Walnuts reduce hunger and cravings by changing your brain

( Natural News ) Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found that walnuts can “trick” your brain into feeling full by activating an area in the brain that regulates hunger and cravings. The study, published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism , is the first of its kind to directly explore the neurocognitive effects that the nuts have on the brain. “We don’t often think about how what we eat impacts the activity in our brain,” explained Dr. Olivia Farr, the study’s first author and an instructor at BIDMC’s Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism . “We know people report feeling fuller after eating walnuts , but it was pretty surprising to see evidence of activity changing in the brain related to food cues, and by extension what people were eating and how hungry they feel.” For the study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand how eating walnuts satiates cravings and changes activity in the brain. They also conducted a test, where they invited 10 volunteers with obesity to stay in BIDMC’s Clinical Research Center for two five-day sessions. This allowed the researchers to fully monitor the participants’ nutritional intake, rather than relying on unreliable self-reported food records. During the five-day session, participants regularly consumed smoothies every day. However, one session had smoothies with 48 grams of walnuts, as recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines, and the other had a “walnut-free but nutritionally comparable placebo smoothie,” that was made to taste exactly like the smoothie that contained walnuts. As this was a randomized, double-blind study, neither the participants nor the researchers knew which sessions were the ones where the walnut-containing smoothies were consumed. Support our mission and enhance your own self-reliance : The laboratory-verified Organic Emergency Survival Bucket provides certified organic, high-nutrition […]

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