Effective ways to overcome stress....

Today's Post: Friday, 10-9-2009

1. Exercise. Many health writers include exercise. But I’ve just found out they massively undersell exercise as a way to reduce stress and overcome it.

One of the most challenging aspects of severe stress is that it can get in the way of doing the things necessary to solve the problems that created it. Your perception of the severity of the stress creates such a fight or flight reaction it gets in the way of thinking straight or with any flexibility. It even can cause memory lapses that also cause more problems.

Sometime last week, I think in an email from a Dr Wascher, I read of an extremely significant study. Two groups were under stress they perceived as severe.
One group exercised & one did not.

At the end of the study all the people who didn’t exercise still had the perceived severe stress.

Meanwhile 60% of the exercisers no longer felt their stress was severe. The exercise either increased their feelings of efficacy or turned off the stress over-reaction or both.

Clearly the causes of the stress were still there in both groups.

Second, sometimes chronic stress causes depression which in turn causes low energy & less action to solve the problems causing it. We now know that exercise is reliably good at helping reduce or turn off depression.

Third, vigorous exercise demands enough of your attention it can completely turn off your worries mentally just like drinking enough alcohol. Giving it a rest can really help; & even if it’s brief, vigorous exercise does the job. In fact, it is one of the fastest depression reducers known.

2. Only drink alcohol moderately. This one can be a bit tough to do when you are stressed enough. But drinking more than 2 drinks a day for men or one a day for women can cause health problems while drinking a lot more than that in one day often causes accidents and other even worse problems that can multiply your stress. Plus it gets expensive.

Even worse, your problems that were stressing you are still there when you recover.

Drink some if you drink at all. Some is actually good for stress relief. But for more stress relief than some alcohol, force yourself to do something else. Exercise, solve the problems causing the stress if you can, or do something else on this list.

3. Eat right. Eating foods that support your health gives your brain the fuel to help you solve your problems. Eating or drinking junk foods causes your thinking to be foggy or adds extra mood swings. So avoid that to the max.

4. Relax a bit daily in some way. Read one of your favorite books even if only for 20 minutes. If you already know how, do Tai Chi because it’s both exercise AND stress relief. Meditate if you do that if only for 5 minutes. Take a brief nap if you need one and have the time.

5. Make well organized efforts to solve or escape the problems causing your stress if you can. And, research some things that might work if you know of no useful solutions. You might succeed. And, you’ll feel more in control and less stressed by doing this.

6. Remind yourself of what you do well and previous success in the past. That forces your brain to include some actual assets & the more assets you remember you have the less overwhelmed and stressed you feel.

7. Get social support and recruit actual help.

a) Just talking to people who you know or where you care about them or vice versa calms you down and focuses your mind away from worry just like exercise. And, it also has strong anti-depression effects just like exercise.

b) You may not even know how to solve the problems you face that are stressing you. BUT, you may know or be able to find someone who does. In fact between who you know and who the people you know know or know of, you probably do.

If you ask people for help or advice and are willing to accept whatever they are comfortable supplying whether it’s exactly what you need, some advice that might help, or nothing at all, but you DO ask & you ask many people, you can often create miraculous solutions.

8. Start your day with a positive. Do some exercise that makes you feel good. Do something nice for someone you can do something nice for. Take a step towards solving your problems that might work. Read a bit in a favorite book. Pray if you find it helpful. (Interestingly, this can really help even if you are not much of a believer.)

Better sleep equals better health....

Today's post: Tuesday, 1-20-2009

Recently it was in the online health news that three times as many young people now take sleep drugs as they did just a few years ago. This is understandable given the TV ads for the drugs over that time period; but is extremely bad news for the young people who do it.

It’s also been in the online health news that getting enough sleep helps you avoid catching colds and that it may even help you lose fat and avoid type II diabetes.

The ideal amount of sleep seems to be about 7 hours a night while less than 6 or more than 8 tend to cause or indicate health problems.

While there are people who sleep more than 8 hours, most of us tend to sleep less than 7.

