Key takeaway 1 : Hormones and neurons work hand in hand regarding hunger

The hormones and nervous system cooperate to regulate hunger and satiety.

Key takeaway 2 : It's not all about the taste receptors

Tactile feedback e.g. chewing can help regulate hunger. For example, chewing on celeri sticks can help. In fact, chewing on anything that isn't sugary should help.

Key takeway 3 : Hunger controlling neurons

Apart from the ventromedial hypothalamus that plays a role in hunger (damage it and you can get extreme food behaviors like eating way too much or the opposite completely avoiding food), other part of the brain, the arcuate nucleus, secretes very important hormones.

He secretes AGRP and MSH. AGRP goes up when we haven't eatend in some time and MSH goes up when we have eaten.

Key takeaway 4 : Our friend, the sunlight, is back!

MSH, melanocytes stimulating hormone, really puts a break on the huger feeling. It can make people stop eating.

And what stimulates MSH producton ? Light to the eyes!

Key takeaway 5 : Ghrelin creates hunger

Another hormone, ghrelin, determines hunger. And ghrelin is secreted by mealtimes habits. Think pavlovian-life effects. You start getting hungry at times related to your typical eating schedule.

And therefore, one can control that hunger feeling by controlling its eating habits. Now, to start shifting that, it will be difficult at first because ghrelin will be secreted at normal eating times. And apparently it's best to shift typical times by bouts of 45 minutes per day.

Key takeaway 6 : CCK, effective at suppressing appetite for a period of time and stimulated by Omega-3 amino-acids

CCK (Cholecystokinin) has been studied as a drug that could be "the magic pill" against obesity (as leptin was at some point). And as a drug, CCK has too strong side effects to be considered.

However, when released in normal levels by the gut, it's pretty effective at suppressing appetite for a period of time. And there are healthy and direct ways to activate CCK.

The ways that stimulate the release of CCK are ingesting fatty-acids, amino-acids and sugars. Now, sugars can't be considered because altough they stimulate CCK, they have other effects that acutally increase cravings for sugar.

And a particular type of fatty-acids : Omega-3 so fish oil, krill, algae. And particular amino-acids (e.g. L-glutamine)

Key takeaway 7 : Eating is foraging for fats and amino-acids

Studies have demonstrated that animals and humans eat until they reach certain amounts of fats, omega-3, omega-6, CLA (Conjugated linoleic acids) and amino-acids. In other words, even if it's not conscious, we are eating until we trigger the activation of cck.

Key takeaway 8 : Avoid emulsifiers (processed foods…)

Processed foods and emulsifiers are bad for a lot of reasons.

But in the context of the particular discussion we have here, they are bad because they strip away the mucosal lining of the gut. Therefore, some neurons get deeper into the gut and when ingesting foods, signals like cck never get deployed.

So to make it really clear and simple. Emulsifiers from highly processed foods are limiting your guts ability to detect what's in the foods you eat, and therefore to deploy the satiety signals, the signals that shut down hunger.

Furthermore, processed foods usually contain lots of sugars. And sugars increase dopamine (talked about in another episode) that make you want more of that food.

See what they did there ? They created foods that make you (your body, your nervous system) of how much food you have ingested and in the same time make you want crave more of that same food. That's just terrible.

Key takeaway 9 : The other hormone that manages hunger : insulin

Insulin is used to break down glucose and transport it to to appropriate tissues. Healthy range of glucose is called euglycemic range and is about 70 to 100 nanograms per deciliter. Having higher concentration is dangerous because too high glucose can damage the neurons. That's why diabetic people lose sensations in fingers, feets and can sometimes even go blind.

When you eat food (protein, carbohydrates or fats), it's broken down into glucose at some point.

Key takeaway 10 : Food order matters

Big increases in insulin (and therefore in glucose and therefore in dopamine) tends to make you want to eat more of whatever you are having. Restaurants serving bread or chips or appetizers before the meal ? That's why !

So eating carbohydrates first will have that effect. While eating fibrous things (unless they are coated in sugar or similar) will tend to slow down the insulin spike when you eat carbohydrates after them.

So if you are very hungry and need energy, eat the carbohydrates first or mix everything with carbohydrates (e.g. hamburger which is carbo + protein + fats). If you want to better control your satiety, eat fibrous things first then proteins then carbohydrates.

Key takeaway 11 : Exercising blunts blood glucose

Performing exercise before a meal or during a meal blunts the blood glucose and can therefore be beneficial. And the more intense the exercise was, the greater the effect. That's because glucose will be moved from blood to glycogen and muscles stores to replenish energy stores.

Key takeaway 12 : Exercise helps with blood glucose regulation

Performing low intensity cardio (zone 2 cardio) helps increase insulin sensitivity. And so generally people that perform regular cardio have very good blood glucose management and they are able to eat very high sugar content food without having any issue e.g. some people become jittery when eating high sugar food or they sweat these are early signs of neurons being attacked by high blood glucose.

On the other side, high intensity training (sprint, weight-lifting, circuit with a certain amount of weight, …) will teach the body to replenish the glycogen stores so to move glucose preferably into the muscles and liver rather than in the adipose tissues. Such trainings will trigger pathways and enzymes that promote replenishing of energy stores.

Key takeaway 13 : Extents of unregulated blood glucose

Unregulated blood glucose can impact LDL and HDL ratio (cholesterlol).

LDL and HDL ratio is important because these compounds coat fats so that they can be delivered into the bloodstream (fats are hydrophobic normally) and get to the correct tissues (liver, ovaries, testes, adrenals)). Having a non-correct ratio means fats get delivered into wrong places e.g. liver causing fatty liver diseases.

Now the subject is complex and not all questions are answered. But research point to that unregulated blood glucose causes a shift toward bad LDL and HDL ratios.