"SATIETY" DEVELOPMENT-THE EMERGING AREA IN FOOD RESEARCH

Food industry is continuously under attack for allegedly making wrong basket of foods, most of them considered unhealthy. It is not disputable that catering to the taste buds of the consumer can only generate profit for the industry and unfortunately the three food ingredients viz salt, sugar and fat can make foods with maximum organoleptic qualities. Of course if at all the industry is to be blamed it can be for not innovating enough to create foods with lower levels of the above ingredients without compromising too much on the sensory quality. There are many suggestions and guidelines for individuals to follow to cut down intake of foods so that their intake of calories is brought down significantly. There are also commercial out fits that offer a variety of diets claiming they have the ability to bring down body weight significantly within a reasonably short time.

Satiety is the feeling of satisfaction or not feeling the pangs of hunger and can be the key to future development of designer foods targeting those vulnerable to over eating or indisciplined consumption of all types of foods. Though it was known that there are some foods that can lessen the desire to eat more and others that promote further eating, most consumers have very little interest in such facts, focus being best foods agreeing to their palate. But countries all over the world are concerned about the health of their population and inappropriate and nutritionally unbalanced foods, offered mostly by the food industry, are considered the main culprits for almost all health afflictions experienced. Over weight and obesity are conditions that can lead to many health disorders which affect the quality of life besides the life span.

While governments can do very little to do to bring about any dramatic changes in the food consumption habits of people, industry is in a better position to help the society at large by changing their product portfolio to include products that are satiety oriented. Adequate scientific information is available regarding the factors that create satiety and based on these scientific findings many new products can be developed combining satiety inducing and low caloric dense food ingredients. Digestive track in humans produces several special proteins after the ingestion of a meal that provide the feeling of satiety and these appetite regulatory proteins, one of the important ones being cholecystokinin (CCK), serves the twin purpose of shutting the stomach valve that permits transfer of ingested food into the intestine and simultaneously sending message to the appetite center in the brain to generate a feeling of fullness.

Out of the three major constituents of food, certain fats and proteins are considered good for creating satiety while carbohydrates are least effective. Long chain fatty acids, mono unsaturated, contained in oils from corn, canola, peanut, olive, safflower, sunflower and soybean are good appetite suppressors while soy and whey proteins have also this property. Effectively combining food ingredients which are low in caloric density and high in dietary fiber like whole wheat, oats, barley, legumes and pulses, it should be possible to evolve foods which can reduce the appetite very significantly. As a strategy, consumption of almonds, peanuts, cheese etc before a meal has been claimed to be considerably effective to reduce the quantity of food consumed by an individual.

According to a recent scientific study eating wheat flour and almonds can significantly increase the feeling of fullness which can result in reduced tendency to take food and consequently prevent overeating. Through out the day hunger pangs can occur making people reach for the pantry and it is this urge that needs to be slowed down to maintain or reduce body weight. Whole grains, such as oats, barley, rye and corn are known to have the ability to prevent weight accumulation because of their high-volume, low-energy density and the relatively lower palatability. Resistant starch escapes digestion in the small intestine of healthy individuals and delivers the benefits of both soluble and insoluble fiber. It has been found that the quantity of resistant starch in foods correlates with blood glucose response and reduced food intake after two hours. Oligosaccharides which are complex carbohydrates, are found in beans and legumes, and they help maintain stable blood glucose levels when eaten as part of a meal. Like resistant starch, they are not digested by the small intestine and end up being metabolized and expelled from the large intestine. Proteins, considered good for creating satiety include soy, which have been shown to stimulate the release of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that plays a role in appetite suppression. Similarly whey is also an effective satiety promoter by stimulating several gastrointestinal hormones that are thought to regulate appetite control in the brain. Same is true with egg and egg products.

