Hormones ion pine nuts that help you feel full

The pinolenic acid in pine nut oil helps dieter eat less by affecting two important hormones. These are cholecystokinin (abbreviated CCK) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (abbreviated GLP-1).

CCK is the hormone that makes comfort food comforting. When a meal that is partially digested from foods rich in fat and proteins leaves the stomach to enter the small intestine, the duodenum, which is the first part of the small intestine to receive food, secretes CCK.

CCK sends a signal to the gallbladder to release bile to dissolve fat and keep it from "floating" in the mass of digested food. It also triggers the release of pancreatic enzymes. CCK slows down the entry of food going into top of the small intestine, keeping it in the stomach. This leads to comfortably feeling full.

The pinolenic acid in pine nut oil also activates GLP-1. This hormone is produced in the ileus, a section of the small intestine further away from the stomach than the duodenum. The digested food that gets away from the duodenum is stopped at the ileus. This slows down digestion of food even more, and helps the user of pine nut oil to feel even fuller.

 

Does pine nut oil help women lose weight?

The first reports of controlled scientific studies of the benefits of pine nut oil in weight loss appeared in 2006.

Scientists gave eighteen overweight, post-menopausal female volunteers either pine nut oil or olive oil plus a light breakfast, calculated to provide a minimum of calories. The scientists then drew blood samples to measure CCK and GLP-1 and also asked the women how hungry they were.

Although "hunger" is difficult to measure, the results of the experiment were very clear. Women who took pine nut oil were 36 per cent less hungry than women who were given the placebo. Objectively, the women who took pine nut oil with their low-calorie breakfast had higher bloodstream concentrations of CCK and GLP-1.