What are the natural ways to reduce cravings for unhealthy foods? Plant thylakoids that block fat and suppress appetite.
【Fat blocking and appetite suppressant effects of plant thylakoids】
In my best-selling book "Eat Full and Lose Weight" (note: the Chinese version will be published soon), I opened the chapter on fat blocking foods with the command sentence "eat your thylakoids" to give the doctor's instructions.
What exactly is a thylakoid? It's the root of almost all known life – and the oxygen we breathe.
Thlakoids are the sites of photosynthesis and are the processes by which plants turn light into food. Thlakoids are the great green engines of life, microscopic sac-like structures made up of chlorophyll-rich membranes concentrated in the leaves of plants.
When we eat thylakoids, such as when we take a bite of a spinach leaf, those green leafy membranes are not digested immediately. They can stay in our bowels for hours, and that's when their magic works.
The thylakoid membrane binds to lipase, which is the enzyme our body uses to digest fats. So if you combine this enzyme, you can slow down fat absorption. It's like a natural fat blocker, orlistat, but without the side effects of anal leakage, because the thylakoid effect is temporary.
Unlike drugs, thylakoids break down eventually. Before the fat spills out of your other end, the lipase enzyme is released to do its job. At the end of the day, fat absorption is more delayed than hindered by thylakoids.
What good would it do if all the fat was eventually absorbed? At this point, let's talk about location!
There is a phenomenon known as ileal braking. The ileum is the last part of the small intestine before it drains into the colon.
When undigested calories are detected so far in our intestines, our body thinks that we must be completely full, and then allows the appetite to "brake" to stop us from eating more.
This can be demonstrated experimentally. If you put a nine-foot tube down people's throats and drip in any calorie – fat, protein or sugar – you can activate the ileal brake phenomenon.
Then, let them sit down and eat to their heart's content. They ate more than 100 fewer calories than the placebo group, which had just been injected with water through a tube.
You just don't feel that hungry anymore. You'll feel the same fullness and eat significantly less. This is where the ileal brake comes in.
As a result, as thylakoids delay the absorption of calories to the end of the small intestine, a strong satiety signal is sent to the brain, which reduces your appetite.
If you give someone a meal with added thylakoids by adding some spinach powder and measure the level of hormone release in the blood over the next six hours, you'll see a significant increase in a satiety hormone called CCK, and a decrease in ghrelin.
So, does this translate into a decrease in appetite? Researchers are desperate for answers.
Spinach extract is hidden in jam or juice to surreptitiously add thylakoids to meals. And those who unknowingly ate the equivalent of about half a cup of cooked spinach felt noticeably less hungry and felt fuller for the next few hours.
Giving someone the equivalent of a small glass of wheatgrass juice in the morning, or the amount they might get in a "green drink" or green smoothie, not only did they feel less hungry and fuller, but their cravings for savory, sweet, and fatty snacks (e.g., chips, gummy bears, chocolate, and cinnamon buns) dropped by about a third.
People who were secretly fed some spinach without knowing it if they were still fed sugar reported a significantly lower level of sweets. The satiety of leafy greens has been attributed to their high water and fiber content, as well as their low calorie density.
But thylakoids may be its secret weapon. Most thylakoid tests show an improvement in satiety, but the real test is the ability to lose weight.
Researchers randomized overweight women in Sweden to provide a mixed blueberry drink every morning. One group had a "green plant cell membrane" added to it, the other group didn't (in other words, just secretly provided them with some spinach powder), and their appetite-suppressing hormones were boosted and their cravings for sweets were reduced.
It's also true that spinach can reduce your chocolate cravings. Check this out: 7 hours after eating spinach, you'll look like this: chocolate? Not interested...... Is there more spinach?
And then...... Weight loss accelerated! It's all thanks to eating green vegetables – the really green part of the vegetable, the chlorophyll-covered membrane in the leaves.
Over 12 weeks, the women who were secretly offered spinach lost 11 pounds, significantly more than the control group.
And there's an added bonus: their LDL cholesterol drops even before weight loss begins.
If you manipulate calorie intake in reverse to force subjects to lose an equal amount of weight, those randomized to the spinach group may have an easier time reducing their appetite.
After eating green vegetables for a few weeks, the test experienced less hunger after the meal. Spinach extract was used in these studies to allow researchers to make a persuasive placebo.
But you can get as many thylakoids by eating about half a cup of cooked greens. Green vegetables are healthy foods that I recommend people consume at least twice a day in my 12 daily lists.
I encourage people to try the healthiest foods on their list into their daily routines.
Which green plants have the most thylakoids?
You can conclude just by looking at it, because where chloroplasts are, thylakoids are there. The greener the leaves, the stronger the effect.
So, go and find the darkest greens you can find! All I could get near me were kale and kale.
What happens when you cook greens? Blanching in boiling water for about 15 seconds will actually turn greener. But if you cook it for too long, they will eventually turn a monotonous yellow-brown color.
When you cook green vegetables for too long, the thylakoid will physically degrade and the ability to inhibit lipase will also decrease. But in the first minute or so, when the vegetables are more vibrantly green, there is a slight increase in the ability to block fat.
Therefore, you can measure the activity of thylakoids with your own eyes in supermarkets and kitchens. However, the best greens, and the best way to cook them, are the ones you can end up eating the most greens.
We've been chewing leaves for millions of years, but probably the greenest thing in some people's diets today is a pint of St. Patrick's Day (note: green is a traditional holiday in Ireland).
The average American eats less than two grams of spinach per day, less than half a teaspoon.
Your body is designed to have thylakoids pass through your system every day, so a delay in fat absorption can be thought of as the default, normal state.
It's only when our diet lacks greens that accelerated fat digestion weakens our natural satiety mechanisms.
In the journal Chemical Industry Association, a team of food technologists argues that given its fat-blocking benefits, "thylakoid membranes could be incorporated into functional foods as a promising new appetite-reducing ingredient." ”
Or...... You can get them directly in the most natural way.
Source: Global Cuisine