JUDDD and Ghrelin

[unna]

Was just reading an interesting scientific article that I thought you JUDDDers might be interested in:

So, Ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates the feeling of hunger (its opposite is the Leptin hormone, which stimulates the feeling of satiety). Oftentimes, ghrelin can become so strong at points in time (we feel ravenously hungry), that it seems impossible to make it through a down day.

In the study I read (of course it was on mice!), they tested the effect of different fats on the production of ghrelin:

fish oil
olive oil
soy oil
butter

1. Apparently, the intake of fish oil and olive oil significantly decrease the amount of ghrelin being produced! (Soy and butter not so much)

I apologize, I haven't read all the threads here. But, has anyone ever tried a tablespoon of fish oil or olive oil when the hunger feeling was super intense?? Did it help??

2. Also, there are also many studies pointing to the connection between casein and the reduction of ghrelin (hence, why dairy products are often cited as good dietary aids). Your best bet in this regarding (lowest insulin producing effect) is a quality, old, hard cheese.

Has anyone been carefully ingesting small portions of cheese on down days?

3. Finally, does anyone time how long their hunger pangs usually last before subsiding? Does this time period become shorter or longer after a period of time on the JUDDD diet??

What methods do you use to distract yourself from the hunger feeling until it goes away?

4. About me: one time I used IF, but didn't do it correctly. I didn't eat nearly enough. However, I've always absolutely loved the feeling and intense concentration. Lately, despite basically maintaining a normal weight, I've been feeling "overfed"...... so I've been looking into safe, intelligent fasting methods. I love reading everyone's stories!

[SlowSure]

Quite a few of the posters here refer to bulletproof coffee as their breakfast and others recommend it as a way to stave off hunger. I think it's coffee with some oil or fat in it.

I'd be interested if aged, hard cheese worked for people. I'm inordinately fond of aged Parmesan and suspect that I'dbe tempted to eat more than an oz - and it wouldn't take much above that to break a DD's limits. My curiousity is sufficiently piqued that I might try it over the next week or so.

I like thin congee (plain rice and water soup) so I usually drink a mug of that if I'm peckish/hungry. Other people mention that they drink some bone broth or gelatine if they've waited 20mins or so and find that they still want to eat something.

[Kimmietoo]

Great information, Unna! Thank you so much for posting it.

I do use the bulletproof coffee (coconut oil only with SF syrup) on DD's. I count the calories.

I indulge in the real deal hard block parmesan on DDs, limited to a maximum of one ounce. I grate it with a drum grater and use it on shiratki with a splash of coconut milk and hot pepper.

Kimmie

[adillenal]

Isn't there some diet that says to drink olive oil throughout the day? Small quantities of course. Anyway, I have been starving and had nothing at work but I used to keep olive oil for salads and I have been known to take a drink from my bottle and it does work for appetite control in a pinch.
Otherwise I do not use much olive oil so maybe I should start.

[sunday]

Jaminet recommends coconut oil for extending fast. I sometimes do it when I wake up, but have noticed over time that I no longer hunger at all in the morning. So, I rarely have had need for it.

I also notice that when you first feel hunger pangs, if you make a drink of something hot, whether it is tea or broth, that it magically seems to disappear. I am not a big coffee drinker, but I know that coffee works well too. I use to work with a girl who was very fit and and almost underweight. She would drink hot water instead of snacking and did so frequently during the day. At the time, I thought it was bizarre, but now I believe that it may have been having the same effect.

[Evie1978]

I normally just pop a couple of gluc tabs and a big glass of water and that always cuts my hunger....

[shirlc]

Originally Posted by adillenal

Isn't there some diet that says to drink olive oil throughout the day? Small quantities of course. Anyway, I have been starving and had nothing at work but I used to keep olive oil for salads and I have been known to take a drink from my bottle and it does work for appetite control in a pinch.
Otherwise I do not use much olive oil so maybe I should start.

Adi, there is such a diet...called the Shangri-La Diet where you're supposed to use lite olive oil or some other tasteless oil, or sugar water, to curb your appetite. I tried it quite a while ago, but didn't have much success with it.

[adillenal]

Originally Posted by shirlc

Adi, there is such a diet...called the Shangri-La Diet where you're supposed to use lite olive oil or some other tasteless oil, or sugar water, to curb your appetite. I tried it quite a while ago, but didn't have much success with it.

Thanks Shirl. I thought I had read something on that. Made sense to me so I have tried random uses of oil in the past.

[MintQ8]

I find a babybel or a bit of cheddar does an amazing job of controlling hunger.

[Carly]

I have timed my hunger and it never lasted longer than 20 minutes tops. Usually it's quite a bit less. If I delay eating for 20 minutes I find that the "craving" I had passed and I actually am not hungry, unless it's after 7pm and I have been fasting since the night before, then, I am truly hungry.

[unna]

Thanks for all the replies!

I have now accomplished two DDs and feel absolutely wonderful. I found that I am the type of person that should simply fast until the end of the day (not try to make the super low-cal meals).

In the morning, I took a tablespoon of fish oil and that really took away the hunger for quite a few hours!

Then, as I broke my fast (to prevent binging), I ate 30g of aged cheddar. For dinner, I then had a plain burger over salad with olive oil (which is actually one of my fave things to eat).

I did time my hunger: it lasted about 30 minutes.

I actually find my real problem is leptin: I don't feel full until at least an hour after I eat, not even with fat/protein based meals. I'm not sure why this is. My husband gets the full feeling after 10 minutes... not me......

[Carly]

Unna,

when I was doing low cal/ low carb at the very beginning of my weight loss my dinner each night was a salad plate full of lettuce with 0 cal dressing and 3 oz of talapia. I still felt hungry after that most nights, but what I did was wait 1 hour and if I still felt hungry I had another salad plate full of lettuce. About half the time I never went back for the 2nd plate of lettuce. After the hour mark my brain and stomach caught up with each other.

[Librarygirl]

I haven't tried anything that you mentioned, but I have found that a cup of broth can extend the time I can go before eating. Also, ptereostylbene seems to help me (and others) and reportedly has other health benefits. I use Blu To Go (found at drugstore). I have tried L-Glutamine as well and it helps too.

[hot-in-texas]

Love this type of info unna, especially when it is researched and placed before me for my education and reading pleasure! Thx for the info, this sounds like a good tool for those ravenous days, I haven't purposely tried what you are saying, but I must have had times, like month or year long periods when my ghrelin hormone was way too high.
I know what you mean about fasting and the intense concentration, it also comes with creativity, calm and energy. That is what I experience on good DDs.
Regarding olive oil, my 21 year old son started a paleo diet, and since we didn't have any healthy salad dressings in the house, he began using olive oil on his salads, also all of his foods are cooked in olive oil. He has almost zero appetite. I counted his calories a few days ago because I started worrying about him, and he had been eating under 700 daily, probably under 600! He has started incorporating white rice, potatoes and apples to get his calories higher, but I'm thinking the olive oil must have altogether killed his appetite.