Surprisingly, people who get 6 to 7 hours of sleep a night tend to be healthier than people who sleep more than 8. So that’s partly OK. If you work at something that pays well, you tend to work more hours. And people with more money tend to have better health. Or, if you get up fifteen minutes earlier to help ensure you get regular exercise, that’s good for you enough to be worth it. Similarly if socializing keeps you up a bit, socializing is good enough for your health usually to be worth it. Lastly, if you haven’t enough energy to function on less than 9 hours of sleep, you may have undiagnosed health problems or are impacted by NOT getting any exercise or your life has too few interesting parts or challenges.

But if you rarely get more than 6 hours of sleep and often get less, you’ll likely be healthier if you get a bit more sleep.

Some people have that happen because they watch late night TV. If that’s you, today there is a solution thanks to technology. You can get videos of SOME of the late night shows you like and watch them on a weekend afternoon. THAT will help you lose weight in three ways. Your body will process food better if you aren’t too short on sleep. You’ll see less ads for fattening junk foods. And, the fewer total hours you watch TV, the less fat you are according to actual studies in part because watching TV also burns so few calories, you may be burning more while you are asleep!!

Or you can log on an hour earlier to Yahoo & look at the online news there and or check your local weather at weather.com and get more information in 15 minutes than watching an hour of TV news & weather. Even better, you can skip the details of stuff that doesn’t interest you and find out MORE about that news that DOES interest you.

There ARE other things you can do are to go to sleep quickly when you get in bed and sleep well once you get there besides taking the sleep drugs.

If you have trouble going to sleep quickly or getting good sleep once there, taking sleep meds is less effective than these alternatives for most people. It costs more. And it’s also quite dangerous: from eating while asleep which will make you gain more fat for sure to walking outside while asleep & only in your underwear on a below zero night and freezing to death – which just was in the news as happening, these are NOT the safest drugs at the pharmacy!

Here are some better ways to fall asleep quickly & to sleep well.

Number one is to get regular exercise on most days of the week. Studies show people who exercise regularly get much better sleep and tend to fall asleep more quickly than people who don’t.

Other things that can help include:

NOT having a TV in your bedroom, a practice which can also much improve your sex life studies found. TV’s do NOT belong in bedrooms!

Stopping your coffee consumption at 3 a day most days. (If you drink more than 3, you need more the next day to compensate for the sleep the cups over 3 cost you the night before. So it’s a waste of money and good coffee usually to drink more than 3 cups a day. ) Once you have 3 cups of coffee, try tea or unsweetened cocoa in a hot chocolate drink. That has some caffeine but less than coffee if you need more than 3 cups of coffee.


Usually stop your coffee consumption by 3PM if you have any trouble falling asleep.

Writing down the things you are worried about and what you will do about it when you aren’t trying to go to sleep and tired will make solving your problems or dealing with them more likely. And, reminding yourself of when you’ll do that and refusing any more mental time on them when you are in bed will help give you more energy to solve your problems when you get up.

Taking a small amount of melatonin from a tenth of a gram to perhaps half a gram at bedtime helps some people go to sleep. More tends to make them groggy when it’s time to get up.

If you are under enough stress but can afford to do it, taking valerian at bedtime can help. It smells so bad, you almost have to have its container in a larger one with an airtight lid to stand to have it around. But it has been used effectively to reduce stress enough to let people sleep even in war zones and in similar situations. It does NOT cause sleepwalking; and valerian is cheaper than the sleep drugs besides being safer to take.

(Note that doing Tai Chi daily both gets you a surprising amount of exercise and relieves stress well enough that it reverses stress caused high blood pressure. So for some people, it can be a great sleep aid.)

You may not have complete control over the temperature of your bedroom or how noisy it is. But if you do, make it slightly cool so you can use a blanket and make it quiet. (In many homes with peaked roofs in the summer, you can make a dramatic difference in how cool your bedroom is at night and save a LOT of money on airconditioning if you install enough intake vents and convection powered turbines in your roof -- which avoids having trapped solar heated air roast you all night, for example.)

If your bedroom isn’t really dark because of light coming in the windows, add blackout curtains to put up at night. You’ll not only sleep better due to your own body producing more melatonin, this has been found to help prevent breast cancer in women and may help prevent prostate cancer in men!

