Slimming consists in reducing your body weight in a selected time using additional physical exercises, diet modifications, but also using medications and dietary supplements. Currently, there are a whole lot of slimming diets, more or less effective, but also more or less negatively affecting the health of the slimming person. Slimming is actually a kind of fashion of the modern world. It is difficult to find a person who has not lost weight at least once. What it comes from? Why is it so hard for us to lead a healthy lifestyle? And how to lose weight with your head?
Dietary fiber and spirulina: recommended by specialists
Can slimming pills and dietary supplements really help us get rid of extra pounds in an easy and healthy way? According to Zygmunt Zdrojewicz and his colleagues, the best substances that can be found in slimming preparations are spirulina and dietary fibre. As the authors note spirulina “has been widely used for thousands of years, e.g. in gastronomy, cosmetics and medicine. However, it plays a more significant role in the world, especially in the countries of Asia, America and Africa, than in Poland, where it is often underestimated“1.
Dietary fiber, on the other hand, supports the work of the digestive system and causes a feeling of satiety, which helps to maintain a balanced diet. Quoting Zdrojewicz once again, it is easy to explain that dietary fiber is “(…) polysaccharide similar to starch, however, due to the complexity of the chain in this fiber, it is impossible to digest it in the human digestive tract.“1.
Action of spirulina
Spirulina contains, among others, beta-carotene, vitamin B12, vitamin E, phycocyanin, phycoerythrin, chlorophyll, iodine and gamma-linolenic fatty acid. The slimming properties of spirulina tested by scientists include:
- Neutralization of free radicals, including additional antioxidant properties
- Inhibition of pancreatic lipase and reduction of postprandial glycemia
- Lowering cholesterol
- The development of the immune system, which is extremely important with a diet, especially a restrictive one
- Inhibition of the hunger center – a quick feeling of satiety
Keeping a diet, slimming, and the yo-yo effect
The healthiest diets tend to be those that are less restrictive, but planned from A to Z, lasting longer. Otherwise, rapid weight loss may result in the formation of the so-called. yo-yo effect. Often, people who lose weight notice a quick return to their former weight. As Priya Sumithran and several other scientists point out, this may be due not only to the failure to adhere to the new healthy lifestyle and due to the return to old eating habits, but also due to the change in the level of peripheral hormones involved in, among other things, homeostatic regulation of weight human body. Doctors say that changes in the levels of leptin, insulin, CCK (ang. cholecystokinin), glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide or ghrelin. Slimming as a process is still being studied by scientists in various fields.
Bibliography:
- Z. Zdrojewicz, A. Idzior, O.Kocjan, Spirulina and vital fiber in the treatment of obesity, Borgis — Medycyna Rodzinna, 1/2015.
- P. Sumithran i in., Long-Term Persistence of Hormonal Adaptations to Weight Loss, N. Engl. J. Med., 2011.
- F. Świderski, Convenience Food and Functional Food, Warsaw, 2003.