What Can You Do in Your Daily Routine to Reduce Cravings, Suppress Hunger, and Tame the Hunger Hormone Ghrelin?
The first and most important component that should be included in your diet is not carbohydrates, then protein, and then fat—as many people believe. If you open a biochemistry or science book, you’ll always find essential and non-essential proteins (amino acids) and fats (fatty acids). But you will never find essential or non-essential carbohydrates. That’s because your body can survive without carbs it does not need them in high amounts.
Among carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, protein has the highest Thermogenic Effect of Food (TEF). This means that when you consume protein, it uses up a large portion of its own calories just to digest itself—about 25% to 30% of its calories. This is especially true for animal proteins, which are high-quality proteins. In contrast, plant-based proteins are considered low quality.
When you consume animal proteins—such as red meat, white meat, or eggs—they burn more energy during digestion and boost your body’s calorie-burning process. That’s why protein should be at the top of your diet. Most protein in the body doesn’t go into gluconeogenesis (the process of creating glucose from non-carbohydrates), unless protein intake is excessively high.
Protein is used in your body to:
Make enzymes
Create hormones
Form neurotransmitters for your brain
Build cell receptors (to catch different signals)
Regulate bodily functions
Build muscle proteins
Youthfulness is often characterized by low fat and high muscle mass. When you consume more protein, you boost muscle synthesis. Unless excessively consumed, protein won’t turn into glucose and it also helps reduce carbohydrate cravings.
Always include protein in your breakfast. For example, have two eggs. People who eat eggs in the morning will agree that they experience reduced sugar and carb cravings throughout the day.
Second important component: Healthy Fats.
Don’t run away from desi ghee, egg yolks, coconut oil, olive oil, almonds, seeds, fish, or even animal fat. These are all natural, healthy fats created by God.
Out of carbs, fats, and protein, the only component that does not spike insulin or disturb blood sugar levels is fat. Cravings usually occur when blood sugar levels spike and crash repeatedly. This happens due to white bread, bakery items, croissants, pasta, donuts, and pies—foods many people eat at breakfast. Ironically, people avoid things like whole grains or chapatis made with desi ghee thinking they will make them fat, while it’s actually the bakery items doing the harm.
Apple Cider Vinegar (100% raw and organic) is a powerful appetite suppressant. Just add a few drops into a glass of water and drink it with a straw about 30 minutes before breakfast. It suppresses appetite in a similar way to fat, by keeping blood sugar stable. Apple cider vinegar is also great for burning belly fat.
Include healthy fiber in your diet such as multigrains. Although fiber is technically a carbohydrate, it's a complex carb. It doesn't act like simple carbs (like white bread or pasta) that disrupt blood sugar levels. Complex fiber forms a gel in your stomach, retains water, and slow digestion. This delays stomach emptying, provides food for good gut bacteria, and helps eliminate excess cholesterol and toxins.
Another great way to suppress appetite is understanding the hunger and thirst centers in the brain overlap. Often when you feel hungry, you’re actually just thirsty. So when you feel hungry, drink two glasses of water first. If your hunger disappears in 20 minutes, it means you were just thirsty. If not, then it was true hunger.
For a bonus, mix 1 teaspoon of 100% organic green powder like moringa or amla powder into your water. This way, you’ll get hydration plus fiber, and both moringa and amla are excellent appetite suppressants.
Exercise—especially a morning walk—is another powerful appetite suppressant.
Exercise activates anti-hunger molecules in your brain, including a mix of lactate and phenylalanine, and also helps suppress the hunger hormone ghrelin.