The best appetite suppressant is GREEN

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Thylakoids are a safe effective natural appetite suppresant

thylakoids a natural appetite suppressant

When you chomp on spinach, a network of membranes is released, these slow fat digestion. As long as the fat remains undigested, you feel full as a tick.

You FEEL hungry. OFTEN !

The nibbling habit is contributing to weight problems.

If only you could curb your appetite, everything would be OK.

So what can you take ?

The best appetite suppressant

I often get asked this……….. tell me which appetite suppressant to use.

My current recommendation………………..eat something GREEN, like spinach.

It is the ultimate appetite suppressant !

And it is not only 100 % safe (most appetite suppressants aren’t), it is beneficial, you get a whole bunch of nutrients, including magnesium and nitrates, which are GOOD FOR YOU.

So what is the deal ?

Well, anytime a food is green it means it contains chlorophyll.

Now chlorophyll in and of itself, is NOT especially healthful.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t UNHEALTHFUL either.

Buried in the centre of this green pigment molecule, is a magnesium ion. Since magnesium ions are big players in human biology, getting a mouthful of magnesium, when you go green is healthful.

But you can get magnesium from NON green sources.

What is special about the chlorophyll, is the packaging….

The chloroplast package

Chloroplasts are where it all happens, light energy from the sun, is magically transformed into chemical energy, in the process known as photosynthesis.

If you’re having flash backs to high school, you know chlorophyll is at the centre of the process.

But, chlorophyll is not the lone ranger, capturing sunlight unassisted…..

The thylakoids

Over a hundred different proteins are all squashed into membranes, which are then stacked upon one another and these stacks are then interconnected and packed in chloroplasts.

This is the system that does PHOTOSYNTHESIS.

The point…………….. it’s made of lots of membranes. Lots. This intricate network of membranes is commonly referred to as thylakoids.

A bite of spinach

When you chomp on that spinach leaf, the chloroplasts get liberated. These then get sliced open and the membrane network i.e. the thylakoids, fall out.

But thylakoids are NOT easily digested by the stomach juices.

So they stick around. They’re an amorphous mass of negatively charged membrane floating about …………

The fact that they’re negatively charged, makes them “attractive”, to anything that is positively charged. This includes your gut lining and the rest of your dinner, specifically the drops of fat, you’ve ingested.

There is fat in the system

As membranes, they are made of lipids. Lipids are FAT ! These fats, along with the fats in your dinner signal………..

Ding, ding, ding…………………….. the nutrient sensors are triggered.

Now digesting FAT is challenging – remember fat does NOT dissolve in water. Eish ! The digestive tract needs to make a plan, to kick start the fat digestion process.

Cholecystokinin to the rescue

Cholecystokinin or CCK for short, is squirted out in response to the news there is fat to be digested.

He takes charge of the fat digestion process.

CCK begins by telling everyone that counts TO STOP EATING, so that he can do what needs to be done, to process the fat that is already on board.

Both the brain and the stomach are in the loop.

Appetite is suppressed………while fat digestion proceeds.

Getting the fat digested

Step 1, is to get the fat “solubilized” i.e. the big fat globules are turned into smaller fat miscelles, which are way easier to break down. This depends bile. CCK “squeezes” the gallbladder, to get the bile flowing.

Step 2, is to actually release the fat from the miscelles – this is done by pancreatic lipase. CCK instructs the pancreas to pump these enzymes out and finish the process.

With all the players in place, fat digestion proceeds, sort of………

A sticky situation

The fat globules have “attracted”, a bunch of thylakoid membranes. Now they are “fats”, but they’re primarily galactolipids and galactolipids, jam up the pancreatic lipase enzyme, when it bites into them.

Oh dear !

The digestion of fat proceeds at a snail’s pace…………

So there is still fat in the system

Now at first glance, this might seem problematic, BUT it does depend on your perspective.

Yes, digestion has been STALLED.

But the traffic jam in the digestive tract, is quite beneficial – you see, as long as CCK is trying to get fat digestion on track, you feel…………FULL AS A TICK !

And your appetite is SUPPRESSED.

Safe and effective !

And relatively easy to do – let’s be honest, spinach leaves are pretty close to “tasteless”, you can add them to dishes and not notice them.

So if you want to suppress your appetite, make a point of adding them to your meals – use them as a sandwich filler, in stews, smoothies, meat balls etc.

The Use of Green Leaf Membranes to Promote Appetite Control, Suppress Hedonic Hunger and Loose Body Weight. Plant Foods Hum Nutr (2015) 70:281–290. Charlotte Erlanson-Albertsson & Per-Åke Albertsson.