Nuts!

The Food Network offers the following Healthy Eating Tip:

Although high in calories, nuts often enable people to maintain or lose weight. 

A small handful eaten between meals or added to salads, grains or vegetables 

gives a sense of satiety and results in less total food intake.

Sounds reasonable enough, and, in truth, it works if you can limit yourself to the one handful.  I tend not to be able to do that.  Nuts are a convenient snack to munch on while I am working at the computer, which means that I am fully capable of eating handful after handful.   

This reminds me, however, of my late father-in-law's assertion that he once lost a significant amount of weight by eating a caramel before a meal.  One caramel.  This took the edge off his appetite and allowed him to eat less and still feel full.  He seemed to maintain a trim weight for the 25 or so years that I knew him, so I'm guessing there was some willpower in the mix also.

Nonetheless it does make the point that "spoiling your appetite" with almost anything is not the worst idea we can come up with for weight loss--or moderating mealtime consumption.  So far I haven't found it to be my solution, but it may work for you.  What I do find with nuts is that their high soluble fiber content has been good for my cholesterol.  In that regard, raw, unsalted almonds seem to be my best friend.