The Relationship Between Coffee And Hunger

A group of researchers wondered if coffee makes you more or less hungry. Learn about the relationship between coffee and hunger in the following article. The results will surprise you!

Coffee, the most popular drink

There are facts that show that hunger and appetite are controlled by complex systems and are affected by what we eat or drink (including coffee). A group of researchers wanted to find out if the most popular drink in the world also has an effect on our hunger.

Many people use regular coffee to control their appetite. It is true that coffee gives you a good amount of energy and makes you more alert. It will even improve physical performance and suppress appetite. But there are studies that show that if you want to lose weight, it is best to drink decaffeinated.

Be careful, you can not drink coffee all day. Then you will be too awake to rest, for example. Experts on the subject say that to lose weight it is best to drink green tea.

So, is coffee healthy? It depends on. Not everyone burns coffee in the same way. What you need to know is that this drink changes your neurotransmitters and hormones (especially cortisol and insulin ). This is why coffee “wakes up” some people and makes others “fall asleep”. This can change according to how much you drink, time of day, your age, how your physique is, and the like.

Does coffee make you hungry or not?

Hormones affect your appetite and satisfaction. Therefore, you may be hungrier at certain times of the day than others. Women eat more when they are hungry or when they are menstruating. Men can eat more when they are under a lot of pressure or stress.

There are three hormones responsible for hunger: ghrelin, leptin, and peptide YY. The first is excreted in the stomach, the second is synthesized in fat cells, and the third is found in the intestine.

In relation to coffee, these can help you lose weight or not. How? By modifying the production of each hormone. The same thing happens with the mood. Have you ever noticed that when you are hungry you get angry or irritable, but after you eat, you are happy? Remember the popular saying: “without food and drink the hero is not good enough.”

Researchers have evaluated two hypotheses to find out what the relationship between coffee and hunger is:

• Hypothesis 1: coffee (decaffeinated or caffeinated) reduces hunger, leptin and ghrelin and increases well-being and peptide YY.
• Hypothesis 2: The same effects as in the first hypothesis, but with the exception that they only last for 60 minutes after eating or during the 120 minutes the body takes to digest the food.

A group of volunteers drank coffee and then explained how they felt three hours later. The conclusions they came to are:

• While caffeine is used to suppress appetite, the decaffeinated type caused the lowest levels of hunger (along with the two hormones) and an increase in peptide.
• Higher amounts of peptide YY mean less hunger. Those who performed the experiment have stated that they had no appetite for three hours, but their levels of PYY were reduced after an hour and a half.
• Another interesting finding was that the reduction in hunger and the increase in peptide remained the same before and after glucose intake. What can be assumed from this is that some of the components in coffee do not alter digestion.

Perhaps the reason why coffee reduces hunger is that it modifies the satisfying hormone.

Coffee and hunger: is there a connection?

It is worth mentioning that coffee has a lot of antioxidants, which are beneficial to health. However, some of the components are negative for some people, especially if they drink too much of it. If you “trust” caffeine to suppress your appetite, you should start considering a different strategy.

First, drink decaffeinated coffee and then eat other healthy foods that have the same effect on your body. For some people this is an apple, for others an energy bar; some like to eat a banana and others go for a tomato.

On the other hand, keep in mind that there are other factors that make you hungry. For example, a deficient breakfast that does not include fruit, dairy products and grains. When the stomach is used to eating at any time (“snacks”). When you get bored or lack motivation. Whether you have anxiety or are stressed. Changes in hormones or glands (pregnancy, menstruation, thyroid problems), and the like.

You can not expect coffee to be a magical solution for the appetite. If you do not eat properly every day, your stomach is more likely to ask for more and more food.