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Univ. of Connecticut: Raisins & Leptin LevelsRaisins Each Day Keep Weight Gain Away?
UConn Study Calls Raisins Pseudo-Appetite Suppressants
POSTED: 2:14 pm EDT May 20, 2009 UPDATED: 9:39 pm EDT May 20, 2009 STORRS, Conn. -- A University of Connecticut study has found that a snack favorite can help stave off hunger, with the results of the study making the front page of a national magazine.
As part of the study, 34 adults between the ages of 50 and 70 were asked to make raisins a regular part of their diet.
Dr. Maria Luz Fernandez, who led her students in the study, said she was surprised to find that raisins increased participants' antioxidant levels, which decreased heart inflammation. She said they also decreased the participants' cholesterol levels.
Further, she said the raisins increased the leptin levels -- the hormone that controls hunger -- in the participants by 42 percent. She said the results indicate that raisins are a pseudo-appetite suppressant.
In its most recent issue, Women's World magazine asks its readers to try the UConn raisin diet and eat meals like raisin breakfast burritos and raisins as a snack.
The woman gracing the cover of the Women's World issue claims she lost 7 pounds in one week on the diet.
"Raisins can help you lose weight," Fernandez said. "Subjects taking the raisins felt pretty satisfied, and they controlled their food intake."
In all, the study participants ate a cup of raisins per day, but Fernandez said that was done to speed up the results.
She said the average person should eat one 100-calorie box of raisins each day because raisins are high in sugar. One box of raisins contains 20 grams of sugar, she said.
The participants in the study also had to walk, she said, working their way up to about 1,200 steps per day.
Fernandez also said she recommends skipping desert with the raisin diet. By the end of the diet, she said, she hopes dieters naturally find themselves reaching for bad stuff less often.
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