Weight Loss & Control
"Eating fat makes you fat," says Dr. Dean Omish in his "Program for Reversing Heart Disease." A diet rich in pectin can help you fight the battle of the bulge, and here's why: Omish states that pectin has four calories per gram, while fat has nine calories per gram. In addition, nutritionist Robert Pritikin, in his "The New Pritikin Program," says that pectin-rich foods provide "built-in weight control" because they swell inside your stomach and make you feel full and satisfied-and therefore less likely to overeat.
Researchers at Konkuk University in Korea tested the effects of a pectin-containing beverage on food intake levels for healthy but overweight women.
Women who Consumed ProPectin
Twice a day
12%
fewer calories than usual at lunch time
22%
fewer calories than usual at dinner
A study conducted by Dr. Bahram H. Arjmandi, Ph.D., R.D. and Margaret A. Sitton, Professor and Chair, Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercises at The Florida State University, indicates not only a lowering of bad cholesterol in study participants, but also weight loss.
Women who ate dried apples
Daily
23%
decreased LDL cholesterol and a lowering of lipid hydroperoxide levels and C-reactive protein.
3.3 pound
weight loss due to the 240 calories from the dried apples
Giving you the sensation of being full is a big help to keeping calories to a minimum. Writing in The Huffington Post, Kathy Freston says fiber, like apple pectin, fills the belly yet provides few calories since fiber, for the most part, is not something you can digest. It also slows down the digestion of food, so you get a slow and steady source of glucose "without the rollercoaster ride of blood sugar crazies and the cravings that follow." Freston reports that researchers at UCLA exchanged pectin for regular fiber and doubled the time it took subject's stomachs to empty-from about one hour to two hours. This means the subjects felt fuller longer.
"Pectin is a safe product for weight loss and lowering cholesterol. There are few, if any, reasons to avoid it, and many good reasons to try it."VI
Sarah Spagnuolo, MD
Mike Roizen, MD
"Pectin Pro Con," featured on the www.clevelandclinicwellness.com
