Appetite Suppressants

Eating less is an important part of weight loss but a low calorie diet can mean being hungry at  times. If you are hungry it is all too easy to lose your resolve and to eat, often grabbing the  closest calorie laden food. Don’t feel bad, this is a normal re-action to hunger and is why an appetite suppressant may help.

Amphetamine is an appetite suppressant that used to be prescribed to those wishing to lose weight. It has unpleasant side effects as well as being addictive and is not banned in most Western countries including the USA.  But there are many natural appetite suppressants which are perfectly safe to use.  Here are some safe natural appetite suppressants to help with your weight loss:

1. Apples are a natural appetite suppressant. Because they take more chewing they allow time for your appetite to be suppressed.
2. Pine nuts are another great appetite suppressant.They contain pinolenic acid a fat that suppresses hunger. In one study subjects that took pinoleic acid reduced their food intake by 36%.
3. Eating food high in fiber reduces hunger because it fills without adding excess calories. Flaxseeds are a good source of appetite suppressing fiber  and they also provde health giving omega-3.  Oats are another high fiber appetite suppressant.  Eating real oatmeal (not the instant kind) for breakfast will help suppress your hunger for several hours.Even better, add some ground flaxseesd to your porridge as well.
4. Eating a small salad before a meal acts as an appetite suppressant. According to one study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Assocation women who ate a simple 100-calorie salad before their meal ate 12% fewer calories during the meal.
5. Soup is a wonderful appetite supressant too. Participants in a recent study who had two servings of low calorie soup each day,lost 50% more weight than a group who had the same number of calories in snack foods. Something magical about soup!
6. Whey protein powder can help you lose weight and build muscle. New studies suggest that whey may have an impact on food intake through its effect on hormones that influence a feeling of fullness. In one study, participants consumed a liquid meal consisting of either whey or casein and 90 minutes later were allowed to eat freely at a buffet table. The whey group consumed significantly fewer calories.

What about Hoodia Gordonii?

This natural appetite suppressant comes from a succulent plant used by the Bushmen of  the Kalahari to suppress appetite on long hunting trips.  So far it has not been produced in a standardised format and no published scientific papers have been published on its effectiveness.

This is rather strange when you consider the amount of publicity it generated when it first came to light in the West.  It seemed like a miracle answer to all out weight problems.  There is no published scientific evidence that hoodia works as an appetite suppressant in humans.  Many fakes are sold on line.

Pfizer drug company are licenced to develop hoodia.  ”Pfizer states that development on P57, the active ingredient of hoodia, was stopped due to the difficulty of synthesizing P57. Jasjit Bindra, lead researcher for hoodia at Pfizer, states there were indications of unwanted effects on the liver caused by other components, which could not be easily removed from the supplement… Until safer formulations are developed, dieters should be wary of using it.”  Wikipedia