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The problem with this advice is it doesn't take onto count the Glycemic index of the fruit. Case in point - Watermelon and Pineapple. While it seems reasonable to say eat as much fruit as you want, both these items very high glycemic values - above 85 out of a 100 point scale.

Why does this matter? High glycemic foods cause a spike in your blood sugar - this causes hunger, among other things.

The best 'hack' to controlling your hunger is to manage your blood sugar level. By avoiding high glycemic value foods you will curb your hungry. By eating low GI foods you will eliminate your hungry whenever you want. low glycemic value foods have the opposite effect - this is the way to completely control your hunger as I do.

For example, I eat a handful (about 8-12) Almonds when I'm hungry (esp. at night). Almonds have a very low glycemic index, and just eating a small amount will stop your hungry/craving. But it's not just almonds - any low GI value food will have this effect.

Some other suggestions on great low GI snacks:

Apples, Cherries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Grapes, Peaches

Non-Fruit low GI:

Almonds (but not all nuts), Yogurt, Lean Chicken/Turkey, Tuna, Black Beans, Brown Rice (much better than White Rice),

High Glycemic Foods:

Refined sugars (aka anything baked), Watermelon, Pineapple, Jams, Bananas

Keep in mind you shouldn't try to eliminate these foods, but if you are cutting weight then it's good to avoid eating too much of a high GI item to manage your hungry. Personally I try to avoid them still (after losing/getting back into shape), because I never have a desire to binge out anymore.

Incidentally, I recently lost over 24 pounds in 6.5 weeks using these food hacks. I also started playing hockey again (one of the hardest, most thorough workouts out there it turns out), and that caused me to want to be in better shape, so now I'm working out a lot more too. I'd suggest adding in activities you love, hiking, mountain biking - whatever it is just be more active.

Anyway, I discovered this GI 'hack' from my biz partner who is a gym owner and a nationally ranked crossfit athlete, hope that helps!

Good luck!

Best comment I've read the entire thread - people don't realize that the GI of carbs is the most important factor to weight loss. Managing blood sugar and keeping a steady, non-spiking blood sugar level will result in pretty much automatic weight loss, without even having to diet.

My snacks are usually a small handful of almonds and a piece of fruit. Also, you can combine a somewhat high GI fruit like an apple with a handful of nuts, and the fat content will end up lowering the speed at which your body will absorb the sugar from the fruit, which evens out your blood sugar level. There are other fibrous foods that will do this as well.

Managing blood sugar and keeping a steady, non-spiking blood sugar level will result in pretty much automatic weight loss

Keeping a steady, non-spiking blood sugar level will result in no hunger pangs.

The best way I've found to lose weight is to remove sugar, refined flour, processed foods, and grains from my diet. I've replaced them with fruits and veggies. When you reduce your carb intake to under 100 grams per day, your body goes into fat-burning mode (called "ketosis").

There's a lot of science that grounds this - for more check out www.primalblueprint.com or panu.com.

Yet you contradicted him. Are apples low or high GI?

Thanks for both of your comments. They were enlightening.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/topics/glycemic-index#values

I'd say average. Bananas don't have an high GI either, it seems.

True, but separate from GL in this case... so while watermelon has a high glycemic index, it has SO much water : sugar ratio that it's a very different animal from Pineapple.

GI is a great reference point, but be aware that most of the GI numbers for foods are quite old and often inaccurate. For example, look up the GI for dates. You'll probably find 104 (on a scale where pure glucose is 100)...

low GI meals are the important staple of anyones diet, but nearly ANY type of fruit is a healthy substitute for junk food. I think the fruit proponents here all realize you can't be a fruititarian and are simply saying fruit is the easiest way to quit a junk food addiction.

Also a simple hack to lower the glycemic index of anything you eat is to consume it with additional fat or fiber. So a salad\baby greens with olive oil or the higher percent fat nuts like Hazelnuts, Walnuts, Macademia & Brazil.

Yeah this is a really important point for sure that I didn't really capture in my original post.

Anytime you can choose healthy fresh food - fruit or otherwise - you are doing your body good.

It's just important to keep in mind that even fruit can cause you to be more hungry if you aren't careful.

Are you saying that some fruits, like bananas, can make you more hungry when you eat them? I have certainly never experienced this myself. When you're cycling and you haven't eaten enough you can sometimes get incredibly hungry and tired in a short amount of time. I take a ripe and mushy banana with me for when that happens. It fixes the hunger and tiredness very quickly.

I'm certainly no expert on this matter but yes, certain foods do exactly that (like banana's).

I think the key to what you are describing is that you were exercising at the time - taking in something like a banana during that would actually do exactly as you describe - boost your sugar level when you need it the most, aka throw some fuel on the fire.

But again, I'm just a guy that has had tremendous luck with monitoring my GI and my hunger and have a few really knowledgable friends that have helped me along the way.

I have experienced that sometimes eating something can make you more hungry. It happens when you were hungry some time ago but you didn't eat anything. After a while the hunger fades away and when you eat a little bit it comes back. But I haven't noticed this being different for different foods.

