Diet Hack: Foods that Make You Feel Full
Written by Michele Vieux
Most of us have spent some amount of time monitoring our caloric intake and it can be TORTURE waiting for that next meal when you’re hungry NOW. Here’s a diet hack that will keep you from murdering someone due to hangriness. The following foods will keep you feeling full for a couple hours or even more without piling on the pounds and they even contain nutritional benefits, many of which are often lacking from the modern Western diet. Try tasting these things between meals and/or adding them to your meals so you can make it to the next one without having a snacksident.
We all know we should eat more of it…Fiber! Fibrous Foods will not only fill you up, they provide you with important bits to keep your digestive tract clean and healthy. There are two different types of fiber – soluble and insoluble – and both are important in digestive health.
Soluble fiber attracts water and turns to gel during digestion which slows digestion. Some types of soluble fiber may help lower risk of heart disease. Soluble fiber is found in nuts, seeds, some fruits and vegetables, psyllium, a common fiber supplement, and CHIA SEEDS which is my first hack to share with you.
How to Use Chia Seeds
If you are as old as me, you might remember the Chia Pet and how when you soaked the seeds in water, they produced a gel around them that allowed you to paste them onto a ceramic head, animal or character so that when they sprouted, it looked like hair or fur. Well, it turns out that these seeds are actually food and can be added to almost anything to thicken it, add crunch and add fiber. The thickening and fiber are what make you feel full when you consume them.
Add these little guys to just about anything but remember, they will thicken whatever liquid they touch so keep that in mind when you are using them. Too many will change the consistency of your food drastically and can even make it hard. It turns out that too many will do the same in your digestive tract so start with a small amount in the beginning or you will regret it. Trust me.
I like to add chia seeds to liquids, smoothies, salads (for a crunch) or make this chia pudding – which is Keto-friendly, if you are into that kind of thing. A couple of bites of this will fill you up and satisfy any sweet tooth without blowing your macro count for the day.
Insoluble fiber is found in foods such as fruits and vegetables. It adds bulk to the stool and helps food pass more quickly through the stomach and intestines. I dare you to get fat on vegetables. Now, a pile of veggies won’t keep you full as long as foods packed with soluble fiber but you can pretty much eat as many as you want without worry – unless you eat an entire head of cauliflower in one sitting…again, trust me on this one.
Hot Liquid Hack
Whenever I get hungry between dinner and bed, one of my go-to hacks is to have some hot tea. It’s usually just filling enough to get me through to bedtime without snacking my way there. And there are so many varieties to choose from! Bedtime tea in combo with a couple of common supplements will help you sleep better. And there are many varieties that provide a sweet taste without the sugar so you get your fix without the insulin boost. Just don’t drink too much, too close to bedtime or else you’ll be waking up a few times to pee.
Along those lines, hot soup provides the same benefit and I’ve been known to sip on some bone broth between meals so I don’t bite someone’s head off instead. If you love soup as much as I do then you know that the varieties are endless. You can make it a full meal, a side dish or a sipper between meals – many times without adding many calories. It can even be cold soup and still fill you up!
Those are just a few ideas that I like to use to keep me from losing my you-know-what. How do you keep yourself full and far from hangriness between meals?
References
Lembo AJ. Constipation. In: Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ, eds. Sleisenger and Fordtran’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders; 2016:chap 19.
Threapleton DE, Greenwood DC, Evans CE, et al. Dietary fibre intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2013;347:f6879. PMID: 24355537
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