Ten Ways To Be Tough With Your Appetite

Are you hungry because you’re overweight, or are you overweight because you’re hungry? This is no chicken-or-the-egg question.

To some degree, at least, you are hungry because you’re overweight. You have more body area and that means greater surface to radiate heat and call for calories.

That being the case, foods which satisfy your hunger fastest will help you to cut down comfortably on your calories. Nutritionists call the hunger-satisfying properties of foods “satiety value.”

Satisfying foods are those that remain longest in the stomach and small intestine, demanding the most vigorous attention from the digestive machinery.

Which Foods Are Most Satisfying For Appetite

Meat is the most satisfying of all foods, containing extractives that stimulate the stomach to highest activity. Milk ranks next to meat in satiety value; whole milk is more satisfying than skim milk. Fish is slightly less satisfying than meat because usually it contains less fat. Eggs vary according to preparation. Raw eggs pass quickly from the stomach; hard-boiled eggs have greater satiety value than soft-boiled, and about the same as fried.

Green vegetables and bread are low in satiety value. Oddly, bread becomes even less satisfying when toasted.

Fats are high in satiety value; hence moderate reducing diets often allow more fats than carbohydrates as a kindness to the appetite.

Aside from the satisfying effects of food, there are other ways of putting a check rein on your appetite. Here are ten ways of cracking down and letting your appetite know who’s boss.

10 Ways To Be Tough With Your Appetite

1. Stop eating while you’re still a little hungry. For reasons that are not fully understood, persons who tend to put on do not receive the “full up” signal from their meals as promptly as they should.

Consequently they go on eating after hunger is satisfied. Stop eating just a little earlier than you usually do and you will be surprised, within a few minutes, to discover that appetite has really been appeased.

2. Revise your mental habits. A lot of people put on because, having few things that interest them, they turn to nibbling as a socially entertaining way of killing time. Keep busy at something else and watch your yen for eating fall within normal limits.

3. Use foods that demand vigorous chewing. The first organs of digestion are the teeth. Food that is bolted (except by carnivores) makes things tougher for your stomach and deprives you of the full savor of the things you eat-consequently you want more to satisfy your taste.

Meat, crisp celery, raw carrots-all of these call for vigorous maxillary action that helps satisfy your appetite.

4. Don’t wash food down with water. The only valid objection to drinking water with meals is that you may wash down lumpy masses of half-chewed food and thus unconsciously step up your intake.

5. Don’t be tricked by fancy foods. An ice cream sundae topped off by nuts and whipped cream can tempt anybody’s appetite. If you keep out of the way of such temptations, however, you will find that your appetite is just as happy as a baby who has never heard about lollipops.

6. Keep count on calories. A rough idea of calorie values is all you need to tone down a rambunctious appetite considerably. It’s a lot easier to say “I’ll take an orange” when you know there are 450 calories in a husky slab of mince pie.

7. Scuttle your alibis. If you blame your over on heredity or glands, have your doctor check you up-I dare you.

If you feel that you can’t say “no” to the hostess who urges a second helping on you, for risk of hurting her feelings, remember that she probably is insistent because of a high sense of hospitality, and secretly may be thinking how nice it would be to have some leftover comestibles for tomorrow’s pick-up dinner.

8. Put a fruit bowl on the coffee table instead of a box of chocolates. Eating between meals isn’t bad; it’s good -provided you choose a piece of fruit or a glass of milk instead of concentrated candies and pastries, and don’t exceed your calorie limits.

9. Don’t bring up your appetite with alcohol. We aren’t saying you shouldn’t drink. But if you drink, remember that the appetite stirred up by alcohol is spurious. It isn’t the real McCoy. It’s another trick to make you hungry when you aren’t.

10. Don’t go without breakfast. Lots of us kid ourselves that we’re reducing because we’re rushed or sleepy in the morning and coast along on a cup of coffee. This is necessary in short-term reducing diets, but appetite is controlled better through the day when we give it a respectful breakfast nod.