So are you saying that if you eat something with a high GI then your blood sugar rises, and this makes you hungry? This seems counterintuitive as high blood sugar usually makes you not-hungry?

I you are interested in glycemic index, be sure to research glycemic load as well. It is a more relevant factor in blood sugar swings a it tracks how quickly sugar is absorbe rather than just the total amount that will be absorbed.

This link actually shows watermelon has a very low GL, suggesting that it shouldn't result in blood sugar spikes:

http://www.tshc.fsu.edu/he/nutrition/nutrition_specialneeds/...

I completely agree with you regarding the fruits (and vegetables!) and GI.

But I also want to really stress that it is VERY important to consume enough foods that come from animals.

Why?

Vitamin B12 http://www.amazon.com/Could-Be-B12-Epidemic-Misdiagnoses/dp/...

It's vital for your health and it burns up especially when stressed.

Took me a long time to find/learn about this.. at that point I was not feeling my limbs really well anymore, started running into walls, could not concentrate, find words, blurred speech, etc.

It's truly a silent crippler, hence my focus on this particular vitamin in this reply.

I think the old idea that gluttony is a carnal desire is false.

The cravings are a mental phenomenon. The mind seeks to be distracted and regards the mouth and tastebuds as an entertainment system. (A sort of lower level alternative to reading aggregator sites.)

Being too full is actually uncomfortable to the body, although one may not notice it initially due to the eating high.

> Not too much variety

Any reason why a smoothie with various fruit and maybe some yogurt wouldn't serve the same purpose? I really enjoy these but haven't been making them for some time. Posts like this give me a little motivation but what's the reason for the lack of variety?

I have no science to back this up, but my gut feeling is that smoothies are like candy, and aren't actually very good for you. The act of blending everything takes all the work out of it, and now there's just a bunch of sugars for your body to absorb.

I like to make my body work for its calories, which is mostly a response to hypoglycemia. Anything I can do to make calories (specifically carbohydrates) harder to digest, the better. Brown rice, whole grains, and whole fruits are far better than their alternatives.

You know, a smoothie can have just about anything in it. Its not hard to make a tasty, ridiculously healthy smoothie. And your claim that blending takes the work out of it for your body couldn't be further from the truth. Blending with a real blender separates nutrients enough for your body to better absorb them.

Even your typical smoothie (bananas, yogurt, and strawberries) contains numerous nutritional benefits; add some of your favorite brown rice, some kale, celery, and honey (you won't taste the difference). You have a healthful and delicious smoothie full of antioxidants, fiber, vitamins, vegetable AND dairy protein, and complex carbs.

It is true that the amount of nutrients in a smoothie is unchanged relative to the whole counterparts. However, I'm willing to bet that the blood glucose response curve of a smoothie is significantly sharper than the whole fruit alternatives due to the ease of digestion.

The peaks in blood glucose are what's really bad for you, and especially bad for me. Therefore, I look out for them and stay the hell away.

Smoothies were one of our model foods in medical school for what's wrong with the American diet.

Why is that?

Blast, I just picked 30 cups of blueberries to freeze for smoothies. Is it really so bad?

Even if you put brown rice in a smoothie, if you blend it enough to break the husk of the rice, it changes from a low GI carb to a high GI carb because your body can absorb the sugar much quicker.

Breaking fruits down into juice definitely changes the GI index of the carb. Check out the difference between eating a whole apple and drinking apple juice. Apple juice is almost like pure sugar, where the fiber in the whole apple causes your body to digest it much slower.

Don't you chew your food? Isn't blending just like a uniform pre-chew?

I don't quite buy this. You're still getting all the fiber in a smoothie, it's just pre-chewed. By the time I swallow a chunk of apple, it's pretty well juiced. The only difference is that actual juice has the solids removed.

It is essential to understand GI not as the contents of an ingredient, but how your blood sugar reacts to you ingesting it. If it is pre-chewed, your body will have an easier time consuming it, and your blood sugar levels will change in a different way then if it is not pre-chewed.

My non-expert undestandung is that glycemic index does refer to the total simple sugar content or food by volume. Glycemic load, aka glycemic load index, is a more recent metric that measures the rate of absorption into the blood stream. This is the largest factor causing large blod sugar shifts, which can lead to fat conversion and lack of concentration.

we get a weekly box from the fruitguys [fruitguys.com] at work. it is like $25 and keeps our office of about 10 covered.

Fruit is a big part of the solution, but if you only stick to that you're going to be left craving fats and protein (and if your stomach is sensitive, feeling sick from all that acidic and sugary fruit). Identify healthy fats and sources of protein. My list includes olive oil, whole-grain bread, low-fat cheese, hummus, avocados. This list may not be the pinnacle of health (I don't know), but it goes a long way towards nutrition and heading off cravings for junk.

Is this true of all cravings? I mean, there are loads of times (now) when I crave Sour Patch Kids or something like that, and I feel like I am just after the taste.

Fruit isn't good for everybody (some have problems to digest the sugar of fruits). Also it seems to contain a lot of sugar overall.