LAY SUMMARY

Food Structure and Satiety Responses

Studies on appetite have found that the appetite response to foods varies in various ways, even with almost comparable caloric content. In a widely cited article, researchers compared common foods by measuring how full subjects felt when eating preset portions and how long that fullness lasted. 

The researchers found that volume, protein, and physical structure, foods with a higher overall body content, tended to have stronger satiety responses than refined fare or energy-dense foods. Foods that required more chewing or digestion were generally associated with decreased hunger over time, whereas highly processed foods were related to shorter amounts of fullness.

These results confirmed that satiety is determined by many things beyond calorie count, like food texture, physical shape, and how quickly nutrients are released during digestion. The research helped to explain the motivation behind some foods to continue to eat, despite an energy-rich diet, and continues to inform discussions around food structure, processing, and appetite regulation.

Source
Hall, K. D. et al. Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain. Cell Metabolism (2019).