Abstract
For years, there has been an increasing move towards elucidating the complexities of how food can interplay with the signalling networks underlying energy homeostasis and glycaemic control. Dairy foods can be regarded as the greatest source of proteins and peptides with various health benefits and are a well-recognized source of bioactive compounds. A number of dairy protein-derived peptide sequences with the ability to modulate functions related to the control of food intake, body weight gain and glucose homeostasis have been isolated and characterized. Their being active in vivo may be questionable mainly due to expected low bioavailability after ingestion, and hence their real contribution to the metabolic impact of dairy protein intake needs to be discussed. Some reports suggest that the differential effects of dairy proteins—in particular whey proteins—on mechanisms underlying energy balance and glucose-homeostasis may be attributed to their unique amino acid composition and hence the release of free amino acid mixtures enriched in essential amino acids (i.e., branched-chain-amino acids) upon digestion. Actually, the research reports reviewed in this article suggest that, among a number of dairy protein-derived peptides isolated and characterized as bioactive compounds in vitro, some peptides can be active in vivo post-oral administration through a local action in the gut, or, alternatively, a systemic action on specific molecular targets after entering the systemic circulation. Moreover, these studies highlight the importance of the enteroendocrine system in the cross talk between food proteins and the neuroendocrine network regulating energy balance.
Highlights
There has been an increasing move towards harnessing the health-promoting benefits of traditional foods and novel foods while providing scientific evidence to substantiate their claims
Food proteins are a well-recognized source of bioactive compounds, and dairy foods can be regarded as the greatest source of proteins and peptides with various purported health benefits, their effects ranging from benefitting the digestive system, cardiovascular circulation, the immune system, the central nervous system and the neuroendocrine control of energy homeostasis [4,5]
The article published by Rigamonti and coworkers [10] showed that the appetite-suppressant and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-stimulating effects of whey protein intake in obese subjects were associated with increased circulating levels of eight specific amino acids (l-isoleucine, l-leucine, l-lysine, l-methionine, l-phenylalanine, l-proline, l-tyrosine and l-valine), remarking the relevance of the unique amino acid composition of whey proteins, which include the high content of BCAAs
Summary
There has been an increasing move towards harnessing the health-promoting benefits of traditional foods and novel foods while providing scientific evidence to substantiate their claims. In recent years, it has been shown that some differences may exist between distinct dietary proteins in their secretory activity in vitro and their satiating or appetite-suppressant effects in vivo If these actions were related solely to the release of free amino acids upon extensive digestion in the gut lumen, the differential activity of distinct proteins should be attributed to their unique amino acid composition, in detail the relative content of specific amino acids. Ascertaining the actual role played by free amino acids versus bioactive peptides in the interaction of dietary proteins with the enteroendocrine system may be useful to prepare nutraceuticals to be included in a dietetic regimen aimed at controlling body weight gain or to help glucose homeostasis
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