Ask most paleo experts and they’re adamant about it: Not only is the Paleo Diet healthier, it also naturally suppresses your appetite.
Or does it?
As it turns out, new research examining the Paleo Diet says this all could be a lie.
“Getting to the bottom of how our gut bacteria and diets interact to control appetites is vitally important for tackling the problem of obesity,” says Glenn Gibson, co-author of a new study conducted at the University of Reading. “Understanding how a paleo-like diet impacts the colon’s microbiota and the signals those bacteria produce to release hormones that reduce appetite may give us new insight that we can adapt in the modern world.”
The Research
Examining certain gut microbes of human vegetarians and grass-eating baboons, researchers wanted to find out if eating certain types of fibers, such as plant fibers, suppressed the appetite–something believed in the past to be the case, at least theoretically. Peptide YY and glucagon-like-peptide-1 both release to help suppress the appetite, and researchers assumed it would activate with a high plant fiber diet, something Paleo dieters typically consume.
“One hypothesis for the rise in prevalence of obesity is that physiological mechanisms for controlling appetite evolved to match a diet with plant fiber content higher than that of present-day diets,” write study researchers in their study, published in the journal American Society for Microbiology. “We investigated how diet affects gut microbiota and colon cells by comparing human microbial communities with those from a primate that has an extreme plant-based diet, namely, the gelada baboon, which is a grazer.”
To test this out, they fed both humans and baboons either a potato, a high-starch product, or a predigested plant fiber food. After they did, they then drew bacteria samples from them to see if it produced compounds that would aid in appetite suppression.
As it turned out, bacteria obtained from sources common in the Paleo Diet produced fewer compounds, indicating it wasn’t good for appetite suppression.
“This hints that protein might play a greater role in appetite suppression than the breakdown of starch or fiber,” says Timothy Barraclough, co-author of the study. “More work will be needed to explore the effects of alternative breakdown products of various foods.”
However, researchers point out that Paleo diets are also comprised of high amounts of protein, usually from natural sources. This study shows that protein may play a bigger role than plant proteins when it comes to appetite suppression, however, something in the past not considered to be true.
In short, if you want to lose your appetite, increase your protein intake–not your fiber intake.
What You Should Do
To help lose weight, increasing your fiber intake can help, but don’t expect it to get rid of your hunger pangs. Instead, increase your protein intake. You needn’t nosh on beef and poultry to get in enough protein either–vegetarian sources, such as beans and protein, provide ample amounts of protein to keep you full all day long.
Readers: What are your favorite sources of protein?
Sources:
Study: Paleo Foods Not Good for Appetite Suppression – ASM.org
Paleo Diet May Not Be Good for Appetite Suppression After All – ProHealth.com
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