Energy and macronutrient content of familiar beverages interact with pre-meal intervals to determine later food intake, appetite and glycemic response in young adults

Abstract

The objective was to compare the effects of pre-meal consumption of familiar beverages on appetite, food intake, and glycemic response in healthy young adults. Two short-term experiments compared the effect of consumption at 30 (experiment 1) or 120min (experiment 2) before a pizza meal of isovolumetric amounts (500mL) of water (0kcal), soy beverage (200kcal), 2% milk (260kcal), 1% chocolate milk (340kcal), orange juice (229kcal) and cow’s milk-based infant formula (368kcal) on food intake and subjective appetite and blood glucose before and after a meal. Pre-meal ingestion of chocolate milk and infant formula reduced food intake compared to water at 30min, however, beverage type did not affect food intake at 2h. Pre-meal blood glucose was higher after chocolate milk than other caloric beverages from 0 to 30min (experiment 1), and after chocolate milk and orange juice from 0 to 120min (experiment 2). Only milk reduced post-meal blood glucose in both experiments, suggesting that its effects were independent of meal-time energy intake. Combined pre- and post-meal blood glucose was lower after milk compared to chocolate milk and orange juice, but did not differ from other beverages. Thus, beverage calorie content and inter-meal intervals are primary determinants of food intake in the short-term, but macronutrient composition, especially protein content and composition, may play the greater role in glycemic control.