TOO MUCH HUNGER ? TRY AN HIGH MICRONUTRIENT DENSITY DIET ! IT'S HEALTHY AND REDUCES YOUR APPETITE

Here's an extra incentive to those who, while wanting to stay in shape, struggle with an healthy diet, rich in fruit, vegetables and "high nutritional value" foods.  

A diet high in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) reduces the feeling of hunger, one of the biggest obstacles to weight loss.

And it is the feeling of hunger , rather than the availability of food in and of itself, that drives us to eat too much, introducing more calories than needed.

The feeling of hunger is the subject of a study aimed to assess the experience and perception of hunger before and after participants shifted from their previous usual diet to a high micronutrient density diet. 

The results of this descriptive study , conducted on a sample of no less than 768 participants, who changed their eating habits moving from a diet lower in micronutrients to a diet high in micronutrients, were amazing.

The diet rich in micronutrients , after an initial adjustment phase , showed to be associated with an experience of hunger significantly different than that one experienced during the usual diet,  of lower nutritional value.

In particular, during the high micronutrients density  diet, hunger was not an unpleasant experience, it was more easily tolerated and occurred with less frequency, even skipping meals .

This kind of diet, although lower in calories, limited thus the unpleasant aspects of hunger and appetite, in other words those aspects that make it so hard to follow a weight-loss diet.

Therefore it is not simply the calorie content, but it is mainly the micronutrient density of a diet that influences what we perceive as hunger .

This interesting study, whose results should be confirmed by further studies ,shows  how a diet of high nutritional value , rich in vitamins and minerals, can be considered a sustainable eating pattern that leads to weight loss and improved health.

That said , it is important to highlight which model of micronutrients rich diet was used for this study : a diet rich in colorful vegetables, beans, seeds, nuts, fruits and whole grains and low (less than 10% of total calories) in processed foods and animal products.

Then, the five famous and almost unattainable daily portions of fruit and vegetables are welcome, considering also that is always better to prefer seasonal fruit and vegetables, fresh and possibly zero-miles , and generally unrefined  and unprocessed foods, even in our kitchen.

Sources:

Fuhrman et al. Nutrition Journal 2010, 9:51

http://www.nutritionj.com/content/9/1/51

Changing perceptions of hunger on a high nutrient density diet

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