At least on weekdays, try to get up at the exact same time each morning or very close to it and go to bed pretty close to the same time each night. This is a huge help in falling asleep quickly and reliably and getting good quality sleep.

This list is not complete as there are other things that likely work. But if you do all the things on this list that fit your situation you’ll likely sleep well and fall asleep quickly.

New information on Qi Gong & Tai Chi....

Today's post: Tuesday, 7-8-2008

It’s well known that Qi Gong & Tai Chi are both systems of controlled, patterned movement. When done slowly & gracefully over a period of time, they are known to produce stress relief & can also improve coordination, flexibility & strength. Surprisingly, a fifteen to twenty minute session tends to burn as many calories as walking that amount of time – or more.

The stress relief is significant. Studies have found that doing Tai Chi regularly reduced high blood pressure by an average of 17 systolic & 11 diastolic. This is higher than other forms of relaxation test as doing, including meditation.

When you add the exercise you get to the stress relief from Tai Chi, it’s clear this is a very valuable practice to take up.

(Qi Gong is very similar to Tai Chi but my understanding is that it focuses more on breath control & mental self-discipline.)

Now there is some interesting news about Qi Gong & Tai Chi. It seems they increase your blood level of serotonin.

This compound provides significant feelings of calm & can produce feelings of depression or anxiety if it’s too low. In fact, the aim of the most used class of anti-depressants is to help ensure that the person taking them has a decent blood level of serotonin.

Here’s the article I got yesterday, containing that news.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

“Qi Gong for Stress Reduction and More

By Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS

You may have never bothered to wonder why a cat grooms itself all day. But you should. The answer could impact your health.

Princeton researchers inserted electrodes into the brainstems of cats, and then recorded what was happening over the course of the cats' day. Not much. Until they started grooming themselves. Then their levels of serotonin - a feel-good neurotransmitter involved with stress-reduction and overall well-being - went through the roof. It actually increased 40-fold! How's that for a stress reliever?

There's a lesson here. Concentrated, repetitive motion raises serotonin activity. Which brings us to one of the best stress reducers in the world: qi gong.

Three decades ago, Herbert Benson, MD, the pioneering doctor who helped introduce the concept of mind-body medicine to the U.S., studied qi gong while he was researching what he termed "the relaxation response." He concluded that to reach a state of deep relaxation, all you have to do is control your body, your breathing, and your mind.

Qi gong is a family of mind-body exercises that share all of those elements: regulation of the body, regulation of breathing, and regulation of the mind. In qi gong, as in many meditative practices, you control your mind by concentrating on a single thought. It can be a word, a mantra, a sound, a letter. You regulate your breathing in some controlled way (such as breathing in on a slow count of 4 and breathing out on a slow count of 4), and you add some regular, specific movement to handle the body part of it. Those three components are the trifecta of increased serotonin activity - and with it, greater energy and well-being.

At the University of Southern California, Irvine, Dr. Shin Lin (a visiting professor from Shanghai University) has found significant, measurable beneficial effects on the nervous system from doing qi gong. Other researchers have demonstrated that when you practice certain movements - such as those in qi gong - you get enhanced blood flow. Couple that with an increase in serotonin levels, and you've got a great prescription for lowering stress while increasing your overall energy.”

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For more things that lower high blood pressure without drugs, keep reading our blog. Within a few weeks, we will announce an eBook on how to lower high blood pressure without drugs listing the most effective things that do this & many others.

The really good thing about these nondrug methods is that they all tend to help remove the causes of high blood pressure to lower it. And, virtually all of them protect or improve your health in many other ways.

Tea turns down your physical stress reactions...

Today's post: Friday, 2-8-2008

I’ve read that drinking tea or green tea helps increase blood flow & keep your blood pressure in the normal zone or help lower it if it’s too high.

And, we did a post to warn people who want all the health benefits of drinking tea to ONLY drink it without milk. It’s been shown that adding milk to tea turns off many of its health benefits.

I’d also read that drinking tea might help you recover from stress but was less sure of that one so I didn’t do a post on it.

However, anything that helps you recover from stress increases your resilience and will help protect your health.

