
The Salk researchers say this new pill works by activating a hormone receptor found in
the gut. When activated it tells the body to burn calories and produce less glucose.
but unlike other diet pills, this pill can change fat content from white fat to healthier
brown fat. and it’s activated in the gut and not throughout the bloodstream, avoiding
pesky side effects. other types of diet pills reduce hunger indirectly, some work in the
brain to produce a fight or flight response which reduces hunger.
So can this new pill trick our body into thinking it’s full? While this study was only in
mice, and not all pills or trials have the same effect in humans, you can still trick
your body into feeling full with less food.
Changing the portions on your plate matters. One study had subjects eat soup - one group
had a normal bowl, but the subjects who ate from a bowl equipped with a hidden re-filling
device, consumed a whopping 73 percent more than their peers. Changing what types of food
you eat can change how full you feel. By far protein is the way to go if you want to feel
full for longer. While high fat foods fill you up fast, they also burn fast. Protein
rich foods like meat, take more work to be broken down in the gut and leave you feeling
full for longer. Your speed of eating can also affect how much you eat. The full feeling
doesn’t kick in until about 20 minutes after we eat. So if you eat fast, you’re likely
to consume more calories because you don’t feel full yet.
So diet and exercise are the most effective ways of curbing weight gain for now. As we
like to say on DNews, “more research is needed.”
So what tricks do you use to make yourself feel full?
Leave your answers in the comments below. And don’t forget to subscribe for more DNews
every day of the week.