Can you forgo your favourite food when a strong desire calls for
it? Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the urge to crunch on potato chips, to munch on chocolate or to take a mouthful of ice cream?
Have you ever wondered, why you have food cravings and excessive appetite?
Your appetite stems from your desire to eat. This is commonly felt as hunger. Appetite serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain daily metabolic needs. However, as with other body functions, appetite disorders can occur. Excessive appetite may result in obesity.
Excessive appetite and food cravings are interrelated and many scientific researchers believe that your craving for food is in fact a signal sent by your body to tell you that you are lacking of certain nutrients. To curb your appetite and subsequently food cravings, satiety is the key. |
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Although there are many complex physical and psychological reasons for increased appetite and food cravings, science has shown that this can be circumvented by strategically increasing our sense of fullness (or satiety) and effectively reduce calorie/energy intake.
For example, it is commonly known that by drinking more water just before a meal, we feel fuller and as a result, will eat less. Similarly, a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (2004) found that women who ate a low-calorie meal (for example 300 grams of water-rich vegetables such as salad) as a first course, not only satisfied their satiety but also reduced their subsequent food intake. |
