Which Type of Food is the Most Filling?

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Which Type of Food is the Most Filling?

Posted by: Dr. Mercola
August 17 2007 | 56,148 views

Who will get hungry first when three self-confessed snackaholics are given a meal of mostly protein, carbs, or mostly fat? This British experiment attempts to find out, and solve the burning question of whether proteins, carbohydrates, or fats are the most filling.

After fasting for 12 hours, each man is given a meal consisting of a different food type (with the same portion), including:

High-protein meal (a pasta dinner with more chicken than pasta)
High-carb meal (pasta and tomatoes)
High-fat meal (pasta with a rich, creamy sauce)

How long will it be before each of their usual snack cravings kick in?

You’ll have to watch the video to find out!

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

This simple experiment shows exactly why it’s so important to eat protein with every meal: protein is the most satiating food type, beating out carbohydrates and even fat.

Simply speaking, eating protein helps keep you feeling full longer.

But that’s where the simplicity ends.

The amount, and type, of protein that you need varies dramatically according to your gender, height, weight, exercise levels, and, most importantly, by your nutritional type. The investigators of this mini experiment obviously had no idea of nutritional typing. If they had they might be absolutely shocked at what they would find. A strong carb type would feel absolutely stuffed for many hours on a meatless salad with a no fat dressing, while the same meal would have a strong protein type craving for food in twenty minutes or so.

That would be the better experiment.

Though you certainly need protein, you have individualized requirements for it, and you can decipher your requirements when you determine whether you’re a protein, carb, or mixed nutritional type.

Protein types, as the name implies, do better on low-carbohydrate, high-protein and high-fat diets. A typical ratio might be 40 percent protein and 30 percent each of fats and carbohydrates, but the amounts could easily shift to 50 percent fats and as little as 10 percent carbohydrates depending on individual genetic requirements.

Carb types, meanwhile, normally feel best when the majority of their food is vegetable carbohydrate. Yet they, too, still need some protein and fat in their diets. (Mixed types fall somewhere in between.)

The type of protein that your body thrives on will also vary according to your nutritional type. Protein types, for instance, thrive on high-purine meats like dark-meat chicken, or high-quality steak, while carb types prefer light meats or even beans as their source of protein.

That said, according to my experience, most people generally don't eat enough protein.

Some generally good sources of protein (though you need to find out your nutritional type to really tailor your foods for optimal health) include:

Eggs (ideally, raw and organic)
Grass-fed beef and bison
Free-range, organic chicken and ostrich
Raw dairy products (raw milk, raw-milk cheese, and so on.)
Wild-caught, mercury-free fish (only eat this if you can confirm via lab-testing that it’s not polluted)

When choosing protein sources, it’s extremely important to find high-quality varieties.

These would be grass-fed (not grain-fed) organic meats, raw (not pasteurized) dairy products, and wild-caught (not farm-raised) fish that you KNOW is not contaminated with mercury and other pollutants.

While protein is extremely healthy, you will not be doing yourself a favor by eating grain-fed beef (which is the most widely available in supermarkets), pesticide-laced chicken, or mercury-rich fish, so please pay careful attention to the sources of your protein, and how they’re raised.

Finally, what about protein powders? I’m not a fan of most all protein powders on the market, as many contain inferior sources of protein along with artificial sweeteners and flavors. I do recommend protein powder meals that include Proserum® Whey Protein, along with no artificial sweeteners and flavors that tend to do well for all nutritional types, but particularly well for carb and mixed types.