A new study suggests that diets suppress the so-called hunger hormone ghrelin and improve the body's sensitivity to insulin. Ghrelin is a stomach-derived hormone that stimulates appetite. However, its level in the body increases during nighttime fasting when the fasting person is sleeping. The levels decrease after the person has eaten a meal. Fasting leads to an increase in these levels, which is...Fat loss in the abdominal areaas well as an improvement in insulin sensitivity.
People who have higher levels of ghrelin while fasting after weight loss are at lower risk of developing diabetes or other metabolic diseases. According to the study authors, diets containing leafy vegetables and green tea that do not contain red meat are great for this. The results also suggest that ghrelin levels may be a valuable indicator of health after weight loss. Increasing ghrelin levels during fasting may explain why a Mediterranean diet optimizes the microbiome and reduces liver fat. Study participants whoMediterranean dietwith daily consumption of green tea and mankai had twice as high ghrelin levels as those who followed a traditional Mediterranean diet, despite similar calorie restriction and weight loss.
The results of this new research suggest that ghrelin is a key hormonal factor in the diet during fasting. Associated recovery of insulin sensitivity and visceral abdominal fat may accordingly contribute to regression or reduction in disease risk. However, the different, diet-specific response to increasing ghrelin levels during fasting could also indicate a different mechanism. Various nutritional plans, such as the green-Mediterranean diet, reduce the risk of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.This clinical trialexamined fasting ghrelin levels in 294 participants over an 18-month period. During follow-up, the authors assigned subjects with abdominal obesity or dyslipidemia (abnormally elevated blood cholesterol levels) to one of three diets.
