Do better-liked foods produce more satiety?

Abstract

Food liking influences hunger and fullness, however, the direction of this influence remains unclear due to the difficulty in capturing the complexity of hunger and fullness feelings and the subjective nature of evaluating food liking. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of food liking (utilizing a bittering agent) on feelings of hunger and fullness utilizing the Five-Factor Hunger and Fullness Questionnaire [(1) mental hunger, (2) physical hunger, (3) mental fullness, (4) physical fullness and (5) food liking]. Thirty participants attended two breakfast sessions one week apart in which they evaluated hunger and fullness feelings produced by two equal-caloric smoothies that differed only in that one contained a bittering agent to lower liking. Levels of the bittering agent were determined from a screening procedure and were panellist specific, targeting a 20% drop in liking. Evaluations were made at 0 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes, and 180 minutes after consumption. Food intake from an ad libitum snack offered three hours after breakfast was covertly recorded. The more palatable control smoothie provided significantly greater mental fullness factor sensations over the three-hour testing period than the bitter smoothie. Physical fullness factor ratings were initially higher for the bitter smoothie than the control smoothie, but dropped to a nearly equal level two hours after consumption. Mental and physical hunger factor sensations were nearly equal between the two smoothies over the three hour testing period. Subjects consumed on average 77 more calories from the ad libitum snack following the bitter smoothie in comparison to the control (p-value < 0.05). These findings suggest that food liking and mental fullness are critically important to understanding satiety and future calorie consumption.