Almond Joy

I've been meaning to post a follow up to my Dr. Oz entry, but it's been really hard to take the plethora of information in his book and place it into one post. There are so many interesting things he says that I could blog about. But I'll try to stick to the topic here, which is satisfaction in regards to food, and what you can do to help turn the tide your way.

Dr. Oz talks about how appetite and satiety are controlled by your brain (your hypothalamus if you want to be specific). You have specific chemicals that drive you to eat & decrease metabolism, and once that reduce your appetite & increase your metabolism. We know these chemicals do what they do because of studies on rats. (Bear with me, this is too cool to not mention.)

Scientists looked at the extremes and saw what happened if they turned the feeding system completely on or off. If they destroyed the rat's eating center, the rat literally forgot to eat. The resulting severe anorexia starved the rats' bodies of nutrients and the rats died. On the opposite end, if the eating center was over-stimulated, the rats always wanted food, and they literally ate themselves to death. Their stomachs didn't explode, but rather the consumption of excess food led to diabetes, hypertension and arthritis which is what killed them.

So it's all about the hunger on and off switch. At the bottom of your stomach and top of your intestines, the food you eat hits a very important traffic signal. It's the red light that tells your brain your are either full (red light - STOP!) or to keep the food a' comin (green light - GO!). A chemical switches this light to "red" when your bowel senses that you've consumed fat. Now while it may seem like you don't have any control over these biological processes and chemicals that coast through your body, you CAN control them through food choices.

Having a little bit of the right kids of fats before you eat can trick your hormonal system into sending the signal to your brain that you are full. It takes about 70 or so calories and 20 minutes for this signal to kick in. This 70 calories can come in the form of 6 walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts. Once you consume your handful of nuts, you can now eat for pleasure and not for hunger, probably ensuring that you will eat less. But you still want to eat slowly; having food in your gut (and beyond) is required for the longer term satiety signals to be produced and talk to the brain.

Which nuts do you want to eat? Well, walnuts contain the most Omega-3 fatty acids of all the nuts, which help reduce cholesterol, improve mood and fight cancer. Studies are also showing that they may protect against sun damage (but don't skip the SPF just yet). Almonds are also good at reducing cholesterol. What ever nuts you decide to eat, just remember you don't need to eat more than a small handful. With the holidays upon us and all the food you'll be facing, maybe you will find this info useful for now as well as beyond! If you don't believe me, read the book.