Natural appetite suppresants that are great for your diet

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Sep 08, 2015 06:23 AM EDT

For dieters, it's important to pepper daily meals with food that are not only healthy (like high-fiber, nutrient-rich salads and fruits) but also can help suppress appetite and nasty cravings. POPSugar sheds some light on the foods that you should slip into your diet to help keep your cravings at bay.

Julie Upton, MS, RD, of Appetite for Health wrote in POPSugar, "It's hard to walk around feeling famished, particularly when you're faced with the temptation of high-calorie treats everywhere you turn."

This is something we could all relate to. She said: "The good news is that several new studies have identified compounds in certain foods that trigger the release of hormones in the stomach that help you feel full and neurotransmitters in the brain that suppress appetite and reduce cravings."

According to Upton, an apple a day not only keeps the doctor away, but also helps fill you up thanks to its soluble fiber and ursolic acid, a natural compound that boosts fat burn. The great thing about apples is that it can easily be a snack, or an add-on to your morning breakfast oatmeal. You can even add it to your salads. Upton recommends to eat the skin as well, as the ursolic acid and other antioxidants are found in the skin.

You may also opt for mangoes—Upton said that according to a study in the The Journal of Nutrition and Food Sciences, those who consume mangoes weigh less than their counterparts who do not include mangoes in their diet. Mangoes are very nutritious, as it contains bioactive ingredients such as mangiferin, which studies say reduces body fat and controls body sugar levels.

Moving on to salad ingredients, you might want to funnel in some fennel into your greens, as Men's Fitness reports that aside from being high in calcium, rich in niacin, and packed with Vitamin C, fennel is actually a great source of dietary fiber and iron, and is a natural appetite suppressant.

Add eggs to your salad, too (or any meal for that matter), as according to Upton, consuming a high-protein breakfast helps suppress ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates your appetite, while elevating the hormones peptide YY and GLP-1, which are responsible for making you feel satiated. Moreover, there are a ton of health benefits to consuming eggs, as new research shows.

In order to keep your appetite in check, don't cut out all fat. FOX News reports that according to dietician and author Cynthia Sass, oleic acid is a "good" type of fat which helps the small intestine produce oleoylethanolamide, a compound that is responsible for telling your brain that you are no longer hungry. Oleic acid is found in nuts, avocado, and extra virgin olive oil, so it's best to keep those handy at home.

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