If you're struggling through another day of dieting and nagging hunger, you may want to bamboozle your brain into thinking your stomach's full. It's permissible to do this, experts say: You won't be fooling anyone but yourself, and when you get down to the nitty-gritty, you're not actually even misleading yourself — you're just tricking the part of your brain that controls hunger into saying, "OK, that's enough for now." Here are seven expert tips for filling your stomach with imagination instead of calories:
1. Start with the right appetizer
Eating hors d'oeuvres before a meal to jump-start fullness may have a basis in science, says Toronto-based naturopathic doctor Natasha Turner, who cites a study that appeared in Cell Metabolism. She says it takes time for the hormones in our stomach and intestines to tell us when we're full, but we get the first signals to our brain telling us when we've eaten enough as soon as food hits our stomach. The trick, then, is to eat an appetizer that has a lot of air, water, and fiber which packs the gut, causing it to send out "I'm getting full" messages.
Apples may be the single best appetizer, because they're 25 percent air and produce the satiety hormone GLP-1 as they're digested. "They get you to feel fuller early on, and the evidence shows you don't compensate for this later by eating more," Robert Welch, professor of food science and nutrition at Ulster University, told the Daily Mail.
The next best option is a salad, but only if it's the right kind. Choose dark green lettuce such as red leaf or romaine instead of iceberg, since many people feel it's more filling, not to mention more nutritious. Add tomatoes (see the next tip), mushrooms, fresh broccoli, cucumbers, or other vegetables in season. Add low-fat or non-fat dressing as if it cost $500 an ounce.