As the area of satiety promotion is a relatively new one, considerable insight about various facets of this unique phenomenon needs to be understood more clearly. In one of the recent studies it was found that chewing a few Almonds forty times before swallowing increases excretion of appetite controlling hormones considerably while same Almonds chewed for less time had smaller impact. What is to be made of this finding is still not clear though the fine particles resulting from thorough chewing has been suggested as responsible for the effect. There are products like Badam Halwa, Badam Kheer etc derived from Almonds which find extensive use in Indian households and probably these finely ground products may have significant influence on satiety promotion. When late Morarjee Desai, former Prime Minister of India was known to have a diet containing Almonds, many wondered as to how he was living on a frugal diet without feeling the pangs of hunger. Similarly many Sadhus, Sanayasis , Ascetics and Godmen in India live on sparse diets containing small quantities of regular foods, apparently with no signs of any ill effect. It is time that Indian Food Scientists revisit the area of ancient food habits in the country to gain better insight into this important field of health and nutrition.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
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HUNGER 'DOUSING'- FOOD TECHNOLOGY'S NEW ROLE'

Food industry world over strives to create appetite amongst the consumers hoping to attract them to their products and the science of sensory 'tickling' is often used to attenuate a feeling of desire for the brands by invoking visual and olfactory sensation. Technological developments and high pressure marketing strategies have been instrumental in capturing consumer imagination and many of to day's health problems in western countries are being attributed to processed products created with least attention to their nutritional implications. Products with 'empty' calories in which nutrient density is very low compared to any natural food, dominate the market and their fantastic sensory qualities attract the consumers in droves. Consumer awareness programs to forewarn them against mindless consumption of such products and their consequences do not seem to be reaching the target as is experienced by anti-tobacco programs. Can there be a strategy where industry and the consumer could both be winners? Probably yes.

Clue to such a possibility comes from the industry itself. Chewing gum industry is facing flaks from many quarters for the social and civic nuisance it is creating by the indiscriminate disposal of the sticky 'chewed' residue by the consumers. This has led many countries to ban chewing gum products and already some countries have precisely done this. Though chewing gum can be a suitable medium for delivery of health-helpful ingredients like vitamins, minerals and health supplements, its ban can damage its prospects besides raising a question regarding its very survival. Modifying chewing gum recipes to create feeling of satiety and use biodegradable gum base are being tried out to create new market and save the industry. Most recent example is introduction in the market of a product containing konjac powder in the formula which swells 200 times once ingested and generates a feeling of fullness in the consumer. Inclusion of some special dietary fiber ingredients with same properties also is being attempted. Satiety inducing products, similar to products that reduce cravings for tobacco, already in the market may still save the chewing gum industry from extinction.

Chicle based chewing gum survived for more than 9000 years and has seen many developments in its checkered history. Replacement of natural chicle with synthetic polymers was a turning point as artificial ingredients became more and more unacceptable to the consumers. Sugar free products, constituting almost 80% of production to day, revived its fortunes some what and the current world output of 1 lakh tons per year may go down further if the industry does not innovate to meet the changing environment. It is recognized that chewing gum can cut down dental caries and other oral problems because of its ability to remove bad bacteria like Streptococcus mutans besides increasing saliva production ten fold. Saliva is a source of alkali and hydrogen carbonates that can neutralize the acidity produced by harmful bacteria. Besides saliva also contains calcium and fluoride, both part of enamel coating of the teeth. Chewing gum stimulates part of the brain, hypothalamus which releases hormones that keep people alert and focused. Probiotics enriched chewing gum products may find increasing acceptance amongst health conscious consumers.

