CHEVY CHASE, Md.—Eating a meal quickly reduces the release of hormones in the gut that induce satiety, which often leads to overeating, according to a new study that will appear in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
In the study, subjects consumed the same test meal, 300ml of ice-cream, at different rates. Researchers took blood samples for the measurement of glucose, insulin, plasma lipids and gut hormones before the meal and at 30 minute intervals after the beginning of eating, until the end of the session, 210 minutes later. Researchers found that subjects who took the full 30 minutes to finish the ice cream had higher concentrations of peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) also tended to have a higher fullness rating.
“Our findings give some insight into an aspect of modern-day food overconsumption, namely the fact that many people, pressed by demanding working and living conditions, eat faster and in greater amounts than in the past,” said Alexander Kokkinos, MD, PhD, of Laiko General Hospital in Athens Greece and lead author of the study. “The warning we were given as children that ‘wolfing down your food will make you fat,’ may in fact have a physiological explanation.”