Food and Satiety

On the 19th of August, the usual FOODplus seminar drew a good crowd. The topic was Food and Satiety, and we had two speakers. You can listen to Dr Tanya Little's talk here and Dr Natalie Luscombe's talk here. You can also watch the slidecasts below.

This FOODplus seminar was held by Drs Natalie Luscombe-Marsh and Tanya Little, both post-doctoral researchers from the School of Medicine. Natalie and Tanya both have an interest in understanding how the gut senses different macronutrients, and the differential effect of different macromolecules from the diet on gut function and satiety.

We learnt that fat has a more significant and prolonged appetite-suppressing effect than carbohydrate, and that this effect is also influenced by fat type; that is, properties of different fats, like chain length and degree of saturation, can alter how they affect gastrointestinal function and the release of gut peptides.

Natalie’s work focussed more on the gastrointestinal sensing of protein, and Natalie presented preliminary results from a trial that is currently underway which aims to better understand the impact of protein on gut function and satiety. There is no doubt that understanding more about how different foods and different food components influence satiety is important when we are trying to determine the potential health benefits of different foods.

The methods that were presented by Natalie and Tanya have enormous potential for helping us to understand how the novel food products developed within FOODPlus might influence how long feelings of fullness are maintained after a meal and the release of gut peptides which are critical for the regulation of appetite.