The Connection of Cravings, Nutrients and Satiety

The Connection of Cravings, Nutrients and Satiety

Producer Potts  0:12  

Is there a connection between satiety and nutrients? Do we crave junk food because we’re missing out on specific nutrients, and will give our bodies the nutrients it needs, i.e. following a nutrivore diet? Will then we decrease our food cravings and ultimately, like make those healthy choices easier, or are we just doomed to fight our fast food and junk food cravings forever.

Dr. Sarah  0:44  

Cravings are so complex and they’re more linked with associative learning than they are to nutrient intake. So more linked to things like our stress levels, our fatigue levels, right? How much sleep have we been getting lately and regularly? So not getting enough sleep will increase cravings. Being stressed will increase cravings. And then what you crave will be very driven by, what was your comfort food when you were for, like, the or what was the thing that your mom made when you were sick? Or what you know, like, what was, what’s your favorite flavor thing, right? So, like, cravings become a very, this is very like psychology research, not necessarily like physiology or nutritional sciences research. So cravings are very, yes, there are some situations where being deficient in a nutrient will increase the like, cravings for that nutrients. That’s fairly well understood for something like salt, but the claims online that, like, if you’re craving chocolate, it’s because you’re deficient in magnesium, etc, etc, etc, that really isn’t shown in the in the scientific research to be true, the craving for chocolate is more of an association with chocolate, and you also happen to maybe not be getting enough magnesium. It’s not because chocolate is high in magnesium, and your body, your body knows.

Producer Potts  2:17  

So it’s so weird. We see those charts everywhere online

Speaker 1  2:23  

like and I think so that’s the thing, with

Dr. Sarah  2:29  

nutrition misinformation online, it makes sense on the surface, right? It makes sense on the surface. Chocolate has a lot of magnesium in it. So if I’m not getting enough magnesium, my body’s going to know that chocolate has a lot of magnesium. So I’m going to want chocolate. Going to want chocolate, like, it’s, it’s logical. It sounds great. That’s where, like, the insulin model of obesity also comes from, like, that same kind of, like, oversimplified logic, like, oh, well, if we have, you know, if we have too much sugar, and that increases our insulin too much, and then we, you know, store that sugar as as a, you know, fat in our adipose tissue. Then, haha, that’s why people gain weight. It’s, I mean, Professor Kevin Hall, who I Stan so much, has done these incredibly rigorous metabolic board studies to show that is not, it’s not how it works. And that’s not like low carb is not a magic way to lose weight. We are off on a tangent and not talking about cravings anymore.

Producer Potts  3:29  

But yeah, well, I did ask you about satiety and nutrients. So is there? Is there a connection there, though, outside of, like, our cravings and associations from when we were young and all of that.

Dr. Sarah  3:41  

So in terms of satiety, we have a variety of, basically hormones that are produced in our gut that go up to our brain and, say, I Captain brain, the GI tract is doing, doing the things we have a variety of, they’re called hunger hormones. So for example, leptin and ghrelin are kind of like the best understood. Ghrelin goes up when we’re hungry, leptin goes up when we’ve eaten. Did I get that in the right order? Yes, I believe I did. So they kind of are like this, the teeter totter, the seesaw hormones that are sort of the big hormones driving hunger, but we’ve got, you know, a bunch of other ones. There’s peptide yy, there’s cholecystokinin, glucagon-like peptide. So there’s, there’s a whole pile of different hormones that are produced by the GI tract that help to tell our brain that we’ve eaten, and they’re sensitive to different macronutrients. So some are more triggered by fat, some are more triggered by protein, some are more triggered by fiber, basically, and then insulin is also like a feedback is also part of the hunger hormone signaling triggered by carbohydrates. So we actually have the. Best, like satiety signaling when we eat balanced meals, so when we’re eating protein, fat, carbs and fiber, right? Like, that’s why a complete meal is more filling than a low carb meal or a low fat meal or a low protein snack, right? Like, or a meal with a lot of refined carbohydrates and not very much fiber. So our hunger signals and satiety signals are definitely impacted by the composition, the macronutrient composition of what we’re eating. So it’s not like I’m not getting enough vitamin C, so I’m hungrier for fruit. I don’t I’m trying to think of what the example there would be but rather that when we consume balanced meals, those tend to fill us up faster and keep us full longer. But there’s also a delay, like 20 ish minutes between when food is like, being consumed and gets to the right place to make the hormones. And the hormones have to get in our bloodstream and go up to our brain and, like, bind with receptors and do all various signaling in our brain. So there’s also, that’s why you can, like, go from like, hungry and eat really quickly and like, all of a sudden be like, way over full. It’s because of that delay. So that’s why, and often, actually, like, adding dessert is something like, Can there’s right? There’s some hunger signals that are very sensitive to sugar, that can be like, you can go from Yes, unkind to full to like, way over full. It’s because of both this delay and the fact that our satiety signals are very complex and driven by a lot of different hormones that kind of work in concert. So did that answer the question? That’s my question,

