Same Snacks May Increase Intake

Found the following in my AICR newsletter about Solving Our Obesity Epidemic.

Same Snacks May Increase Intake
Eating the same sweet or salty snack day after day may cause you to not like it as much as a healthier high-calorie snack, but it may also lead to increased snacking in general, suggests a preliminary new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Study researchers focused on sensory specific satiety, when a person’s appetite for a food with a certain characteristics – such as sweet, salty, or fatty – is satiated. Foods that you tire of quickly might have a high sensory specific satiety, leading you to stop eating that food.

In the study, 118 participants were randomly split into three snacking groups: hazlenuts, chocolate or potato chips. All the snacks have about the same energy density. Both at the beginning and end of the study, all participants rated how much they liked six foods: the three test foods and another three that matched salty, savory and sweet. The researchers asked participants a series of questions to determine their sensory specific satiety for each food. Participants were then asked to eat as much of their assigned snack as they wanted.

Then, over the next 12 weeks, participants ate 263-calories worth of their assigned snack. A fourth group ate no added snacks. Researchers then compared the ratings and how much food participants ate before and after the study.

All the snackers ate more of the food at the end of the study than at the beginning. And sensory specific satiety was reduced for all of the snackers, meaning it would take more of that food to satisfy them. But the snackers who ate the nuts were the least likely to grow tired of the food. When compared to the hazelnut snackers, those who ate the chocolate and the potato chips reported liking their food less than they had 12 weeks before.

This is the first study to investigate the effects of long-term eating on liking, satiety, and intake, note the authors, and more research is needed.

Source: Tey SL, Brown RC, Gray AR, Chisholm AW, Delahunty CM. “Long-term consumption of high energy-dense snack foods on sensory-specific satiety and intake.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 May;95(5):1038-47. Epub 2012 Apr 4.

Fascinating info.... The more you read this type of stuff... The more you realise, that our brain, rather than what our body needs, is controlling our weight. It all boils down to, our bodies sending that all important message to our brain, that we are full.

Very interesting. I've been thinking a lot about satiety lately as I seem to have none, lol. This really hits a lot of my thoughts right on the head.

Example, if I allow myself 2 squares of chocolate, the first few days it is nice. But then after a few days, those 2 squares no longer satisfy me, I want more!! It's all a mental game.

... Bkeller .. That IS interesting. And good you have identified it.

Definitely a mental game. When I started training for my endurance event, my nutritionist insisted in "fueling" or "carb-loading," adding snacks to what was, previously for me, just three meals a day. I noticed the other day how, with my weight loss in 2011, I had such trouble reaching 1200-1400 calories because I was satisfied with less and how, now, I'm always hungry all the time and I have trouble limiting my calories to my RDI. Snacks! Even healthy snacks! I'm sure of it. Now, how do I get rid of them?

Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap,

Is your nutritionist still insisting on between-meal snacks? Because that sounds like the issue. Frequent meals/snacking will for some people increase satiety. For others it has the opposite effect, and fewer, larger meals helps with hunger and satiety (e.g., intermittent fasting). Unless there's a very compelling reason why that meal frequency was advised - and if you're going through multiple glycogen-depleting events per day, there could be - consider trying fewer, larger meals.

Indeed, Pam. Hey Nimm, my nutritionist was insisting on between meal snacks. She really wants nothing less than 30g carbs, 5x daily .... meal, snack, meal, snack, meal. And the 30g carbs was a concession. She wanted me at about 375g carbs now, as I approach the event. It's all I can do to maintain my weight.

Hmmm, I never have to worry about snacks in-between meals since my meals never stop. LOL! OK, I'll get serious. My plan was not to cut out in-between snacks, but to limit my snacks to 100 calories or less, and only between breakfast and lunch, and between lunch and dinner. It's usually a 6 hour stretch between meals, and it helps me maintain. I don't see anything wrong with an apple, an orange, celery with peanut butter, hard boiled egg, or even a can of tuna packed in water. I find if I don't plan for some kind of in-between fuel, I'll overindulge during the main meals. But, I also think that if your schedule permits it, it is even better to divide up your regular meals into 5 or 6 small ones a day, and eliminate the snacks all together. IMHO.

I think you're right, DK. Smaller meals beats snacks any day of the week.

When you think about it, even FS's Food Diary encourages snacks. There is no Meals #1,2,3,4,5,6; it's Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and SNACKS. So, when you break up your food into 5 or 6 meals, you still have to enter them in the same place; you just keep adding to the 'quantity' as you go through the day, or if you actually have a mix and match of different small meals through the day, you just have to plug them in as snacks or where they best fit in the normal meals. I know that multiple small meals is the answer, but it takes a lot more planning and preparation. I don't think it's possible to do this and eat in the work cafeteria, or in restaurants.

Yeah, I've been there on that. Moreover, I am being asked to "fuel" at 4:30am, an hour before my morning workout, during and after my workout, which are like breakfasts before my real breakfast, so I have to work that out on FS. My eating is fairly structured: I rarely ever eat in restaurants and I bring my meals wherever I go, so that part is easy.

You are burning a lot of calories, and I agree that you should fuel about an hour before you ride. I know I don't do that, even on my long run days, and I should, but I do it on race days. Go figure. I just get caught up in this "there's no time" cycle. I'm not trying to gross you out, but sometimes I put in an especially hard workout, and I feel like I'm going to heave, if I don't get something in me pretty quick. So, I think it is important to fuel before you exercise hard. You've got the hardest part done - in bringing your own meals. I'd initially try preparing three or four of your favorite recipes, and freezing them in small packages, and then grab 5 or 6 of them as you're fixing your lunch in the morning - kind of a surprise grab bag, where it is mix and match, but you're still not going to eat over your RDI. Just a thought.

Thanks DK. Now I feel like a ride.