Abstract
Oro-sensory exposure (OSE) to food plays an important role in the regulation of food intake. One proposed underlying mechanism is the occurrence of cephalic phase responses (CPRs). CPRs include the pre-digestive endocrine responses induced by food-related sensory input. Yet, whether OSE duration or sweetness intensity affects CPRs is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the independent and interactive effects of oro-sensory duration (chewing) and stimulation intensity (sweetness) on endocrine CPRs and satiation. Eighteen males (22 ± 2 years, BMI 22 ± 2 kg/m2) participated in a 2 × 2 randomized study with a control condition. Each session participants performed modified sham feeding (MSF) with one of the four gel-based model foods. During the control session no MSF was performed. Model foods differed in chewing duration (hard or soft texture) and sweetness (low or high intensity). During each session, eight blood samples were collected up till 25 min after MSF onset. Subsequently, food intake from an ad libitum lunch was measured. No typical CPR was found for insulin, pancreatic polypeptide (PP), and ghrelin. However, the overall PP response was 1.1 times greater for the hard sweet MSF condition compared to control (p = 0.02). Overall ghrelin responses were 1.1 times greater for the hard model food compared to the soft model food conditions (p = 0.003). These differences in endocrine response were not associated with differences in food intake at the subsequent meal. Exploratory sub-analysis of the responsive insulin curves showed that after 2.5 min of MSF the hard texture model foods insulin concentrations were 1.2 greater compared to the soft texture. These findings indicate that texture hardness and sweetness increase the overall PP response and that MSF on hard texture increases the overall ghrelin response compared to soft texture model foods. However, MSF on model foods does not lead to a typical CPR. This study, among others, shows that there are major dissimilarities in the endocrine responses to food stimulation between individuals. This emphasizes the importance of considering cephalic responders and non-responders. More research is needed to understand CPRs in relation to food texture and taste properties.
Highlights
The current food environment drives a positive energy balance leading to a growing number of obese and overweight people worldwide [1, 2]
Pancreatic Polypeptide Pancreatic polypeptide concentrations did not change over time [F(7,119) = 1.03, p = 0.42], neither did the PP concentrations differ between treatments nor control condition at any of the individual time points [F(28,476) = 6.18, p = 0.72], see Figure 6
The findings of this study show that, insulin levels at 5 min after starting to modified sham feeding (MSF) were 1.1 times higher compared to insulin levels at 20 and 25 min, but these differences between time points could not be attributed to the texture or taste manipulations
Summary
The current food environment drives a positive energy balance leading to a growing number of obese and overweight people worldwide [1, 2]. Knowledge about the mechanisms by which food intake is controlled is key in finding solutions to this problem [3]. Oral processing is determined by the individuals’ anatomy, such as mouth size, strength of the jaw muscle (masseter), and automated eating behavior characteristics such as bite size and chewing rate [8,9,10]. Intake of a food is inhibited when the aforementioned food and individuals’ characteristics lead to a slow ingestion rate [11]. Several physiological mechanisms have been suggested to cause this effect, among which the oro-sensory exposure (OSE) to food [12, 13]
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