Four ways to appetite control offer concrete options for food design

Feel full on fewer calories

“The obesity problem will not be tackled by simply following one strategy,” says Hendrik Prins, communication manager at NIZO food research. “At NIZO, we contribute our part within the food technology sector.” NIZO, centrally located within the Dutch Food Valley, deploys its know-how worldwide. In terms of weight management, state-of-the-art food technology is combined with thorough scientific understanding of how food design may modulate appetite control and digestive physiology.

Targeting the stomach and the small intestine —— Protein functionality and

The texture of products has been shown to affect satiety. However, options for changing the texture upon formulation of the product often turn out to be limited for many types of food products. “Therefore, changing texture after food intake, during digestion, is an interesting concept,” Prins explains. “NIZO is targeting both the stomach and small intestine in this respect.” By altering the physical properties of food during gastrointestinal passage, stomach distension (and as a consequence, satiation) and the rate of stomach emptying (hence, the release of hormonal and neural satiety signals in the small intestine) can be modulated. The release of nutrients from the food matrix and the digestibility of the nutrients are important as well. Expertise on processes like gelling in the stomach, gastric emulsion stability and resistance to enzymatic degradation enables NIZO to identify and design ways to optimize food products. A specific tool in which stimulation of physiological digestion (SIMPHYD) is combined with rheological measurements has been developed by NIZO in order to engineer the physical parameters that contribute to satiation and satiety. This engineering is done, for example, by the enzymatic or non-enzymatic modification of proteins, crosslinking proteins or altering the intrinsic charge of proteins. The photo on the left shows that casein, a classical “slow” protein, for example, could be modified into a “fast” protein, probably differentially affecting satiation and/or satiety.

Flavor triggers

Sensory effects, generated through the smell and taste of food are important factors contributing to meal termination. While active ingredients may induce satiety relatively late after meals, sensory triggers already operate at early stages. “The next generation of consumer foods in the weight management sector will consist of food designs that use flavors or aromas as triggers to limit food intake,” Prins predicts. His colleague Rianne Ruijschop won the prestigious Unilever Young Scientist Award for her groundbreaking work on the role of aromas on satiation. Ruijschop proved for the very first time that perceived satiation can be increased by altering the extent of retro-nasal aroma release (i.e., aromas that reach the nose from the oral cavity) during food consumption by using a unique combination of olfactometer and MS Nose technology (Ruijschop et al., Br J Nutr. 2008, 99:1140-1148). This work was done within the Diogenes Project, the multi-disciplinary international research project highlighted elsewhere in this newsletter. Pursuing this research line, Ruijschop hypothesized that differences in the extent of retro-nasal aroma release during consumption may be one of the reasons that people vary in their satiation characteristics. Using sophisticated mass spectrometry, retro-nasal aroma release was determined in 30 people consuming nine different food products each, which varied in texture. Retro-nasal aroma release intensity and profile morphology indeed appeared to be person-specific. However, for all subjects, there were absolute differences in retro-nasal aroma releases comparing (semi) liquid and solid food products. Furthermore, a negative trend was observed between the extent of retro-nasal aroma release and the amount of ad libitum food intake when tested in a subset of the subjects (Ruijschop et al., Chem Senses. 2009 Mar 23. Epub ahead of print). This novel approach allows the development of food products that combine liking with limitation of intake due to enhanced satiation signals based on well-defined flavor release profiles — thereby the contributing to weight management strategies.

Modulating the microbiota

Scientists have linked the composition of our gut microbiota to the development of obesity. One prominent way to modify the gut microbiota is by adding dietary fibers to our diets. By doing so they stimulate production of short-chain fatty acids, which in turn are involved in enhancing satiety. With years of experience in gut physiology and intestinal microbiology, NIZO is currently exploring in what way the gastrointestinal microbiota can be modulated to affect energy metabolism as another potential approach of bringing food intervention and innovative products one step further towards weight regulation.

“Within the food technology sector, we offer these four strategies to be applied upon designing foods to optimize satiation and satiety,” Prins concludes, and invites the industry to contact NIZO for more information.

Contact Details:
hendrik.prins@nizo.nl

About NIZO Food Research

NIZO food research focuses on driving innovations in order to provide technology for the food industry, to improve functional consumer benefits and processes in food, and to improve the quality of foods and ingredients — thereby increasing the quality of life.

www.nizo.com

Please see us at the Holland Food Valley Pavilion, Booth #1419/1519, at the IFT Annual
Meeting + Food Expo, June 6-9, Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California.

Also, please join us at a lecture (148-04) by Peter de Kok, entitled: “Low Sugar, Sweet
Sensation,” on Monday, June 8, 2:35 p.m. — 2:55 p.m.