Your Fat Tooth
by: Mama Mia
You are not craving sugar but Fat!!!
This may come as a surprise, but when you have food cravings- especially
for sweets, snacks and carbs- what your body really wants is fat.
In his book Controlling Your Fat Tooth, author Joseph Piscatella says:
“For years it was thought that the desire for ice cream,
candy, and dessert was the result of cravings for sugar, or the
so-called ‘sweet tooth.’ Research now suggests that the basic
craving really is for fat, and that it is governed by biology, not
willpower. Characterized as a ‘fat tooth,’ this craving
predisposes some people to go for apple pie instead of an
apple.”
The problem is, when you have a craving for sweets, what your body
really wants is fat. This is why it’s so hard to stop at one chocolate chip cookie.
You can go through half the bag before your body starts to satisfy the real
craving… fat.
Remember the Lay’s Potato Chip slogan, “No one can eat just one?” Now
you know why.
Dietary fat is the regulator of appetite. Consuming small amounts of
healthy fat, by eating a few ounces of white cheese (Swiss, Jack, or Muenster)
triggers the release of a chemical Cholecystokinin, or “CCK”. This is the
chemical that tells your body it is no longer hungry- also known as the “full
reponse.”
Without fat, your body can’t produce CCK. Which means that you don’t
feel full. Until you’re halfway through that bag of cookies.
It takes the body about 45 minutes to produce and release this chemical
that stops your hunger. The trick is to eat small amounts of healthy fat before you
get hungry. And to reach for the (healthy) fat instead of the sweets and carbs.
One of the large pharmaceutical companies has announced plans to
market a nasal spray containing CCK as a treatment for obesity later this year.
Until then, you’ll need to make your own. And your body will do it for you, with a
little time, and a little fat.
More foods that contain healthy fats: avocado, nuts and seeds, sugar-free
peanut butter, salmon, sardines, trout, flaxseed oil, butter, and eggs.
