Does Texture Affect Appetite? A Study of

Sensory Specific Satiety in College-Aged Males

Project Leader: Amelia Keaton

Humans Exhibit Sensory Specific Satiety

• Novel sensory properties of foods induce satiated subjects to eat more in a multi-course meal (Rolls,B.J. 1980)

• Model of overeating and weight gain

• Is this a possible method of increasing food consumption in astronauts who experience a loss of appetite?

Sensory Properties That Affect Food Intake in Humans

• Portion Size (Rolls, B.J., 2002)

• Palatability (Rolls, B.J. et al, 1982; Rolls, E.T., 1996)

– Taste– Odor– Appearance– Texture?

Why is this important?

•If we can manipulate the texture of a limited number of food items, then we can possibly increase food intake in astronauts.

•This would prove especially important for long-term space missions and lunar or planetary colonization.

Hypothesis

• Hungry subjects fed to satiety on foods of one texture will eat more of the same foods when presented as a different texture.

Methods: Meals

• Water (~275 mL)

• Unsalted Crackers (4 kcal/g)

• Crushed or Chunked:– Pineapple (0.6 kcal/g)– Cheese (3.9 kcal/g)– Peanuts (5.8 kcal/g)

Chunked

Crushed

Experimental TimelineSubject Arrives(males age 17-22) •Fasted ~12 hrs•Signs Waiver•Reads instructions

T=15mins

•Meal 1 ends•5min break•Assignedto crush or chunk groupfor Meal 2

Meal 2: T=20mins

•Meal 2 presented (crush or chunk)

•VAS completed

T= 35mins

•Meal 2 ends

•Subject Released

Instructions: 1) Do not mix food. 2) Drink all water within 15 minute meal.

3) Eat until you’ve had enough during each meal. 4) Do not communicate with other subjects about the food.

Meal 1: T=0mins

•Crushed MealPresented

•VAS Completed

Data Collection and Analysis

•Consumption was measured by mass and calories after each meal•One-way ANOVA and post hoc Student Newman Keuls testing•t-tests where appropriate

or

Subjects

Crush/crush

n= 19

Crush/chunk

n= 17

p-value

(t-test)

Height (cm) 180.0 ±1.9 181.2 ± 1.7 0.637

Weight (kg) 80.0 ± 3.3 82.1 ± 3.7 0.676

Age (yr) 19.0 ± 0.3 19.8 ± 0.3 0.075

Body Mass Index

(range)

24.3 ± 0.8

20-32

24.9 ± 0.8

20-32

0.567

Meal 1 Food Intake (mass)

Total Intake Peanut Pineapple Cheese Crackers

Me

al 1

fo

od

in

tak

e (

g)

0

100

200

300

400

crush/crush (n=19)crush/chunk (n=17)

*p=0.007

Meal 1 Food Intake (calories)

Total Intake Peanut Pineapple Cheese Crackers

Me

al 1

fo

od

in

tak

e (

ca

lori

es

)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Crush/crush (n=19)Crush/chunk (n=17)

*p=0.005

or

*~40%

*~60%

Meal 2 Food Intake (mass)

Total Intake Peanut Pineapple Cheese Crackers

Me

al 2

fo

od

in

tak

e (

g)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

crush/crush (n=19)crush/chunk (n=17)

* p<0.001

* p<0.003

p=0.067

Meal 2 Food Intake (calories)

Total Intake Peanut Pineapple Cheese Crackers

Me

al 2

fo

od

in

tak

e (

ca

lori

es

)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Crush/crush (n=19)Crush/chunk (n=17)

*p<0.001

*p=0.0012X

Summary• Subjects offered a different texture in Meal

2 consumed significantly more mass and calories than those offered the same texture.

• Subjects offered a different texture in Meal 2 rated that meal as more appealing than those offered a second meal of the same texture.

• Humans demonstrate Texture-Specific Satiety.

• Changes in texture of some foods are sufficient to increase the amount of food consumed in a multi-course meal.

• Since taste and smell are attenuated in space, manipulations of texture may be especially effective in promoting food intake.

Conclusions and Applications

Future Directions for Human Studies

• In order to increase food intake, it may be possible to manipulate the following food properties while subjects are in a head-down tilt model of microgravity:– Palatability– Energy density– Texture

Acknowledgements

• We would like to thank the Bio250 and Bio 450 research classes at Wofford College for collecting the preliminary data for experiments presented today