So, I’m delighted to include the article below that shows that drinking tea does indeed help you recover physically from stress.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

“Stressed Out? Try Tea

By Kelley Herring

Stressed out? Reach for a soothing cup of black tea.
A recent study conducted by University College London researchers evaluated the effects of black tea on stress in the body. Seventy-five regular tea drinkers were split into two groups. All study participants gave up their normal tea, coffee, and caffeinated beverages. One group drank a caffeinated black tea. The control group drank a caffeinated fake-tea placebo.

To eliminate the "comforting" effect of drinking a cup of tea, researchers masked the sensory cues typically associated with tea drinking. Then they had the groups perform challenging tasks to evaluate their bodies' stress responses as measured by the hormone cortisol, blood pressure, blood platelets, and self-rated stress levels.
The tasks caused similar stress levels in both groups.

However, 50 minutes after performing the tasks, cortisol levels had dropped by an average of 47 percent in the tea-drinking group compared with a mere 27 percent in the fake-tea group. The researchers also found that blood platelet activation (which is linked to blood clotting and the risk of heart attacks) was lower in the tea drinkers. And the tea drinkers reported feeling more relaxed in the recovery period after performing the tasks.

Because tea is chemically complex, researchers can't yet pinpoint the ingredients responsible for its beneficial effects. What they do know is that enjoying a cup of black tea may speed recovery from the daily stresses in life. And that, in turn, can help reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease.

Stock up on healthy and delicious organic black tea. It's calorie-free, packed with powerful phytonutrients, and can help soothe away stress too.

[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the founder and CEO of Healing Gourmet (www.healinggourmet.com), and is editor-in-chief of the Healing Gourmet book series.”

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My comments added comments are these.:

I suspect strongly that green tea also works. But by all means drink some black tea also just in case. Also, black tea tends to have more caffeine than green tea. So at work, where many people experience the most stress & need to be sharpest it may make sense to drink black tea & drink green tea at home.

Also, if you get the jitters drinking coffee & are trying tea as caffeine substitute, you may find it easier to transition to tea if you drink black tea.

Lastly, if you dislike the taste of black tea, you can drink Earl Grey tea which has a much different taste but is still black tea; you can drink green tea instead but just use extra tea bags if you need extra caffeine, or you can add juice from a squeezed lemon, so your black tea tastes more like tart lemonade.

How to fight stress with supplements….

Today's post: Monday, 9-10-2007

The base article comes from a new weekly free email on health:

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul.

For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/ "

“Treat Heart Disease With Antidepressants? Let’s Get Real

By James LaValle

There is a significant correlation between chronic stress and heart disease. Low serotonin, a side effect of chronic stress, is seen in pre-heart disease conditions.

What does the medical community offer as a potential solution for low serotonin as a contributor to heart disease? A category of antidepressant drugs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s.)

The problem with SSRI’s is two-fold:

1. They do not increase brain levels of serotonin, but only attempt to get more activity from existing serotonin.

2. The side effects of SSRI’s could themselves contribute to heart disease. Insomnia, weight gain and sexual dysfunction are some of the side effects of SSRI’s. Insomnia and weight gain both can contribute to progression of heart disease.

Survey results have determined that 1 in 2 people are concerned about the level of stress in their lives. Some of the commonly felt effects of chronic stress and/or low seretonin are intense food cravings, mental fog, inability to concentrate, insomnia, headaches, tooth grinding and weight gain.

Reducing life stress can be difficult. A comprehensive approach to stress should not only help increase serotonin, but would also look at correcting other imbalances. The nutritional supplements listed below offer safe symptomatic relief, and can reduce the negative impact of stress on our health.

* Relora® -- an extract from magnolia and phellodendron that balances cortisol and stress hormone output, leading to more relaxed, less anxious responses to stressors. It also reduces stress-related food cravings.

* Theanine -- an amino acid from tea that reduces nervousness, helps calm the mind, improves immunity and has been reported to lower blood pressure.

* Rhodiola -- a well-studied plant extract that dampens the effects of norepinephrine on cardiovascular tissue and helps support adrenal function.

* 5 HTP -- an activated form of tryptophan, the amino acid that converts to serotonin, that shows effectiveness in treating depression and may improve sleep and reduce food cravings.

