Curb Cravings With Pine Nuts: Natural Appetite Suppressant

Posted on 2 April 2008 under Uncategorized

Curb Cravings With Pine Nuts: Natural Appetite Suppressant

By: Diana Walker

If you have not tried the simple pine nut, you will be amazed at the healthy punch this tiny nut packs. Its key benefit is that it suppresses hunger and tells your brain ?Thanks, but I am already full.? Additionally, it slows the emptying of your stomach, again helping you feel full. These benefits are due to a powerful hormone called cholecystokinin (or CCK.)

Siberians used a handful of nuts to sustain them on long hunting trips and as a way to maintain their energy. Portable, tasty and offering a long-lasting fill, they were the perfect trail mix. Still today, in Siberia, a handful of pine nuts precede a meal, setting the stage for a moderate meal.

Pine nuts are delicious with a mild, nutty flavor and contain certain fatty acids that can help suppress hunger. One ounce of pine nuts (approximately ¼ cup) has 190 calories, 19 g of fat and only 4 g of carbohydrates. They contain more protein that any other nut or seed as well as a variety of vitamins and nutrients such as: vitamins E, B1, B2, and B3, beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) as well as essential amino acids, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium and zinc.

Pinolenic acid is a polyunsaturated fat that encourages two hormones (including CCK) that suppress hunger. It has been studied extensively and is included in many appetite suppressing diet formulas. It signals to your brain that you aren?t hungry any more. These same hormones are included in both pine nuts and pine nut oil.

The secret of CCK