Share on PinterestThe green Mediterranean diet may help people maintain a moderate weight and protect against metabolic disease, including type 2 diabetes, by boosting an essential hormone. Davide Illini / Stocksy
- New research suggests that higher levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is produced during periods of fasting or dieting, may help people lose fat and improve insulin sensitivity.
- According to the study, participants who adhered to a green Mediterranean diet had ghrelin levels that were twice as high as people on other healthy eating plans.
- The green Mediterranean focuses more on leafy greens and excludes all red meat.
New research has found that higher levels of the hormone ghrelin, which increases during periods of fasting and dieting, are associated with fat loss and improved insulin sensitivity.
Ghrelin is produced in the stomach and increases overnight when we sleep, fast, and then falls again after we eat a meal.
According to researchers, the findings — published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism — suggest that individuals who have higher ghrelin levels after experiencing weight loss have a lower risk of developing diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
The research team also found that people who followed the green Mediterranean diet, which is rich in leafy green vegetables and omits red meat, had significantly higher ghrelin levels than people who adhered to a more traditional Mediterranean diet.
All participants complemented their dieting with regular physical activity.
“Lifestyle-induced weight loss promoted consistent elevations in fasting ghrelin levels and, specifically, green-Mediterranean lifestyle was associated with greater elevation in fasting ghrelin and larger cardiometabolic benefits,” the first author of the paper, Dr. Gal Tsaban, a researcher and cardiologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel, told Healthline.
Ghrelin, nicknamed the “hunger hormone,” stimulates appetite.
It increases during periods of dieting and fasting, including when we sleep and drops soon after we eat a meal.
“During prolonged fasting conditions, this hormone seems to have an important role in maintenance of glycemic levels and metabolism,” Tsaban explained.
Lower ghrelin levels have been associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and the development of metabolic diseases.
Researchers aimed to explore further how fasting ghrelin levels fluctuate during various dieting interventions and …….