If you're famished, eat a little fat
before you sit down for a meal. Did we say fat?
Yes, but we're talking about the good kind. Eating some healthy fat 20 minutes before a meal can keep you from stuffing yourself. It fools your brain into thinking you're not as hungry as you thought. And your waist will reap the rewards. How does healthy fat do it?
Get the Message
About 70 calories of
healthy fat just before you eat -- that's 6 walnuts, 12 almonds, or 20 peanuts -- can trick you into thinking you're full. Eating good fats stimulates the production of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that tells your brain you've had enough to eat and then keeps you feeling full by slowing the emptying of your stomach.
(Bread dipped in this oil will also do it.) So when you sit down for a meal, you'll eat for pleasure, not for hunger, and you'll be likely to eat less.
Read how eating too much saturated fat may actually make you hungrier.
Slow It Down
Because the average person is finished eating long before his or her brain gets the fullness signal, you should eat slowly. Quickly downing your food won't give your satiety hormones time to kick in.
Another way to a trimmer waist? Don't skip this meal.
RealAge Benefit: Eating only healthful fat can make your RealAge 3.4 years younger.
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