Pectin is a soluble fiber that is naturally found in many fruits.
It is most richly found in apples, strawberries, grapes, grapefruits,
lemons, oranges, and tangerines, among others. Recently, it's been
receiving good press for its weight reduction benefits, which are caused
by its ability to make you feel full and to keep blood sugar and
insulin levels steady. To top it off, pectin also has low fat and
calorie content.
Ironically
despite the general wisdom that eating fresh fruit is best, pectin is
easier to digest when apple are cooked, giving that nice almost jelly
like texture to the apple sauce. The pectin comes out of the fruit cells
when cooked making it more bio available in this state. Therefore it is
good to mix cooked and uncooked fruit in the diet.
To understand
how pectin helps bring about weight loss, you first need to understand
what makes people fat. The first culprit is excessive eating, or eating
more than your body can burn. Pectin, however, can create the feeling of
fullness and can therefore slow down and decrease your food
consumption. This gives your body enough time to burn all the calories
that need to be burned before new calories come in.
Pectin can
also regulate your insulin levels. Since higher insulin levels lead to
increased body fat, pectin helps keep fat controlled by keeping your
insulin levels in check.
However, studies also showed that the
effectiveness of pectin decreases if it is consumed together with a lot
of high-fat foods, which goes for many nutrients. High fat should be
avoided anyway when trying to lose weight.
Pectin is most richly
found in natural fruits, but most of it is removed when fruits are
processed into juices, the pulp left behind is high in pectin and is
often used to extract pectin powder that is then used as a vegetarian
alternative to gelatin. Also, to get as much pectin for your body to
enjoy its weight loss benefits, you'll need to eat plenty of pectin-rich
fruits every day, such as apples, pears and cooked fruits.
But
with most diets it's hard to stick to eating fruit all the time, people
have busy lives and don't always have the time to go out buy and prepare
fruit, let alone boil it up.
Thus, to help you get more pectin
without getting tired of eating fruits, you can also take weight loss
supplements that contain pectin. Pectin weight loss supplements are now
widely available.
Pro-10 a specialist sports nutrition organisation, providing sports supplements and whey protein supplements. For more information, visit Pro-10 today.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Dow