Cebu City – Leptin and ghrelin are food hormones that greatly influence satiety and hunger. They play a crucial role in regulating our appetite, as well as the satiety feeling or feeling full. These food hormones are linked to why obesity happens, and closely associated with what happens is the person’s lack of sleep. Are you somebody who consistently lacks sleep?
Let’s first tackle “ghrelin”. Ghrelin is also called the hunger hormone or the hormone that increases your appetite. Ghrelin basically signals your brain to increase your appetite. Along with that main purpose it also stimulates the digestive system to regulate the movement of food through the intestines and controls the release of hormones.
The food hormone ghrelin is usually released when your stomach is empty or almost empty. Studies show that ghrelin levels tend to be at its peak before mealtimes.
Leptin on the other hand is the opposite to ghrelin, also called the appetite suppressor or the hormone that gets you feeling full. When leptin is released, it prevents hunger and regulate energy balance so that the body doesn’t trigger a hungry feeling. Leptin in general doesn’t affect you getting hungry but rather acts to alter food intake and control energy expenditure over a long period of time therefore enables to help you to maintain your weight/normal weight.
Regardless of their purpose, they both play an important role in how we maintain our healthy diet. We still need to be consciously aware about how much we eat every day per meal. And to always incorporate nutrient-dense and colorful meals as we go along. // PNFP Siquijor Gab Flores, RND
Sources: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/
