A simple way to fight obesity: protein breakfast
A protein-rich breakfast will help to avoid overeating in the evening
Now scientists have managed to prove that a protein-rich breakfast significantly improves appetite control and reduces the likelihood of evening overeating with junk food. Such a simple change in diet will help significantly reduce the weight of more than 25 million obese young Americans. The scientists' article was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Leidy et al., Beneficial effects of a higher-protein breakfast on the appetitive, hormonal, and neural signals controlling energy intake regulation in overweight/obese, "breakfast-skipping," late-adolescent girls).
Heather Leidy, associate professor of Nutrition and Sports Physiology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, became the first scientist to analyze the effect of the nutritional value of breakfast on the entire daily appetite and, in particular, on evening hunger in young people who constantly skip breakfast. Her study involved 20 18-20-year-old girls with overweight and obesity. They were divided into 3 groups. The first group skipped breakfast, the second received a protein breakfast of eggs and lean beef, and the third ate traditional cereals and milk for breakfast. Both breakfast options contained 350 calories and matched the amount of fat, fiber and carbohydrates. The breakfast of the second group contained 35 g of protein.
During the experiment, the participants filled out questionnaires and gave blood samples. Before dinner, they had a brain scan using fMRI to track the activity of the brain regions responsible for motivating the search for food and reward when consuming it.
A protein-rich breakfast provided the participants with a feeling of fullness for the whole day, and by the evening they were not bothered by the desire to eat something sweet or fatty, and fMRI results showed a decrease in activity in the studied areas. The same cannot be said about the participants from the other groups — by the evening they really wanted to eat something fatter and sweeter, and fMRI revealed increased activity of the area responsible for finding food.
Thus, says the author of the study, a protein-rich breakfast can be an excellent strategy to prevent overeating and improve the diet, which will help to lose weight without much effort. The main problem is to overcome the habit, because people who are not used to breakfast are usually skeptical about the consumption of food in the morning. However, a protein breakfast can be made extremely attractive by cooking, for example, burritos or egg waffles with apple sauce and beef sausage. Greek yogurt, homemade cottage cheese or pork sausage can also serve as a protein breakfast.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru02.04.2013