You just had a delicious and filling dinner with your friends at the new hotel that has opened up in your area, and are now travelling back home. Stopping at a traffic signal, you see a Vada Pav stall and begin drooling. The smell of the deep fried Vada is making you hungry all over again, and before you know it, you are munching on a Vada Pav! But wasn’t your tummy full a little while ago?
Unexpected Hunger Pangs!
Many of us have occasionally fallen prey to unexpected hunger pangs that most often result in a minor weight gain as we end up eating more, despite being full. And if you were to put together these entire ‘mini–weight’ gains, it would surely amount to a considerable weight gain!
But have you ever wondered what prompts these sudden yet unexpected hunger pangs? Could it be the food that you ate....Indeed it can be! For there are some food ingredients that can fool your body into thinking that it has ‘not had enough’, leading to re-bound hunger or those nasty unexpected hunger pangs.
Can unexpected hunger pangs be controlled?
Sure. But to do so, we first need to know what causes them. Doing a bit of research we found out the following reasons that can make you suddenly feel hungry despite being full.
Adele Davis, a famous American Nutritionist, has famously said “Eat Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”. She couldn’t have been more right! A study conducted on 6,764 healthy people for four years found that people who had a heavy breakfast gained less weight as compared to those who had a light breakfast. Having a heavy breakfast is necessary because it ensures that you have fewer and smaller peaks in your blood sugar and insulin throughout the day, which basically means that you have to face a fewer number of the unexpected hunger pangs through the day.
Another reason behind having a nutritious yet filling breakfast is that you won’t feel hungry till lunch time and thus will end up cutting down on the desire for in-between snacking that would have occurred!
- You avoid the ‘Leafy Green Stuff’
A study conducted on the link between consumption of green leafy vegetables and weight loss in dieters found that those who consumed green leafy vegetables and had high levels of Folate (naturally forming folic acid) lost 8.5 times more weight than those who had low levels of Folate! This was because high levels of Folate aid in preventing weight gain!
Even us Indians, of whom 31% are vegetarians, are found to be avoiding green leafy vegetables instead opting for Potatoes or other non-leafy green vegetables! But did you know that eating your leafy green vegetables will help you to curb down your cravings, as they contain Vitamin K, a vitamin that helps in regulating Insulin levels and thereby helps you to avoid those unexpected hunger pangs!
- You prefer Milk in your Tea!
We Indians prefer drinking their Chai with Milk and that is precisely where we lose out on the tea's benefits! Surprised, don’t be? As research has proven that drinking black tea is helpful in cutting down the sudden cravings one may experience even after having had a heavy meal!
A study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that those who drank black tea after consuming a meal high in carbohydrates had a 10% lower blood sugar levels than those who did not drink black tea, for a time period of close to 3 hours, meaning they didn’t experience any untoward hunger pangs during those 3 hours.
- Maybe you are drinking too many soft drinks?
With us preferring Colas, Iced Teas and other sweetened beverages over good ol’ water, we have been ingesting high levels of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), unknowingly. This is because soft drink manufacturers find using HFCS much cheaper than real sugar!
While manufacturers stand to gain from the use of HFCS, it is us the consumers who are at a disadvantage as HFCS hinders the body’s ability to use Leptin, which is better known as the ‘satiation hormone’. The role of Leptin is to let our body know when it has had enough, but with HFCS inhibiting it and giving a make belief sense of having had enough, the body does not understand whether it’s really had enough, which invariably leads to the sudden cravings!
Did you know that most times when you are accosted by sudden hunger pangs, it’s simply your body’s way of telling you that it is thirsty! And with the body being made up 65-70% of water, dehydration easily mimics the signs of hunger, leading to sudden cravings which could easily have been satisfied by drinking water!
Quoting Gabriel Cousens, a famous M.D who says: “When you start to hydrate by drinking enough water, your perceived appetite goes down because you’re fulfilling what your body actually needs—which is water!”
Well, those were some of the main reasons why you may find yourself craving for food at all times, but we are sure that the next time you find yourself drooling over a Vada Pav, just after lunch, you will drink water instead!
