Nothing scuppers your diet plans than getting to the end of a ‘healthy’ meal and feeling totally unsatisfied, knowing full well that you’ll be craving a snack in no time at all…
But, it looks like you might be able to boost your satiety levels while sticking to a low-calorie meal – and all it takes is the addition of a simple food: mushrooms.
That’s according to research by scientists at the University of Minnesota, who say that mushrooms really could be a bit magic…
The new study on satiety, just published in the journal Appetite, showed that eating a breakfast including mushrooms may result in less hunger and a greater feeling of fullness compared to a meal containing meat.
Participants were given either white button mushrooms or lean beef in the 10-day study, and portion sizes were based on them consuming the same amount of protein and calories.
Given that mushrooms have a lower protein content than meat, this meant the volunteers either had to consume 226g of mushrooms or just 28g of beef.
And, lo and behold, those who had eaten the mushrooms reported significantly less hunger, greater fullness and to have eaten less later in the day compared to those who had tucked into meat.
‘Previous studies on mushrooms suggest that they can be more satiating than meat, but this effect had not been studied with protein-matched amounts until now,’ said study author Joanne Slavin in a release.
‘As with previous published research, this study indicates there may be both a nutritional and satiating benefit to either substituting mushrooms for meat in some meals or replacing some of the meat with mushrooms.’
