3J
Musclechemistry Member
Cravings, its one of the hardest obstacles one has to face when trying to lose weight. It is the number one psychological diet failure culprit. Ask anyone who has gone on a healthy calorie restricted diet and they will tell you those cookies hidden in the back of the panty become more and more temping as the days, if not the hours, go by. As we all know, a healthy balanced diet where one is not taking their caloric deficit to some unreasonable extreme can really help fight cravings. Having worked with clients for nearly a decade who have actually been surprised at the fact that they aren’t feeling hungry on my cutting diets is a case in point. But some people just get hungry. Some people just have those cravings for high calorie foods, especially when they don’t have the ability to hire a professional nutritional coach.
Inulin is a fiber that is naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables like asparagus and bananas. Inulin is the wonder “craving killer” compound. It has a direct effect on the brains food reward system. Thus, when ingested, inulin actually reduces your cravings for high calorie foods. But it seems that inulin itself is not good enough to reduce cravings. Scientists to inulin and added an ester, called propionate (those in the bodybuilding/steroid world will be well aware what prop is and what an ester is) to gain the desired effects in the study. Let’s move on to that.
A study done at the University of Glasgow took two groups of participants and gave a milk shake to booth groups. The control group received an inulin laced milk shake, while the study group received the milk shake laced with a supplement called inulin-propionate. 20 average healthy males were assigned to the study. After drinking the shakes, all participants were asked to look at pictures of both low and high calorie foods while under an MRI. The areas of the brain associated with motivation for food and cravings, called the caudate and the nucleus accumbens, were monitored. The results showed that compared to those who only drank inulin with their shakes had a significantly higher response to images of high calorie foods. Furthermore, it was found that those who consumed inulin-propionate had less interest in the higher calorie foods. They then gave every participant a bowl of pasta and told them to eat as much as they wanted. Those who had consumed the inulin-propionate actually ate an average of 10% less than those who didn’t.
As quoted from study:
“This study illustrates very nicely that signals produced by the gut microbiota are important for appetite regulation and food choice. This study also sheds new light on how diet, the gut microbiome and health are inextricably linked adding to our understanding of how feeding our get microbes with dietary fiber is important for healthy living.”
-Dr. Douglas Morrison, University of Glasgow
So the take away from this study is that we need to feed our gut flora correctly. For those of you trying to deal with cravings that just won’t give, there is a new hope! Inulin Propionate to the rescue!
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2016/05/11/ajcn.115.126706.short?rss=1
ncreased colonic propionate reduces anticipatory reward responses in the human striatum to high-energy foods1,2,3
Claire S Byrne4,
Edward S Chambers4,
Habeeb Alhabeeb4,
Navpreet Chhina5,
Douglas J Morrison8,
Tom Preston8,
Catriona Tedford9,
Julie Fizpatrick7,
Cherag Irani7,
Albert Busza7,
Isabel Garcia-Perez10,
Sofia Fountana10,
Elaine Holmes10,
Anthony P Goldstone5,6,11,*, and
Gary S Frost4,11,*
+Author Affiliations
