The extent to which a food can alleviate hunger is not determined solely by its physical size, energy content, and so on. Instead, it is influenced by prior experience with a food, which affects our beliefs and expectations about satiation.  This has an immediate effect on the portion sizes that we select and an effect on the hunger that we experience after eating, said Dr Jeff Brunstrom, Reader in Behavioural Nutrition at Bristol university ™s Department of Experimental Psychology.

Labels on light ™ and diet ™ foods might lead us to think we will not be satisfied by such foods, possibly leading us to eat more afterwards, added Dr Brunstrom. One way to militate against this, and indeed accentuate potential satiety effects, might be to emphasise the satiating properties of a food using labels such as satisfying ™ or hunger relieving ™.

The research was funded by the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) through its Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC) - a public-private partnership that funds research into how the UK food industry can help towards healthier diets and address serious public health issues such as obesity, as well as investigating the benefits of bioactive ingredients in food.

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The extent to which a food can alleviate hunger is not determined solely by its physical size and energy content. Instead, it is influenced by prior experience with a food, which affects our beliefs and expectations about satiation. This has an immediate effect on the portion sizes that we select and an effect on the hunger that we experience after eating.