by Valerie Brooks

Appetite Suppressants

Suppressing the appetite has seem to become an American obsession. Just consider how many ads a day you see for something that promises to help you lose weight by kicking your hunger. The natural health community is an equal participant but offering healthier choices than the traditional synthetically made pill. Here’s the latest buzz on how to keep your weight in check through foods, herbs, and lifestyle choices.

Keep the Fiber Coming

An apple a day may keep the doctor away but it may also nudge your appetite into sleep mode. Eating fiber-rich foods is always best, but in pill form, the “Fill Pill” might be the next best thing. This hunger suppressant is made of up soluble fiber that, when combined with water, actually cleanses the digestive track, gives you a feeling of fullness, and zaps food cravings with a gentle, natural and non-stimulating appetite suppressant. At four pills a day, your body gets its fill of fiber through glucomann (a water soluble fiber), glycosides (plant-based natural sugar), and vitamins and calcium.

The Best Fiber-Rich Foods

Beans
Apples
Carrots
Bran-rich cereals
Spinach
Bananas
Peas

Fiber is an indigestible plant-based substance that slows digestion and sugar absorption, and creates a feeling of fullness. To get the recommended 30 grams of fiber per day for optimum health, here’s a chart that lists fiber content for a huge variety of foods. Check out the fiber content chart at: wehealnewyork.org.

Herbs for Weight Management

Hoodia is probably the most well-known herbal appetite suppressant. Its full name, Hoodia Gordonii, comes from Africa’s Kalahari Desert. This trendy and powerful plant contains a molecule that sends a signal to your brain that says you are full and need no more food. This article offers a great introduction to the herb and provides tips on what to look for when purchasing it: selfgrowth.com.

Other herbs known to suppress the appetite include:

 
• Garcinia Cambogia: This herb is rich in a substance called hydroxycitric acid, or HCA, which is believed to promote weight loss by blocking the conversion of sugars and starches into fats. In addition to inhibiting fat production, it is also thought to aid in suppressing appetite by raising certain brain chemicals, such as serotonin.
• Banaba Leaf: A medical plant used in Southeast Asia, this herb claims to lower blood sugar and promote healthy insulin levels, which are related to appetite. Keeping these areas regulated may moderate a person’s cravings and caloric consumption.
• Guarana: Produced mainly in Brazil, one of this herb’s main ingredients is caffeine. Combined with other compound, namely theobromine and theophylline, guarana is a nervous system stimulant, which may suppress appetite and promote weight loss. Five hundred to a thousand milligrams yields approximately the same caffeine levels as two cups of coffee per day. Ingesting more can cause nervousness and irritability.
• Green Tea: No doubt you’ve heard of green tea’s antioxidant content, which makes it good for your immune system, but did you know that green tea can help suppress the appetite too? To get the most of this herb’s curbing effects, be sure to use high quality green tea powder. You’ll notice a difference.
• Artichoke Powder: Quickly becoming a darling of the appetite suppressant world, artichoke powder is a common addition to green drinks and other weight loss formulations.

It’s All in Your Head

Although behavioral methods for keeping an appetite in check don’t get nearly the press time that herbs and pills do, there are a number of methods right at your fingertips that can help you along in your journey to stave off hunger. One of them is changing your food intake habits. For example, drinking water or having a bowl of soup before a meal will fill you up and prevent you from overeating. Eating smaller, healthier meals is preferable to larger, overindulgent meals. Before grabbing that second helping, get up and walk around. Your food will have time to digest and you may realize that you don’t actually want that second helping.

Try meditating on it. Meditation requires a will of the mind and the longer you practice, the easier it becomes to control negative thought patterns. This can translate into many areas of your life, including the ability to quell thoughts of hunger. Meditation can also involve visualization techniques where you might imagine the word “hungry” being replaced with the word “satisfied.” Meditation allows for clarity of the mind and for mindful action. So, it can help stop you in your tracks the next time you grab for a food item without thinking about whether you truly need it or whether it’s the best choice for you.

All of these mind-body systems occur in the hypothalamus—the part of the brain where suggestion controls automatic responses. If the autonomic nervous system can be trained to accept only healthy, mindful choices, the behaviors will follow. Here is more information about using meditation for weight control: holisticonline.com.

Exercise is also an obvious choice for controlling the appetite. Vigorous exercise in particular (running, tennis, aerobics) raises the body temperature and results in a loss of appetite. But even a high-intensity yoga class can have the same effect. Ashtanga Yoga involves a flowing series of movements that gets the blood pumping, as does a Power Yoga class. Bikram Yoga (also known as Hot Yoga) is conducted in a heated room and results in sweating out toxins and a reduction in appetite due to the heat. Read more about it at yoga.about.com.