If you want to eat healthy or slim down, one of the biggest challenges is dealing with hunger. No one wants to feel hungry, but when mid-morning or mid-afternoon strikes, and your stomach growls, it’s hard to resist fast food and unhealthy snacks. And if this is something you struggle with, keep reading to see the eight foods that help you feel fuller longer.
In general, a protein-rich foods promote feelings of fullness, but a new study shows that certain amino acids tell specific cells in the brain that you’re full.
The amino acids in question are arginine and lysine, and when researchers added these two amino acids into the brains of mice, they observed that specific brain cells responded.
These cells are called tanycytes, and they’re found in the brain region connected to body weight. Researchers believe that human brains would show the same response as the mice did to these two amino acids, arginine and lysine.
Study author, Nicholas Dale, Ph.D., explained that “tanycytes can sense amino acids when they reach your blood and your brain, and send signals of fullness into other parts of the brain that control appetite.”
But since the human body doesn’t produce its own lysine, and only occasionally produces arginine, there are certain foods that contain both of these amino acids.
Eating the following eight foods can signal the tanycyte cells in the brain that you’re full:
- Pork shoulder
- Beef sirloin steak
- Chicken
- Mackerel
- Acovados
- Lentils
- Nuts, like almonds, walnuts and pistachios
- Stone fruits, such as plums and apricots
