Sugar-containing drinks. Why do men compensate more than women?

Abstract

It has been suggested that sugar consumed in a drink fails to suppress appetite; however, studies have typically found at least some reduction in test meal intake after a drink containing sugar compared with an intense sweetener (or plain water). Recently we have observed a gender difference in such compensation (Proc. Nutr. Soc. 70 (OCE6), E401). This was replicated in the present study ( n = 96) in which men and women ate respectively 175 kcal ( p = .002) and 26 kcal (ns) less in a test meal after a sugar-sweetened compared with a sucralose-sweetened blackcurrant drink (energy difference between drinks = 161 kcal). This gender difference in compensation was not accounted for by differences in disinhibited eating, or a mixed pattern of habitual intake of ‘diet’ and sugar-sweetened soft drinks. Nor did women appear to lack sensitivity to the presence of sugar in the drink, as this suppressed their pre-meal hunger to the same extent as it did in men. Instead we propose that the explanation lies in greater cognitive versus physiological control of test meal intake in women than in men. Consistent with this women scored higher on dietary restraint, and in another study women showed a reduction in test meal intake after a milk preload (perhaps perceived as ‘food’) but not after an equi-caloric sugar-containing drink, whereas men showed full compensation after both (Ranawana & Henry, Appetite 55, 137). Funded by Sugar Nutrition UK.