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Smart food will induce feelings of satiety faster
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
Scientists are planning to create chemical additives that will make the human brain feel full sooner - the researchers hope that "smart" food will be able to teach people to eat in moderation.
The study is being conducted by an international team of specialists working within the framework of the Full4Health project initiated by the European Union.
"The 'smart' food we are planning to create will be able to persuade people to moderation at a chemical level," said the study's leader, Julian Mercer, an employee of the University of Aberdeen (UK), whose words are quoted in the report.
According to the scientist, the food will contain substances that usually cause the brain to generate a feeling of satiety, and this feeling will not come late, as happens when eating regular food, but exactly at the moment when a person receives a sufficient amount of calories.
According to the concept, which the researchers plan to put into practice, "smart" food will contain special chemicals similar to satiety-indicating hormones, the concentration of which in human blood plasma increases after eating.
"It is known that nutrients from food interact with intestinal cells at a chemical level. As a result, hormones are released, which act as chemical 'messengers', conveying the message 'the stomach is full' to the brain," explained Jens Holst, an employee of the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), quoted by the newspaper.
Knowing the principle of operation of this "chemical mail", scientists were able to decode the "messages". Enteroglucagon molecules (also called glucagon-like peptide-1) are responsible for appetite regulation; its content in human blood plasma increases five to ten times after eating.
"There are a number of chemicals called 'satiety hormones' that increase in plasma concentrations after eating. We know of only a few chemicals in food that cause them to become active. We hope to use these to create an artificial additive that can be added to food," Mercer added.