By Puja Gupta

New Delhi, Jun 12 (IANSlife): Maintaining a routine in your diet and getting proper sleep can help keep keep a check on hunger pangs. Dr. Shikha Mahajan, Holistic Nutritionist and Founder of Diet Podium, shares her tips to curb your hunger pangs.

Bulk up your meals

There is a lot of evidence that bulk -- or, fiber -- reduces appetite. So increase the quantity with higher-fiber foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans. These foods also tend to possess a high water content, which helps keep you feeling full.

Cool off your appetite with soup

Have a bowl of broth or vegetable-based soup (hot or cold) for a main course, and you will probably find yourself eating fewer total calories at that meal. Creamy or high-fat soups needn't apply for this job -- stick with the low-cal, high-fiber choices like minestrone or vegetable-bean type soups.

Crunch your appetite away with an enormous salad

A study found that when people had an oversized (three cups), low-calorie (100 calories) salad before lunch, they ate 12 per cent fewer calories during the meal. After they had a smaller salad (1 1/2 cups and 50 calories), they ate 7 per cent fewer calories overall. To make a similar salads utilized in the study: Toss romaine lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, celery, and cucumbers together, and top with fat-free or low-fat dressing. But beware the fatty salad! Eating a high-calorie salad, even a smaller one, can encourage us to eat more calories at the meal than if we ate no salad whatsoever.

Stay the course

A bit of variety in our meals is nice and even healthful. But having several courses during a meal can lead you down the incorrect path. Adding an additional course to your meal (unless it is a low-calorie salad or broth-type soup) usually increases the entire calories you consume for that meal.

Sour away the hunger pangs

An orange or grapefruit each day helps keep appetite away. Research suggests that low-calorie plant foods that are rich in soluble fiber -- like oranges and grapefruit -- help us feel fuller faster and keep blood sugars steady. this will translate into better appetite control. Of the 20 most well-liked fruits and vegetables, oranges and grapefruits are highest in fiber!

Get milk

Increasing your intake of low-fat dairy foods may be a good way to take more of two proteins that are thought to be appetite suppressors -- whey and casein. And drinking milk could also be especially effective. A recent study found that whey -- the liquid part of the milk -- was better at reducing appetite than casein

Have some fat together with your carbs

Once we eat fat, a hormone called leptin is released from our fat cells. this is often a nice thing when we're talking about moderate amounts of fat. Studies have shown that a scarcity of leptin (due to a really low-fat diet) can trigger a voracious appetite. Obviously, we wish to try and do just the opposite of that. But that does not mean we should always choose a high-fat meal. Research has found a much higher frequency of obesity among people that eat a high-fat diet than among those that eat a diet .

Enjoy some soy

Soybeans offer protein and fat along side carbohydrates. That alone would suggest that soybeans are more satisfying and more likely to stay our appetites on top of things than most plant foods. But a recent study in rats suggests that a specific component in soybeans has definite appetite-suppressing qualities.

Go nuts

Nuts make you feel satisfied due to their protein and fiber content. a couple of those vitamin- and mineral-rich nuggets will hold you over between meals. But keep that handful small: Nuts are high in fat, albeit it's the healthful monounsaturated kind.

Slow down, you're eating too fast

It takes a minimum of 20 minutes for your brain to receive the message that your stomach is officially "comfortable" meaning that you ought to stop eating. If you eat slowly, the brain gets a chance to catch up with the stomach, and you're less likely to overeat.