Correcting Your Appetite

Scientific research has now proven that there is a link between blood sugar and appetite. When blood sugar levels rise and fall many times throughout the day, a person tends to eat too much and become overweight. Low blood sugar increases appetite.

Blood sugar is important for health. Everyone needs the right amount of glucose (sugar) in their blood to maintain energy and power bodily functions. In fact, too little blood sugar is an emergency to the brain, which responds by creating hunger. By eating, the body restores its blood sugar to appropriate levels — at least until the next drop triggers hunger again. For people with a blood sugar imbalance, these urges to eat can be almost impossible to ignore and can add unwanted and unneeded calories to their diets.

The below graphs demonstrate the important role that blood sugar plays with regard to appetite and food cravings. Figures 1 and 2 track the blood sugar levels of an overweight woman throughout the day, using a continuous glucose monitor — first without PGX^®, then with it. The “x” signifies how often her blood sugar levels dropped during the day and how often her brain sent out signals to eat to restore blood sugar levels. These food cravings explain why it is so hard to lose weight and keep it off merely by changing eating habits. As the second graph shows, regular use of PGX smoothes the spikes in blood sugar. Unlike many "diet" products that aim to suppress appetite, PGX^® corrects appetite by preventing the rapid rise and subsequent fall of blood sugar.

Reducing Meal Portion Size

Another well-established approach to calorie reduction is smaller meal portions, and here again PGX^® can help! When taken with food and a glass of water, PGX^® absorbs the water and mixes with the food, gently expanding in your stomach to increase volume. This additional volume provides a pleasant feeling of fullness that allows you to feel satisfied with a smaller meal.

But, to truly remain satisfied as you eat less, you also need to feel full for a longer period of time. PGX^®, with its high-fibre composition, mixes with food to create a highly viscous fibre complex that reaches full viscosity 60-90 minutes after taking PGX^® with a meal. This gel matrix maintains its viscosity despite the influence of stomach acids, resulting in a slowed digestion process that keeps you feeling full and satisfied longer after meals.

Research Results: Using PGX^® as a weight-loss aid has been assessed in weight loss programs conducted at the Canadian Centre for Functional Medicine in British Columbia. In each of these programs, participants received healthy eating guidelines and were encouraged to be more physically active, in addition to being asked to consume 5 grams of PGX^® two to three times per day. Over 14 weeks the people that took PGX^® lost between 4.93 and 20.55 lbs (2.24 and 9.34 kg) with an average of 12.74 lbs (5.79 kgs)¹.

The weight loss consistently experienced on the PGX^® program translates into a healthy weight loss of about one-half to 2 pounds per week over 12-14 weeks¹.

PGX^® counteracts the effects of carbohydrate-heavy meals to control and balance blood sugar levels. The same highly viscous fibre complex created by adding PGX^® to your meals, the one that helps you feel full and retain that feeling of satisfaction longer, is also your source of assistance in regulating blood sugar levels. The slowed digestion that you experience when using PGX^® also slows the conversion of carbohydrates and other foods into sugar, resulting in a more gradual release of glucose into the bloodstream. Blood sugar levels are less likely to spike when using PGX. And when they don’t spike, blood sugar levels don’t tend to fall far enough to trigger excess production of insulin. As illustrated in the above graphs, once PGX^® is incorporated into your diet and the recommended dosage is achieved, blood sugar can effectively be controlled and balanced.

PGX^® has been clinically proven to reduce the glycemic index of foods by up to 50%^2,3. The glycemic index (GI) is a scale that ranks carbohydrate-rich foods by how much they raise blood glucose levels after meals, when compared to a standard food (glucose or white bread).

As a highly viscous soluble fibre, PGX^® helps lower cholesterol levels by binding to bile acids in the gastrointestinal tract. This action inhibits the reabsorption of bile, increasing its excretion and thereby removing bile from the enterohepatic circulation. A decrease in bile returned to the liver necessitates the use of cholesterol for the synthesis of new bile acids. The net effect of this process is a lowering of serum (total and LDL) cholesterol levels. Also, in the colon, PGX has been shown to be prebiotic, and may influence gut microbial fermentation producing short-chain fatty8 which are absorbed by the portal circulation and inhibit cholesterol synthesis in the liver.

Research Results: In one published study involving healthy male and female volunteers, a dose of 10 grams of PGX^® per day over 21 days was shown to reduce total cholesterol levels by 14% and LDL levels by 17%, respectively4. In males and females with a BMI ranging from 27 to 40, 10 grams of PGX^® over a 14 weeks was shown to reduce total cholesterol levels by 18% and LDL by 25%⁵.

PGX^® does not contain any stimulants that increase heart rate or leave you feeling anxious or jittery. In the clinical trials of PGX, some people reported gas or bloating, both of which are commonly noticed when increasing the amount of fibre in your diet. When these symptoms were noticed, they tended to last 3-7 days, but can be easily limited – by gradually working up to the recommended dose, and by drinking lots of water with your PGX.

PGX^® absorbs water slowly and maintains its gel-like viscosity throughout the digestive tract. As a result, a 5 gram serving of PGX is equivalent to as much as 20 grams of some other fibre sources. For example, to achieve the same results you would have to eat four bowls of oat bran to equal one 5 gram serving of PGX. Of course, it is important to get much of your fibre from eating foods high in fibre. But adding PGX^® to any diet will allow you to reach the recommended daily amount easily.