The biggest hurdle for the industry to grow is the tendency of the discarded residue to cause civic problems as removal of the sticky material is a difficult task. In UK alone about 150 million pounds expenditure is incurred in removing the sticky residue from public places. Manual scrapping is the best way to remove the material which is expensive. Machines to remove spent chicle gum from public places will cost about Rs 30-35 lakh as an investment and annual recurring expenditure. Use of the protein, zein from corn which is a by-product of corn processing industry, has been found to be environment friendly as it hardens and gets degraded in 2 weeks. There are special gums being developed which are hydrophilic in nature and therefore can be easily washed off. Low adhesion and non-sticky synthetic gum bases are also being tried which can be easily removed with least problem. Special gum bases under development have the unique ability to remove pathogenic bacteria responsible for tooth decay by selectively adhering to them. Probably modern world is just realizing the potential of chewing gum type of products as a carrier for many materials that can create the feeling of well being and innovations are likely to take place at a faster pace in the coming years.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

EMULSION TECHNOLOGY AND THE SATIETY

The urge to eat is governed by many factors and in spite of tons of papers published over the years we are still groping in the darkness regarding the precise mechanism that works in human beings to yearn for food. While the level of glucose in blood is one of the indicators that influences hunger, there are other physiological and biochemical changes occurring during pre and post food consumption that can drive the consumers to the food counter. Satiety is known to be caused by fullness in the stomach as a result of higher volume of food but it can be short lived if the diet contains too much water and less solids. Similarly the ease of digestion of the food consumed in the GI tract can post pone the eating session significantly. Glucose and other sugars which are absorbed fast can create more urge to consume more foods.

The phrase 'Hunger pangs' is used commonly to describe contra indication of empty stomach. Feeling of hunger is related to a desire or a need for food which is caused by psychological and/or physiological factors. It is believed that stomach contraction or lowered blood glucose or lowered body temperature can also trigger hunger pangs in many people. Psychological factors that induce hunger include eating habits, frequency and time of eating, environment etc. All the five senses like sight, smell, taste, color and touch do influence the feeling of hunger whether real or imaginary. Satiety is controlled at the brain as well as stomach levels. The ventromedial nucleus of hypothalamus in the brain generates signal for stopping eating due to satiety while the lateral hypothalamus signals to start eating. At GI level satiety originates from the stomach which controls short term eating. Leptin which is a signaling molecule produced by fat cells is also known to reduce activation in the region linked to hunger while enhancing activation in regions associated with inhibition of heating and satiety.

Modifications in foods can be brought about using modern food technology to induce satiety and reduce eating thus depriving the body of excess calories that cause increased body weight in the long term. Olive oil well known as an edible oil with high nutritional value has been shown to be an effective hunger killer if appropriately modified using emulsion technology which gave to the consumers hundreds of products based on fat and water. Water in oil emulsion type of products like margarine or oil in water emulsions like salad dressings and ice creams are classical examples. Emulsion is a thermodynamically unstable system that tend to separate with time into the original two phases. An emulsifier with appropriate Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance (HLB) value, any where between 1 and 20 is commonly used to stabilize different emulsions depending on the proportion of water and oil in a mixture. Those with HLB values less than 9 are predominantly lipophilic in nature while 11-20 are hydrophilic in nature.

Olive oil emulsion using the internationally approved non-ionic surfactant Tween 60 (E491), known chemically as Polyethylenesorbate monostearate was discovered to have the capability to delay hunger and increase the interval between the meals by virtue of delaying digestion of oleic acid in the intestine. In contrast an emulsion using Span 80 or sorbitan mono oleate (E494), another emulsifier which does not have the ability to withstand the strong acidic system in the stomach, was found to be ineffective in increasing the residence time of olive oil in the intestine. Traces of Tween 60 based emulsions were found in the GI system up to 12 hours after ingestion. Oleic acid is converted to the lipid hormone oleoylethanolamine (OEA) which wards of hunger for extended periods. Modern food processing equipment range includes highly efficient emulsifiers like colloid mills which can reduce the droplet size to less than one micron in the final product. Time is not too far away when consumers can have such hunger delaying preparations in the form of popular products like milk shakes or ice creams or differently flavored beverages that can become a part of the regular diet. Probably industry has to gear itself to take up the challenge of obesity more seriously by supporting such scientific innovations by food scientists in their laboratories.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/