Producer Potts  6:45  

yes. But I’m curious, is there a connection between like, if we have like, a really nutrient dense meal, does that automatically mean we’re going to be satiated like, or is it more about the balance of the composition of the meal? Or do they go hand in hand? Because I know, like, there’s some foods on the Nutrivore site that are so nutrient dense, but they’re very low in calories. So it’s not always about, and I know you’ve said we don’t always want to go for the highest nutrient density, but like, Is there also a connection there, I guess so.

Dr. Sarah  7:27  

So let me backup and talk about the society of ultra processed foods, because I think that’s kind of like a sideways way of getting at this question. So there was Professor Kevin Hall, my favorite, my favorite researcher in Nutritional Sciences who did a study a few years ago where he did crossover design, so they had the same participants do one arm of the study for two weeks, and then they switched and did the other arm of the study. So some people did Ultra processed foods first and Whole Foods second, and some people did Whole Foods first and ultra processed foods second. And what they did was when they were eating the ultra processed food. In the study, 83% of their calories came from ultra processed foods versus Whole Foods. Also, 83% of their calories came from Whole Foods. Now, what was so brilliant about this study was that the meals that people were presented with were matched for protein, fat, carbs, fiber, salt, sugar, like all of the things that are sort of known to potentially impact satiety. So the only thing that was different was basically like, how refined these foods were, and that, like, addictively delicious quality that ultra processed foods have. While on the ultra processed food arm of the studies, study participants ate an average of 500 calories more per day, which means that over two weeks, they gained two pounds. Then when they were on the whole foods arm of the study, they ate 500 calories less, less they lost those two pounds. So depending on what order, they either gained weight and then lost weight, or they lost weight and then gained weight, right? And it’s a very good example of the difference in satiety like and where dopamine is playing in effect, right? Because these are foods that increase the dopamine response, it shows you just how complex satiety is, and the big difference is whole foods that are more nutrient dense. So they’re separate studies that show that the more Ultra processed foods we eat, the more likely we are to fall short in a whole collection of essential vitamins, minerals as well as fiber. So it really shows you how much more satiating a whole foods based diet is compared to a diet that is over abundant in Ultra processed foods, not that all Ultra processed foods are bad or that we need to avoid them completely, but rather, we want to stick to maybe 20% of our calories coming from ultra processed foods, and certainly not 60% which is the average American diet, or 80% like in this study, that being said like that’s kind of like the data that we have to. Show that more nutrient dense Whole Foods are more satiating. We don’t actually have good studies that go okay, this meal that provided this much of vitamins and minerals versus this meal that provided this higher amount or lower amount of the same vitamins and minerals. Which one’s more satiating? And people are quiet, you know, people are quite different. So what is more like? Even how much you’re enjoying a food will impact how filling it is. So there’s been studies where they give people, like, really bland foods or the same, like smoothies for every single meal, and the people will eat less and less and less over time, as they get, like, tired of that bland, boring, same every single meal of food. So I think I’m trying to say it’s like, really complex. So I cannot make a claim that, you know, eating a more nutrient density, choosing more nutribore foods is going to fill you up faster, because there’s so many different things that go into appetite, hunger and satiety and cravings, but overall, whole foods are more so satiating than Ultra processed foods. A balanced diet is more satiating and will keep you full longer than macronutrient manipulation diets, at least carbohydrates and fat protein is more filling than carbohydrates or fat, so having a higher protein meal and having a higher fiber will keep you full longer. So more protein, more fiber will help keep you full longer. But it’s, I don’t think there’s like the part of your question of, will eating a more nutrient dense diet, like, kill my cravings, problems like, sadly, no, just because cravings come from such a different place.

Producer Potts  11:50  

right? This makes a lot of sense, though, it really does. I mean, yeah, it does. It does because it’s, it’s, it’s almost a bit freeing too, because it just shows how complex that all is, it’s not our fault. It’s not like we’ve made a moral failure or we didn’t have the willpower, right? So I think that’s, that’s such excellent information,

Dr. Sarah  12:14  

yeah, and I think information that’s maybe not out there enough. I think there’s a lot of guilt and blame when we have cravings or eat something that maybe wasn’t part of our plan, but I think understanding just how complex appetite and hunger and satiety and cravings all are can really go a long way to developing a healthier relationship with food and ourselves.