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Scientists have figured out how to fight hidden hunger
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
Everyone knows about the feeling of hunger – both children and adults. Each of us at least sometimes felt an unpleasant pulling “sucking” in an empty stomach. Scientists call this feeling obvious hunger, and it is impossible to confuse it with anything. However, there is also hidden hunger – this is a condition when a person does not seem to want to eat, but there is an acute deficiency of essential substances in his body. In this case, we are talking not only about vitamins, but also micro- or macroelements. Hidden hunger is associated with a lack of fats, proteins or carbohydrates in the body.
What does the average modern city dweller eat most often? These are mostly semi-finished products, fast food, “quick food”, flavored with sweeteners, salt, cheap fat components, emulsifying and stabilizing substances, dyes and flavors, as well as other chemical ingredients included in the list of “E-additives”. We will not once again explain the lack of benefit from such food. We will only explain that such “food” can really cause hidden hunger in the body due to a lack of vital substances. That is, a person eats his fill, and even gains excess weight, and the body starves.
According to the information voiced by the UN Food and Agriculture Department, a hidden type of hunger worries about 2 billion people on our planet. Scientists decided to tackle this problem, because such a state of deficiency often becomes the cause of serious health problems.
Until now, the only option for eliminating hidden hunger was a long-term, full-fledged diet, with regular monitoring of nutritional quality indicators, with calculation of not only the caloric content of the diet, but also its nutritional value. Now, experts representing the Institute of Solid State Chemistry (ISSCM, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences) have announced the development of a method for encapsulating substances necessary for the body. These substances are preliminarily obtained from rowan and viburnum berries, St. John's wort and green tea leaves and transformed into special polysaccharide matrices. As a result, a powdery mass is produced that can be added to any food product consumed - even a regular hamburger.
The new powder component does not affect the usual taste of products. The polysaccharide matrix does not dissolve in the oral cavity: this occurs only in the stomach and intestines.
Currently, researchers are studying this issue further. They need to assess the change in the nutritional value of the final product after adding the new drug. There is also information about the additive's imminent arrival on the market: according to experts' forecasts, the first batch will hit pharmacy shelves in 1-2 years.
Information is presented on the Institute's website - http://www.solid.nsc.ru
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