Satiety

SatietyThe ability of food to create feelings of fullness and to delay the onset of hunger is an area of great interest to the food industry and a key factor in current approaches to weight management products.

Leatherhead Food Research has developed methodologies for investigation of both satiation (the feeling of fullness immediately following consumption) and satiety (the influence on subsequent feeding events). These can be tailored to the precise needs and target outcomes of the client and range from a simple, rapid assessment of satiation using Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) questionnaires, to the measurement of gut hormones related to appetite following a meal.

In the simple method, subjects are provided with a test food and asked to complete VAS questionnaires on IPAQs (handheld computers) at regular intervals over several hours. This method assesses satiation. To assess satiety, the amount of food consumed at the next meal can be measured and analysed for its nutritional content. For a more comprehensive view of the satiating effects of a food, subjects can be provided with a pre-load food several hours before a standardised lunch and their levels of certain gut hormones, ghrelin, PYY and GLP-1, measured over a four hour period.

Case study
Leatherhead Food Research has undertaken a collaborative research project 'The perceived and physiological effects of dietary proteins and peptides on satiety'. This project drew together companies in the food sector with an interest in this area and investigated the effects of proteins and peptides on satiety, as measured by VAS questionnaire and gut hormone measurements. The results provided a comparative measure of the satiating effects of the different proteins and peptides studied.

A variety of routine satiety projects have also been run on a confidential basis for food industry clients to substantiate satiety claims.

To learn more about our Nutrition or Satiety Research services please contact Roberta Re.

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