[Ed. Note: Jim LaValle is an educator, clinician and industry consultant in the field of integrative healthcare. He is a licensed pharmacist, board certified clinical nutritionist and doctor of naturopathic medicine with more than 20 years clinical practice experience in the field of natural therapeutics and functional medicine. Named one of the "50 Most Influential Druggists" by American Druggist for his work in natural medicine….]

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Comments by Focus on Your Health:

1. There are many other ways to protect your heart, to deal well with the stress we are all under, & to fight depression -- that also do NOT require these drugs & their side-effects.

It pay may you to find & do these also, not just take these few supplements alone.

2. His supplement list IS very interesting however.

The supplements he lists all have some antidepressive effects & help to lessen the impact on you of any stress you are under.

Theanine is an ingredient in green tea that calms you without sedating you. So, I’ve read you can take it, perhaps along with some green tea, when you need to stay awake & alert.

Rhodiola is also has energy boosting effects, according to Dr Andrew Weill. At worst, it too does NOT sedate you. So you can very likely take it also when you need to stay awake & alert.

Relora is new to me but is listed online as having good stress response softening effects.
I’m not familiar with whether it’s best taken at bedtime or OK during the day.

5HTP is a precursor & a building block of serotonin. But serotonin does tend to mellow you out enough, its best use may be to help you unwind just before bed.

In fact, all of these are likely to be OK when taken just before bedtime.

This can help ensure you sleep better when you are stressed. That way you will have more energy the following day.

(Vigorous strength training also has this effect.)

3. Stress relief & managing stress well in other ways is also essential. The good news is that there are now some new & more effective ways to do this besides supplements.

And, there are proven methods to do these things most overstressed people don’t know about or forget to do.

We are now working on an eBook to bring these to you.

When it’s ready we will announce it & list it here.

More of the incredible benefits of exercise….

Today's post: Tuesday, 8-7-2007

On Sunday, 8-5-2007 Parade magazine had an article I thought so important, I decided to give you a report on it.

Our regular readers already know that exercise helps you lose or keep off excess fat, release growth hormone to slow aging, keep or even restore most of your youthful strength, prevent or improve insulin resistance & type II diabetes, protect your heart, & even grow new brain cells to counteract aging or stress.

The Parade article highlighted a set of reasons why exercise also helps keep you feeling good or can help you feel better.

*Exercise helps reduce stress & anxiety.

Michael O’Shea, who wrote the article points out that vigorous exercise is often a “mini-vacation” from stress. “(It’s hard to obsess about your to-do list when you’re concentrating on your next push-up.)” -- as he puts it. I can testify this is true from my own experience.

He also says the American Council on Exercise reports that exercise tends to clear stress hormone & chemicals from your blood.

To that I’ll add that by dropping your resting heart & breath rate as you get in shape, it helps increase the amount of stress needed to make you feel physically stressed. Since you speed up breathing & heart rate during exercise & tense & use your muscle, when you stop & your body recovers, you get physically relaxed which also lowers stress. And, when you do get stressed enough to raise your heart rate both you & your heart can handle it because of the exercise & training you’ve done.

*Exercise improves mood.

Regular exercise even lifts mild depression & can take effect in as little as 3 weeks or even less after beginning it. Even the anti-depressant drugs that work can take longer than that.

This thought to be because exercise increases endorphins & reduces cortisol & other stress hormones.

He adds that even a short walk can help immediately at times. And, since social interaction helps depression too, he suggests exercising with a friend or taking an exercise class.

(I’ve found going to a gym & being friendly with the other regulars works very well for this too.)

*Improved self-image.

This, I think is one way exercise relieves stress. You experience in your exercises that you can overcome difficulty successfully and persist in your efforts-- & while exercising, you are focusing on what you can do or are gradually doing better instead of more negative thoughts about yourself.

Many people find that the confidence they get from exercise helps them do better in all the rest of their lives also.

*Much better sleep.

When you exercise during the day, your muscles relax more I think. And, your body is programmed by evolution to put you in rest & repair mode to compensate for your exercise that you did.

It also helps often that exercise reduces stress & stress hormones that can keep you awake.

So, if you aren’t doing regular exercise now. Please consider beginning to. (Even a few sort walks or set of a few pushups or squats at home during the week will help get you started.)

