Curtailing your appetite can be an uphill battle. We’ve all experienced the head battles. A small voice, quietly points out that indulging is likely to cause figure problems, but your sugar gremlin loudly cries…. FEED ME !

We dream & scheme of ways to SILENCE our sugar gremlin, but when our sugar gremlin goes silent, WE PANIC. Hook up to tips and tricks

Forcing ourselves to EAT SOMETHING, because….

Loss of appetite means death is imminent

Sort of.

If you stop eating for a prolonged period of time, you will waste a way. But since most of us our adequately endowed – a few days here and there, will not hasten our demise.

In fact, losing a few pounds could actually do exactly the opposite.

And……. losing your appetite is not ALL BAD. Researchers from Manchester University found suppressing your appetite, is your body playing it’s trump card, at the dinner party.

The dinner party

The research team threw a dinner party in a group of mice, the dinner guests included the round worm known as Trichinella spiralis, an organism considered to be an intestinal parasite.

Intestinal parasites are not often invited to dinner in the Western world, but in the developing world, these guys are always out and about, visiting.

The trump card

The mice responded to the unwelcome dinner guests, by squirting out lots of the hormone cholecystokinin – one of a multitude of appetite suppression hormones routinely produced, when your body sends the “I AM FULL MESSAGE”.

At the same time as sending the “I AM FULL MESSAGE” to the brain, the immune system also arranged for leptin levels to be lower. Since leptin is the hormone responsible for burning fat, this move clears the “plate”.

Makes perfect sense………… dinner guests won’t hang around, if you don’t feed them DINNER.

Loss of appetite ends up being good for you and bad for that intestinal parasite.

Stacking the deck

The drop in leptin, definitely stacked the deck in favour of the mice.

When the Manchester team restored the leptin levels in the mice to normal, with the help of a leptin injection, the worms had the upper hand.

I need a worm !

If you have weight problems, maybe you do. Who is showing up for dinner, is very important for your health and wellbeing.

Unfortunately, if too many of these guys show up for dinner, they could eat you out of house and home, leaving you worse off. You have to get the balance RIGHT, get it wrong and YOU LOSE ! So I don’t recommend swallowing worm eggs, as a weight loss strategy.

The good news………….. you don’t need a worm to bump up your cholecystokinin levels.

Get cholecystokinin working for you

Cholecystokinin is part of the normal hormone crew, signalling to your brain that you are FULL, so you can put down the fork and stopping eating.

Appetite suppression 101.

The food that triggers cholecystokinin release is saturated fat. Carbs don’t do it.

So, obey the rule of thirds, make sure you include fat in your bites – you will then get cholecystokinin working for you.

Need more help Taming your Sugar Gremlin ?

Further reading

Maybe it’s time to invest in appetite suppressing glasses	Why did the dish run away with the spoon ?	Fizzing up the water flattens your appetite