The Connection Between Coffee And Hunger

A group of researchers wondered whether or not drinking coffee makes you hungrier. Find out the connection between coffee and the feeling of hunger in the next article. The results are surprising!

Coffee: the most popular drink

There is evidence that appetite is controlled by complex systems that also depend on what we eat or drink (including coffee). A group of scientists wanted to know if the most popular drink in the world has any influence on the feeling of hunger.

Many people drink coffee to control their appetite. True, coffee helps you to be more energetic and alert. Moreover, it improves physical abilities and decreases appetite. However, there are studies that show that if you want to lose weight, it is better to drink it decaffeinated.

But be careful, you can’t spend the whole day with a cup of coffee in your hand, because you will be too “awake” to be able to rest properly. Moreover, experts say that when you want to lose weight, it is better to drink green tea.

So is coffee a healthy food? Depends. Not all people metabolize coffee in the same way. This drink alters neurotransmitters and hormones (especially cortisol and insulin). This explains why coffee “awakens” some and “puts others to sleep”. This effect also depends on other factors: the amount of coffee drunk, the time of day you drink it, your age and physical constitution, etc.

Are you hungry for coffee or not?

Hormones influence appetite and satiety. For this reason, you are hungry at certain times of the day, and not at other times. Women, for example, eat more when they are hungry or during menstruation. Men tend to eat more during stressful or tense periods.

There are three hormones that control hunger: ghrelin, leptin and YY peptide. The first is secreted in the stomach, the second is synthesized in fat cells, and the third is found in the intestine.

When it comes to coffee, it may help you lose weight, but it may not. How? By changing the production of each hormone. The same goes for mood. Have you noticed that when you are hungry, you are angry and irritable, and after you eat, you are happier?

The researchers considered two hypotheses about the connection between coffee and hunger:

• Hypothesis no. 1: coffee (with or without caffeine) reduces the feeling of hunger, the level of leptin and ghrelin and increases the feeling of satiety and the level of peptide YY.
• Hypothesis no. 2. The same effects apply as in the first case, except that they last for only 60 minutes after a meal or for 120 minutes, as long as it takes the body to digest food.

Studies performed

A group of volunteers drank coffee and then explained its effects over the next three hours after consumption. The conclusions are as follows: 

• Caffeine decreases appetite, and decaffeinated coffee minimizes the feeling of hunger (as well as the level of the two hormones associated with it) and increases the level of peptide.

• A higher amount of YY peptide is equivalent to a lower feeling of hunger. People who underwent the experiment claimed that they were not hungry in the first three hours after drinking coffee. However, the peptide level began to drop after an hour and a half.
• Another interesting fact is that the decrease in appetite and the increase in peptide levels remained the same until after a glucose consumption. Thus, we understand that certain components of coffee do not alter the digestion process.

Probably the reason why coffee quenches hunger is because it changes the hormone of satiety.

Coffee and the feeling of hunger

Coffee contains a large amount of antioxidants, very beneficial for your health. However, some components have a negative effect on certain people, especially if they consume a large amount of coffee. You should not indulge in coffee to reduce your appetite, but it would be better to resort to other strategies.

First, choose to drink decaffeinated coffee and eat healthier foods that have the same effect on the body: an apple, a cereal bar, a banana or even a tomato.

On the other hand, you need to keep in mind that there are several factors that induce hunger. For example, a poor breakfast that does not include fruits, dairy products and cereals; the habit of eating at any time (so-called “snacks”), boredom or lack of motivation; anxiety or stress; hormonal or gland changes (pregnancy, menstrual cycle, thyroid problems) etc.

You can’t expect coffee to become a magical solution for controlling your appetite. If you do not eat properly every day, your stomach will ask for more and more food.