You’ll feel better –or at least stop feeling quite so horrible if things are bad now.

You’ll recover far faster from setbacks. Your whole life will improve.

And, that’s in addition to all the health benefits.

Successful fat loss improves your stress response ….

Today's post: Monday, 7-30-2007

Successful fat loss improves your stress response. Even better, changing the way you eat can do both.

I found this in today’s Early to Rise for Monday, 7-30-2007.

(My comments follow the article. Read those for more tips on how to lose fat & improve your stress response.)

(This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/..)

“How to Control a Silent Killer

By Craig Ballantyne

If you're unhealthily overweight, you probably know it. You also know if you have unhealthy habits, like smoking or excessive drinking. And if you're not as fit as you should be, you probably recognize that too. But high blood pressure - the silent killer that can lead directly to heart attacks and death - goes unnoticed every day.

Australian researchers have found an easy way to control this silent killer.

The researchers had three groups of men complete a mental stress test before and after a 12-week diet program. One group of men changed nothing in their diets, another group ate a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in dairy products, and a third group ate a low-fat diet. By the end of 12 weeks, both groups that had changed their diets lost an average of nine pounds, while the control group remained at about the same weight.

The subjects who lost weight also reduced their resting systolic blood pressure (the higher number in the normal 120 over 80 blood pressure reading).

Furthermore, in the groups that had changed their diets, blood pressure returned to normal six minutes faster after the stress tests than in the control group.

The scientists concluded that weight loss helps men control their blood pressure better during times of stress, which is likely to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease in the long term. So if you have high blood pressure, add more fruits and vegetables to your diet and lose weight. And if you don't know what your blood pressure is, get it checked immediately.”

My comments:

1. This improved stress relief also tends to prevent higher future blood pressure readings. And, the added fiber, potassium & magnesium in the added fruits and vegetables also help lower high blood pressure & prevent higher future blood pressure readings.

Second, regular vigorous exercise where you rest a short while afterwards, also allows you to recover from stress more quickly. As you become fit, your recovery time gets faster. Even better, it takes more to create a higher pulse rate.

Both these effects also tend to lower high blood pressure & prevent higher future blood pressure readings.

And, since regular exercise, particularly this kind of vigorous cardio & this kind of strength training, also trim off excess bodyfat, by both eating more vegetables & eating less unhealthful fats AND doing this kind of exercise cuts you can cut more fat from your body which lowers blood pressure more & improves your stress response more.

So, for good stress response & getting rid of excess fat, eat right & exercise regularly.

You’ll also have lower & healthier blood pressure readings.

2. Recent stories report that having fat friends tends to make you fat & having trim friends tends to make you lean.

Even better, if you have a friend who successfully loses fat & stays your friend, you are much more likely to lose fat too.

So, make friends with lean people who eat right & exercise. Spend more time with them than with your fat friends if you can. And, once you succeed, simply let your fatter friends know you have done so.

This research suggests that you don’t need to try to sell them on getting leaner. All you have to do is keep improving yourself & let them know. Chances are they will follow you example.

3. Stay away from both regular & diet soft drinks.

Drinking more than one or two soft drinks a month, is a proven way to get fat.

If you drink regular soft drinks, you take in lots more calories & your body registers NONE of them, so you don’t eat less of everything else to compensate.

Oddly, regular drinking of diet soft drinks produces an almost identical effect research shows.

And, research released just as few days ago says the health effects of drinking diet soft drinks regularly is also as bad for your heart.

One theory explains this by saying that when your body gets the sweet taste but no sugar rush, you then overeat other things which do produce a sugar rush to compensate.

The second theory points out that the artificial sweeteners in diet soft drinks cause your metabolism to function in unhealthy ways.

And, the foods people often eat with both kinds of soft drinks tend to be high in refined grains, grain fed meat, & transfats.

So, if you want to stop being fat or avoid it and you want to stay healthy, it will also help enormously if you stop drinking soft drinks.

In fact, if you have been drinking soft drinks regularly, switching to water, tea, or even coffee, can literally help you lose enough fat to be 10 percent lighter. And, the incredible thing is, it won’t make you any hungrier.