Perspective: the path to confirming and exploiting potential satiety-enhancing effects of sorghum-based foods for human diets

Abstract

Consumer trends, particularly in populations burdened with high rates of obesity and overweight, indicate a growing demand for food products with specific satiety-enhancing effects to assist with appetite regulation and longer-term weight management. Sorghum whole grain, containing dietary fibre, slowly digestible starches and polyphenolic compounds, has been identified as a potential ingredient in the formulation of novel food products targeted for appetite control. Rigorous human clinical trials are necessary to build evidence for these purported effects, including studies that examine the underlying satiety-enhancing mechanisms. This paper provides perspectives on the path to confirming and exploiting potential satiety attributes of sorghum-based foods for human diets, highlighting research activities currently being undertaken by the Smart Foods Centre at the University of Wollongong, Australia, where preliminary clinical results from an acute satiety study with 40 healthy participants indicate that a breakfast cereal biscuit made from whole grain sorghum may increase short-term satiety to a greater extent than a wheat-based control.